Would this work as far as networking?

[drum4no1]

Heres my quandary. When my cockpit is built it will most likely be 2 or 3 computers. We will call #1 the FS machine and 2 and 3 will be clients. I also have my non FS machine , wifes laptop and kids shared laptop.

I know most people set there cockpits up on a different network with a switch but I need internet on my main FS machine for active sky and FSacars for the VA I fly for. Now I know I can network the three cockpit machines together via a switch but in turn can that switch be hooked and be able to access internet from my router in the house? I imagine this would simply be 2 networks talking to each other.

If this wont work the only other option I can think of is to relocate the modem and router to the room where the cockpit is and run a single cat 5 line into the house for my machine. The wireless would be unaffected.

Scott

[fsaviator]

The simple answer is... yes. You can have any number of switches connected to your network. In fact, for most home setups, I would recommend switches instead of routers (downstream from the modem). Routers work in a first come first "hog" for the resources, while switches do just that... they share the bandwidth by rapidly switching between all the connections. It's more fair.

I have a router connected to my modem. In turn I have a switch connected to the router that splits my home network, call it.... HOME (wife, kids, printer, Xbox, DirecTV, NAS, etc). Under that switch, I have a USB powered switch just prior to my main computer so I can hook up my laptop (faster than Wireless). I have a second switch connected to my router that carries my FS Network, call it.... SIM. I've actually got another switch after my SIM switch as I ran out of ports, and popped another switch in give me more.

Switches don't care how many there are (for the most part, and for simple setups). the big thing is, switches have different speeds so if you put 10MB switch at the router, then 1000MB switches below that, you will be limited to 10MB into the router.

You can also interconnect within your intranet (inside side of the modem) networks. In other words, if you have a shared drive on your FS network you can access it from your HOME network and vice-versa. It's all in usernames and passwords.

The key to all this is that you do not use the same IP for two items.

This is the simple version, if you need any more help, let us know.

Warren

[Sean Nixon]

Warren

Thanks for that explanation. Its something I need to look at too. What would be my options and what would be the best option, in your opinion...?

My ADSL line comes into a combined wireless modem router. My home devices connect wirelessly to this.

My sim network, on a different floor, is 4 PC's networked through a switch. Being a switch, I have assigned individual IP address, as from memory, it doesn't do this via DHCP like the router does.

The sim PC's have built in wireless, so can connect to the wireless network if they need to, but:

1. The signal is quite weak and intermittent;

2. I have to disable the LAN port and enable the WAN port otherwise I get conflicts. Can I have a PC's LAN port and WAN port enabled at the same time?

My plan was to run a CAT5 from the wireless modem router upstairs to the sim switch downdstairs. Is this the right way to do it? Is there a better way?

Thanks

Sean

[fsaviator]

OK, I'll try to take this in small chunks. Let me caveat that I am not an IT tech, but I did stay at a holiday inn express Seriously though, I set up rudimentary networks all the time though. I've attached an image that should help.

My ADSL line comes into a combined wireless modem router. My home devices connect wirelessly to this.

No issues on your ADSL router. Whether you use wireless or ethernet (CAT5) to connect doesn't matter. What matters is what you have set in your router, through your router control software. We can cover this a little later if needed.

If you only have one router, you will only have one "Gateway" IP. That means that all your IPs have to be in the same range, regardless of whether they are Wireless or ethernet. The gateway is the one that usually looks like 192.168.0.1

All your individual system IPs will have to be in the range 192.168.0.... 0 thru 255 without using the same number twice.

DHCP should not allow that, and for most setups I recommend DHCP. Once your comfortable, you can play with turning it off and setting individual IPs.

All your systems, regardless of use can be accommodated here. This has nothing to do with your Family or Sim network. This is just the connections of your systems to the Intra/internet.

My sim network, on a different floor, is 4 PC's networked through a switch. Being a switch, I have assigned individual IP address, as from memory, it doesn't do this via DHCP like the router does.

There is no need to set IP addresses for switches. It is all done at the router. If that switch is connected to your ADSL router, you can leave it all as DHCP.

You should be able to continue using Wireless for your home/family connections and wired for the Sim.

I have to disable the LAN port and enable the WAN port otherwise I get conflicts. Can I have a PC's LAN port and WAN port enabled at the same time?

I'm not sure I understand this... where are you disabling LAN/WAN? each of your systems has an Ethernet port (RG45), a Wireless connection, or both. You can have both wireless and wired connected at the same time. They both need different IP addresses though (DHCP will take care of that). You can also bridge the connections if you wanted for more throughput.

My plan was to run a CAT5 from the wireless modem router upstairs to the sim switch downdstairs. Is this the right way to do it? Is there a better way?

Yes. This is the BEST way. If you have the ability to run the cable, I would. If it is going to take a lot of work to run that cable (i.e. cutting into walls etc), then I would run CAT6 for future expansion.

Once you are connected, either change your "Sim Network" to DHCP so that the router will pull it in, or alternately, turn DHCP OFF at the router and assign IP addresses to all your systems individually. If all your household systems stay at home and in one place, that is how I would go about it.

Finally, the way you handle the separate networks is by assigning workgroups within windows. For instance, your FS Server PC may be called FS_Server, and me be a part of the FS_SIM workgroup. Your home computers may be.... SEANS_PC, or SEANS_KIDS_PC and be part of the SEANS_HOME workgroup. That is all set in windows.

You can cross access workgroups by going through NETWORK PLACES. You will have to provide a username and password to access it, or you can Map the location for quick access.

For instance, on my SIM network, I have a shared folder on my storage hard drive. this is where I save all my flights, flightplans, backup config files etc. Anything I have t access with/from multiple systems. I also have mapped that share folder to my main home PC, so I can drop FS realted files I see while surfing that I want. They are then instantly accessible at my SIM PCs.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the length.

Warren

[drum4no1]

Warren, your diagram looks exactly like what im planning and it looks like it would work just fine. What brand switch do you use? I would like to keep the cost of the switch as low as possible.

[fsaviator]

I have several... My own network is slightly more complicated. I'm currently using a D-Link DES 1105 on the SIM part of the network. it's what I had laying around.

I have a Netgear GS108 coming off of my router which I was originally using, but it turned out to be overkill for the flight sim. I needed that throughput on my home network once I hooked up the kids Xbox and the Directv. That is a really nice switch though. Got it at Newegg i think.

[Sean Nixon]

Thanks Warren, I'll look into that in more detail over the weekend (Bank Holiday here in the UK).

What I meant about WAN and LAN at the same time, is those PC's won't access the internet wirelessly, I have to disable the ethernet port 1st. Perhaps I just need to tell IE to use the wireless connection for access??? It's as if it's trying to access thru the LAN and can't see the net???

Cheers

Sean

[fsaviator]

Thanks Warren, I'll look into that in more detail over the weekend (Bank Holiday here in the UK).

What I meant about WAN and LAN at the same time, is those PC's won't access the internet wirelessly, I have to disable the ethernet port 1st. Perhaps I just need to tell IE to use the wireless connection for access??? It's as if it's trying to access thru the LAN and can't see the net???

Cheers

Sean

I see what you mean. You're Ethernet connection is being used to access the SIM network through your switch. You've been using the Wireless adapter to connect to the internet, albeit with a weak connection.

Yes, you can have both adapters (ethernet and wireless) working at the same time. In fact, if that weak wireless connection is satisfactory for what you use it for, then you're good to go. Go into the Connection properties for your web browser and select that particular connection as the default connection for the internet and you should be good.

[Sean Nixon]

How do I force IE to only use the wireless connection. It wants to use the LAN, but that's not connected to the outside world???

[fsaviator]

Alright... we are reaching the limit of my abilities. As I stepped back to remember how to do this, I realize that newer versions of windows seem to missing some features. I'm not sure what version you are using. The long and the short of it is:

Under Internet Options in the IE Tools menu, you should be able to set your wireless connection as the default (earlier versions of windows XP).
In Vista, you need to actually go to the Manage Network Connections and right-click on the wireless connection and select it as default.
I'm still trying to find how in Windows 7 (I personally just installed 7 on my laptop so I'm still figuring it out).

Truthfully though, if you have the ability to do it without knocking out walls I would say your best bet is to run a CAT5/6 cable from your router to your switch that runs FS. Performance will be much better, and setup is much easier.

Warren