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Need help setting up a home OSX based office network(s)

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auze1

New Around Here
Hello,

It seems my home office setup just gets more and more complicated. I have little experience with setting up networks and stuff so after a few hours today trying to get it right it seems i need some help. please note all the stuff is OSX accept for the freeNas box. ill try and break it down to:
1) what i had
2) what I want
3)what i tried/where I am at
4) some questions about what I should do

1)what i had:

*I attached a jpg of a diagram to show how i had it working (old_network). this is what i had:

- MacPro workstation running 10.6.8
- 4 render nodes (Hackintoshes) 10.6.8
- HTCP 4-core Mac (hackintosh) 10.6.8
- Macbooks
- iphone, ipad etc
-Airport extreme
-8 port switch GS108
-FreeNas core i3 running 0.7.1 with two AFP shares Blue ( 3.6TB Raid 5) and Black ( Raid 0 2TB)
-crappy RCA cable router from Satan's own Time Warner

So everything was setup pretty good. I cant remeber excatly how it was setup but something like: The Cable went to the Airport extreme which was hooked up to the FreeNas server which along with everything else was hooked into the 8-port switch. So everthing could see each other. I think the Airport Extreme acted as the router at 10.0.1.1, so I gave all the other things static IP's like 10.0.1.5, 10.0.1.6 etc. I used the FreeNas as a Server and saved most of my files there. I had Smedge (a render que software package) that would alow me to run jobs on the 4 rendernodes as well as the MacPro and HTPC. all machines had accsess to the FreeNas server, and the Macbooks and ipad and iphones were all hooked up to the wireless, so i could do things like controll the HTPC with the iphone, or watch files on the FreeNas server with the ipad through AirServer.

2) what I want setup

*I attached a diagram of what i thought might work (future network)

It started because i was gonna upgrade all the machines to Lion. some new software came out that i wanted on all the render nodes and so It just seemed like a good idea. However the challange now is to basicly to setup 2 networks. one closed and one open to the internet. I want to Have the rendernodes sandboxed on its own Local network that has no internet connection. they should also be connected to the Macpro and the HTPC and the FreeNas server so I can run batch render jobs. I want the MacPro and the HTPC to be connected to the internet. Also I was running kinda dangerous with the FreeNas having all the Data on it, so I broke down and am getting a drobo to do backups for everthing. the drobopro fs has 2 ethernet ports.

I made a diagram of what i thought would be the best way to connect things. in this scheme the 8 port switch would connect all the Render stuff on a closed network (macPro, HTPC, 4 render nodes, the FreeNas server, and the DroboPro FS as bkup) Then the MacPro, the FeeNas, and the drobo would be connected via cable to the Airport Extreme, and the HTPC, macbooks iphones, ipad would connect via wireless. so there would be 2 networks, one closed and one on the internet. but the macpro, the HTPC, the FreeNas, and the drobo would connect to both

3)what i tried/where I am at

The problem is this starts to get over my head as its not really plug and play anymore. as with this setup the FreeNas, the MacPro, and the HTPC have two diffrent connections and trying to get it all working togther doesnt seem that easy. how do i get the FreeNas server working with 2 diffrent networks? I started by trying to get the closed network going first. Now before, i think beacuse of the airport extreme being the router at 10.0.1.1, the ip adress were all like 10.0.1.3 or something like that so i gave the feeNas a static ip of 10.0.1.12. when I started connecting the MacPro and the HTPC by themselves through the 8 port switch DHCP had them at numbers like 192.45.467.89 or whatever (at least the 192 part is right) I had the MacPro seeing the FreeNas server connected through the AirportExtreme on en0 which was its main LAN connection at 10.0.1.12. So I thought I would just add an OPT1 connection in FreeNas and set it to DHCP and plug it into the 8 port switch and have it connect to the others at the 192.etc. but i got nothing that way or at least i couldnt see the shares. So I removed the FreeNas from the Airport and tried to see if i could set its main LAN connection to the 8port first, I made the main LAN DHCP and connected it and rebooted, but it ended up getting the ip adress 0.0.0.0:80. I could connect via Safari to 0.0.0.0:80 and could get the webGUI but couldn't see the shares in the finder. at this point I had the FreeNas hooked up to a screen and saw the Screen talked about having to rebuild one of the disks in my raid5. shirt i hadn't backed that up in a while.

So I tried to Get the FreeNas back on the Airport Extreme at its old static ip of 10.0.1.12. so i could at least try and back up the important stuff. I can log in from the webGui but can connect to the AFP shares. is this because the Raid 5 is still rebuilding....??? i hope ! I am just gonna let it go tonight (540mines left to rebuild) and see if i can reconnect tomorrow

4) questions

-is this the diagram i made best way to get what i want.... would it be easier to setup some kinda firewall through the router or switch or something that will just block internet traffic to the rendernodes ? that way everything is just one big pool, which was kinda nice.

-if the two network solution is a good way to do it, how do i do it??? how do I get the freeNas server to connect to both, and if i can get it connected to both will that be problem for the macPro and HTPC because it will see the FreeNas through both the Airport extreme and the 8 port switch....what might this mean for the render que software ?

-what is the diffrence between the two kind of IP's being setup...the 10.0.1.5 etc and the 192.45.67.255 etc.....

Really i just need someone to tell me that best way to get the setup i need. if that means i need another router or something so be it, plaese just advice me in what the proper network setup would be.

thanks for any help in advance, man being my own IT guy aint easy....
 
opps here are the diagrams
 

Attachments

  • old_network.jpg
    old_network.jpg
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  • future_network.jpg
    future_network.jpg
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