Need help with creating a subnet

[control1110]

My building has a shared internet connection which I do not have access to change anything. The current setting on the building DHCP server is:

gateway: 192.168.1.1
subnet 255.255.255.0

I am looking to create a small subnet for my office which as 8 computers one of which acts as a server. I would like this subnet to be accessible via VPN so I was thinking of getting something like this.

Amazon.com: Cisco RV110W-A-NA-K9 Small Business RV110W Wireless N VPN Firewall Router: Electronics

I have a hardline connection running from the main switch to my offices. How would I set this up, do I just set up the router IP as something different? Do I need to change the subnet? Is this even possible without having access to change the name network settings?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

First off, what kind of situation is this? Are we talking your apartment building or condo, or a business in a shared tenant building?

Either way, if you want to be able to access a VPN device over the internet, you are going to need someone to make changes to the network, otherwise you're going to be out of luck. If they have the ports you need blocked, or if you don't have a static IP, you're going to have issues.

 

[control1110]

First off, what kind of situation is this? Are we talking your apartment building or condo, or a business in a shared tenant building?

Either way, if you want to be able to access a VPN device over the internet, you are going to need someone to make changes to the network, otherwise you're going to be out of luck. If they have the ports you need blocked, or if you don't have a static IP, you're going to have issues.

It is a business as a shared tenant. The VPN is not the biggest issue, if I can not do physical VPN I can do it using a software like Hamachi (though would prefer to use a VPN router). My biggest concern is that I would like to set it up so no one else on the shared connection can see my computers just for an added layer of security. For instance currently anyone on the wifi can print to my printer. Can I do this by creating a subnet for my computers? Can I even create a subnet without access to change the current settings of the shared connection? Is there any other options? If I can create a subnet using another router can the router have DHCP enabled and not interfere with the main network router?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Oreo]

You can't create a proper subnet on 255.255.255.0, the 0 at the end means you can have 254 hosts on that one network, but not another subnetwork.


I don't quite understand your network, but potentially you could could buy a good router, create a wifi network, and set up MAC filtering and hide the SSID and set up security policies to stop people joining it except devices with the allowed MAC addresses (You would only add your own devices).

Or maybe set up a VLAN for your computers.

That might work.. i'd have to think about it more.

 

[control1110]

This all sounds like it will do what I need. The network administrator here says if I connect a router I must turn off DHCP or it will mess up his network. I have never heard of this happening before and I am not sure what he is talking about (sometimes I don't think he does). From my understanding I can connect a router with DHCP. This will allow his DHCP server to assign my router 1 IP address then my router will assign IP addresses to all my computers on a separate network. Am I correct in this thought process?

 

[sgeneralgrievous]

When you plug in the router, the network admins router should give your router an ip address automatically. You would plug the building network into the wan port of that router. You don't have to turn off DHCP because the wan port isn't part of the switch, its not going to forward the dhcp ip addresses back into his network. Think of it as having your own network at home......for example a linksys wrt54g router and you have it connected to your broadband modem. Lets say you have another linksys wrt54g and you want to extended the wireless without buying an actual wap. You would plug one into the other in the switch ports (1-4), but if you don't turn off DHCP on the second router you are in trouble because both routers are going to be broadcasting ip addresses so you would turn off dhcp on the second router. BUT! if you were to plug into the wan port on the second router, it would essentially act as another router and receive an ip from the other router and then you could handle dhcp for another network on the second router. This is essentially what you are trying to do i think, separate the network. The issue you are going to have is all the firewall/port forwarding all that stuff is on the main building network. You can set all the setting you want in your router but in the end it still has to go past the building firewalls and routers. So if you want to host a website or do anything that requires port forwarding and such you would have to have the network admin set it up on the building router. It would prevent people from seeing your computers though. I hope this makes sense.

 

[control1110]

When you plug in the router, the network admins router should give your router an ip address automatically. You would plug the building network into the wan port of that router. You don't have to turn off DHCP because the wan port isn't part of the switch, its not going to forward the dhcp ip addresses back into his network. Think of it as having your own network at home......for example a linksys wrt54g router and you have it connected to your broadband modem. Lets say you have another linksys wrt54g and you want to extended the wireless without buying an actual wap. You would plug one into the other in the switch ports (1-4), but if you don't turn off DHCP on the second router you are in trouble because both routers are going to be broadcasting ip addresses so you would turn off dhcp on the second router. BUT! if you were to plug into the wan port on the second router, it would essentially act as another router and receive an ip from the other router and then you could handle dhcp for another network on the second router. This is essentially what you are trying to do i think, separate the network. The issue you are going to have is all the firewall/port forwarding all that stuff is on the main building network. You can set all the setting you want in your router but in the end it still has to go past the building firewalls and routers. So if you want to host a website or do anything that requires port forwarding and such you would have to have the network admin set it up on the building router. It would prevent people from seeing your computers though. I hope this makes sense.

Thank you for clearing this up, this was my understanding also.

 

[control1110]

One last question. The main router in the building is a linksys router with an internal IP of 192.168.1.1. I just purchased a linksys router which by default will also have an internal IP of 192.168.1.1. The main router should assign an IP to it of 192.168.1.xxx. From my understanding the internal IP's should not conflict because if I am connected to main network wireless and type in 192.168.1.1 it will go to the main router. If I am connected to my wireless network and type in address 192.168.1.1 it will go to my router. Is this correct? I do not need to change any settings on the router and it should be plug and play right?

 

[sgeneralgrievous]

Yes that is correct. Just make sure you are plugging the building network into the "wan" or "internet port". Make sure you change the password on your router because the admin will be able to login to your router from his network if he just types in the password that his router assigned to it.

 

[I am confused2]

As double precaution, if you setup a router, I would go into the settings and change the DHCP IP's that YOUR new router will give, to differant set.

When I set these types of systems up, I normally set the IP's at some thing like 10.2.2.1/255.255.255.0 and then everthing on your side is completely differant.

Also, change the SID (name) to some thing like 'my house" so you know which WIFI you are looking at.