Topic: dlink DI-300 ISDN Router

[Daniel Fulton]

Hi,

Newbie, so please be gentle.

I've searched the forums and can not find any info on this so ...

I've got a DI300 isdn router providing shared internet access for a small network, the router plugs into a switch which the other computer link into via cat 5.

The router at the moment provides DHCP for the clients.

What I'd like to do is use e-smith to provide server and gateway services for the network, but due to space limitations I can not put the server near to the isdn line.

Can I continue to use the DI300 to connect to the internet, stop it acting as a dhcp server, and specify that e-smith uses the fixed ip address of it for internet access?

Does that make sense - hope so.

Any help appreciated - thanks

Dan

[Dan Brown]

It's certainly possible to do what you're asking from the perspective of the SME/e-smith server.  The question is whether it is possible to configure the router that way.  I'd certainly think it should be, but I've never worked with that hardware to be able to say.

[TrevorB]

I haven't used the DI300, but have used other D-Link kit and there is no problem using it with your e-smith box.

You can use the DI300 to just route everything to the E-amith and use it as a secondary gateway (with the swith on the inside port of the e-amith), turn off DHCP on the D-Link and use the e-smith to supply DHCP services or even have the e-smith as just a server on the LAN (with the either the D-Link or the e-smith supplying dhcp services), all up to you.

I have personally used D-Link boxes to send everything to the e-smith which acts as a second gateway and in server only mode. Both worked fine, but I found it easier to understand what was happening when the e-smith box acted as the gatway/dhcp/everything server to the local LAN (ie. tell the D-Link box to forward everything to the e-smith box and have the router on the 'inside' of the E-smith).

Trevor B

[Daniel Fulton]

How would I do it, would I set up e-smith with 2 network cards, one for internal network, one for external, sort of like this (all subnet 255.255.255.0)

Internet (ip provided by ISDN DHCP)

DI-300 (192.168.50.10 set up with dmz 192.168.50.2)

External Card (192.168.50.2 - configured with static ip 192.168.50.10 ?)
e-smith
Internal Card (192.168.50.1)

Client (ip provided by e-smith DHCP)

Does that look feasable ?

[Dave Liquorice]

> What I'd like to do is use e-smith to provide server and gateway services
> for the network, but due to space limitations I can not put the server near
>  to the isdn line.

Don't know where in the world you are but in the UK it's perfectly acceptable to extend the ISDN line from the Network Terminating Equipment (NTE) quite some distance using ordinary CAT5 cabling. How far depends on how many other ISDN devices you have attached, up to 800m for a single device or any number within 150m. Other countries telecom regulations may be different.

http://aa.nu/aa/isdnwiring.html has some good information for the UK.

Cheers
Dave.

[Dave Liquorice]

> (ie. tell the D-Link box to forward everything to the e-smith box and have
> the router on the 'inside' of the E-smith).

Trouble with that is your LAN could be exposed to the internet, depending on how bug free and effective the routers firewall and routing is.

Far better to have the router the only thing connected to the "outside" NIC and the inside LAN connected to another NIC in the e-smith box. Any internet traffic getting to the LAN *has* to pass through the e-smith firewall/router. I know which I would trust more.

Cheers
Dave.

[Daniel Fulton]

Dave,

Not sure I understand what you are saying - how would you configure the server and router ?

Cheers

Dan

[Dave Liquorice]

With effectively unfiltered internet and local traffic all sharing the same physical connection it is quite possible that a bug or slight misconfiguration of any part or parts of the system could allow some one outside unfettered access to your LAN. Particulary so if the box connecting all the NICs together is a hub rather than a switch, with a hub all ports see all traffic...

I would set up the server in server/gateway mode (private server/gateway if you don't want to offer services to the internet) and the router, well to be honest I think I'd sell it and buy a cheap ISDN card and put it in the server.

SME will then do all the dialling, firewall, routing etc with far less agro. SME knows about the time of day/day of week and how long it should connect for, if at all. Getting routers to understand such a simple thing can be interesting.

Cheers
Dave.

[Daniel Fulton]

Just an update,

I've configured the server to use a static IP, giving the static IP of the router.

I've two network cards in the server, and it is acting as server and gateway.

It's working great.

Thanks for the thoughts and tips.

Hopefully I can now become a contributer to the community !

Cheers

Dan