[ubuntu-uk] Home network configuration

[Rob Beard]

Mark Allison wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I have 6 PCs at home, and have them all connected to a Netgear DG834G
> wireless ADSL modem. Some PCs are connected directly, others via
> wireless. The current topology is:
> 
> ADSL Router-->Home LAN
> 
> One of my PCs is an Ubuntu server running squid and dansguardian and
> I'd like to configure the network as follows:
> 
> ADSL Router-->ubuntu-server-->Gigabit wireless switch-->Home LAN
> 
> The bit that's missing is the gig wireless switch. Do such things
> exist? If not how else can I configure the network? I need it to be
> gigabit because the ubuntu server is running BackupPC and throws
> around a lot of data.
> 
> Any insights appreciated!
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark.
> 

As far as I'm aware the fastest speed you're likely to get on wireless 
is about 200MBit, you'd also need matching wireless cards too (I think 
it's 802.11N).

One possible way of getting around it is to plug your server and wired 
desktops into a gigabit switch (with a gigabit connection) and also plug 
the router into the gigabit switch.  Give your router a static IP 
address on the internal network and disable DHCP.  Then get your server 
to dish out IP addresses via DHCP.

You can then either set the gateway in the DHCP server configuration on 
the server to the router, or a non existent machine on the network (this 
can also be done on a per mac address basis - I did this with my kids PC 
to block them accessing the internet directly).  Then on the machines 
you want to use the proxy, just setup Firefox etc to use the proxy server.

Your wireless machines should be able to still pick up an IP address 
(you can also add Mac address filtering and WPA security on the router 
still) and browse the network and your desktop machines will talk to 
each other and the server at 1Gbit.

Worked for me, although I dare say there may be more elegant ways of 
doing it.

Hope this helps.

Rob