Need help setting up my small office network

[msjpt]

Hi,

Im in the process of re-designing my small office network and I have some doubts and questions related with mixing CAT5e with CAT6 cables and also the mix of 100Mbps nwtwork devices like printers with 1Gbps devices like computers.

So it would be great if some users of this forum with network experience can clarify me and give me some advices.

Please note that all my network devices (routers, switches, external nas and computers) all have 1Gbps network ports. The only devices on my network with 100Mbps network ports are 2 network printers.

Bellow you can see my questions / doubts. But before I leave a short briefing of my current setup:

:: Setup Briefing ::

Cable ISP Router IP: 192.168.1.1 > LAN > WAN > IP: 192.168.0.1 My Gigabit Router Draytek 2130 > LAN > Gigabit Switch TP-Link TL-SG1005D > That connects to 2 PC Desktop Computers both with 1Gbps network cards and 2 Network printers with 100Mbps network ports.

All cables used are CAT6, except two that connect the Gigabit Switch to both network printers. Here I’m using Cat5e network cables.

I do not have a server on my network. Just 2 x Windows 7 desktop PCs.

::

So regarding this I have the following questions and doubts:

1- Does connecting the 100Mbps network printers to the Gigabit switch will slow down all my network to 100Mbps? I ask this because I have heard that “your network speed will be as the weakest link on it”.

So I think my TP Link Switch is capable of handling both 100Mpbs and Gigabit connections simultaneous, correct? Or if not, will I have to buy a separate switch to connect just the printers, and have the Gigabit PC Computers connected to a separate Gigabit Switch?

2- Regarding cables, as you could read on my setup um using CAT6 on everything except to the printers where I’m using CAT5e. So can I mix CAT6 and CAT5e on the same network without having any kind of negative impact?

Or because I’m using CAT5e cables all the other CAT6 cables will “slow down” and run at the same specs than the CAT5e (ex: 100Mhz, instead of 250Mhz). In a simple way, by using a mix of CAT6 and CAT5e cables will I lose the advantage of the CAT6 cables? Should
i use just CAT6 cables? Please clarify and help me on this.

3- My ISP Router is a very weak router, with a dynamic IP address and does not allow to be set just as a Modem. So because I want to use my Gigabit Draytek 2130 router to manage and protect my network, at the moment I have a double NAT setup, because of having 2 routers on my network.

Can please someone advice me on the best way for me to setup both routers in order for the double NAT has little or none negative impact? Should I setup the Draytek router as DMZ on my ISP router? Should I open some ports? What? Please advice me on this.

4- Regarding Firewall setup, both routers have Firewalls. So should I turn on both Firewalls on both routers, or should I disable the Firewall on the ISP router and just turn on the Firewall on the Draytek router?

5- Regarding UnPn, should I leave it on on both routers, or just on my Draytek router?

6- Regarding DHCP, I want to use on all my office computers and network printers, static ip’s, so should I leave DHCP turned ON on both routers, or turn it of off on the ISP or Drautek router? What should I do here?

7- If you have read all my question until here you already have a clear idea of my setup. So on this question, I just want to ask you if you want to add anything more to this. Is there any important thing that im missing here?


Thanks

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Just one thing, double NAT will slow things down. If your ISP is unable to put their router
into bridge mode, another way of doing it is using DMZ and make that router transparent.You can Google about this.

Good luck. When you do things do one at a time, if you change multiple things at once if and when trouble occurs, it is difficult to pin point where the problem lies. Good luck.

 

[stevech]

Get your ISP to provide a modem. Not a router.

 

[thiggins]

Just one thing, double NAT will slow things down.

Can you provide an example of this? I run double-NAT and haven't noticed any slowdown.

 

[thiggins]

Does connecting the 100Mbps network printers to the Gigabit switch will slow down all my network to 100Mbps? I ask this because I have heard that “your network speed will be as the weakest link on it”.

So I think my TP Link Switch is capable of handling both 100Mpbs and Gigabit connections simultaneous, correct? Or if not, will I have to buy a separate switch to connect just the printers, and have the Gigabit PC Computers connected to a separate Gigabit Switch?

No, the 100 Mbps printers will now slow the rest of the network down. The switch makes point-to-point connections between each pair of devices that are communicating.

An example of how the "weakest link" works is that if you have a 1000 Mbps computer talking to a 100 Mbps printer, the maximum speed of that connection will be 100 Mbps.

Regarding cables, as you could read on my setup um using CAT6 on everything except to the printers where I’m using CAT5e. So can I mix CAT6 and CAT5e on the same network without having any kind of negative impact?

Or because I’m using CAT5e cables all the other CAT6 cables will “slow down” and run at the same specs than the CAT5e (ex: 100Mhz, instead of 250Mhz). In a simple way, by using a mix of CAT6 and CAT5e cables will I lose the advantage of the CAT6 cables? Should
i use just CAT6 cables? Please clarify and help me on this.

You're fine mixing cables. CAT5e will support Gigabit Ethernet just fine. CAT6 is more important on long (> 100m) runs. To get the full benefit, cable must be run and terminated carefully in CAT6 jacks.

My ISP Router is a very weak router, with a dynamic IP address and does not allow to be set just as a Modem. So because I want to use my Gigabit Draytek 2130 router to manage and protect my network, at the moment I have a double NAT setup, because of having 2 routers on my network.

Can please someone advice me on the best way for me to setup both routers in order for the double NAT has little or none negative impact? Should I setup the Draytek router as DMZ on my ISP router? Should I open some ports? What? Please advice me on this.

Double NAT matters only if you running applications that require ports to be forwarded. Yes, the simplest thing is to put the Draytek WAN port in DMZ on the ISP router.

Regarding Firewall setup, both routers have Firewalls. So should I turn on both Firewalls on both routers, or should I disable the Firewall on the ISP router and just turn on the Firewall on the Draytek router?

You can leave both on.

Regarding UnPn, should I leave it on on both routers, or just on my Draytek router?

UPnP matters only if you rely on it to open ports. But see the above comment about opening ports in double NAT being a problem. UPnP doesn't make it any easier.

Regarding DHCP, I want to use on all my office computers and network printers, static ip’s, so should I leave DHCP turned ON on both routers, or turn it of off on the ISP or Drautek router? What should I do here?

If you are really running static IPs on everything, shut both DHCP servers off.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Can you provide an example of this? I run double-NAT and haven't noticed any slowdown.

I second what Tim says regarding double-NAT setup. I get my full 75/35 speed from FIOS (often more ) running double NAT and that is even running connected to a VPN server 200+ miles distant.

I have run both in the DMZ and with selective port forwarding with no difference in performance.

The only thing I haven't been able to accomplish is run a VPN server behind my Actiontec router from Verizon. (Not easy to eliminate Actiontec router when you also have video services from Verizon.)

 

[msjpt]

Get your ISP to provide a modem. Not a router.

Already try to request that. On my ISP is impossible. They don't provide just "modem" and their router cannot be turn into bridge mode. So im stick to use their weak router on my network.

Thanks all you guys for the advices and sugestions. I think i will put my Draytek router WAN IP set as DMZ on my ISP router. This is the best think to do correct?

Regarding IP's my ISP Router comes with the default: 192.168.1.0. So for the Draytek to have its own network i will assign a different ip class. Im thinking on using: 192.168.0.1. Is this ok, or should i use: 192.168.2.0? Ño difference between using 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.2.0?

Once again thaks to you all.