Please Help Me Join Two Networks - driving me nuts

[Chunky]

Suggestions, advice and links to good guides please to help me connect two networks. I hope the following description works for you, but if not I can draw it out and post the schematic. Anyway....

I currently share a network with a neighbour that's evolved over the years. It's business class internet with a fixed IP but can't get fast broadband because we are too far from the local exchange and sit at the end of a bit of copper wire that won't be upgraded. Here's the current state of play:

• We both have Synology DS411 Disc Stations for our own info and each is backed up to the other automatically.
• We both have a WNDR3700 router. His handles the internet and the IP addresses, mine just acts as a switch and WiFi. It's the ususal 192.168.0.XXX format. The first 50 addresses are reserved for DHCP devices. 51 is the router. The next 100 are reserved for his fixed IPs and the remainder up to 255 for mine, including my WNDR3700.
• We each have about a dozen wired and wireless devices. I have a repeater for his wireless router as well, in case his router stops mine for accepting WiFi connections (as it frequently does)
• We also have IP CCTV cameras, which all sit on a server/HD recorder on his side. Because of the fixed IP, we can see the cameras (and both servers) remotely. It's a bit of a hoot being able to look at my garden using the media system in my car or to access my music library on the beach.
• Everything at both sides of the network is wired for Gigabit, including all the switches and Cat5E/Cat 6 cabling.
• Except the long length of Cat 5 that joins the two sides of the network. It's buried and can't be replaced. It brings all my traffic down to 100Mb at best, sometimes not even that.

The problems are:

• From my devices to my Disk Station, data has to make the journey along the bit of Cat 5 to his router, then back again to my server. So it's slooow
• We're looking at puttting some fibre in place, for part of the journey, but I would still rely on his router for my data.
• He has a lot of download activity, so sometimes my internet performance falls off a cliff when we hit the copper limit. Anything streamed, like live TV starts to stutter and pixilate. Watching live sports is a chore.
• Because his router handles all the IP adresses, sometimes some of my wireless devices get locked out, so I have to get everything reset at his end. Despite all this, one of my laptops appears to be permanently persona non-grata and it's driving me nuts having to plug it into a wired connection.

So, I'm going to bite the bullet, get my own internet connection and split the network. But I still want to have them joined, if you get my drift. Here's what I'm after:

• On my side, my WNDR3700 will have its own internet connection and will manage all of my devices and "my side" IPs - I'll get Gigabit to my server and WAPs that will work properly. I won't be getting a fixed IP.
• My CCTV cameras will still have to be visible to his side so that the server/recorder can deal with them.
• Our respective Disc Stations will have to be visible to each other, so that the automatic backups can still work and so that we can access particular data (like music) from "the other side".
• I still want to be able to see his CCTV server and my Disc Station remotely, using his fixed IP.
• Ideally, if my internet service goes down, I want to automatically default to his provider until mine comes up again. And vice versa.
• At a push, I'd give up on accessing my own server remotely if it makes the solution practical.

I know it sounds a bit of a dog's breakfast, but how should I progress? Your help and guidance much appreciated!

p.s. I'm not adverse to putting more hardware in to solve the problem, so long as it won't cost me a kidney and is easily managed.


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[theonlyski]

IMO your best bet would be to break up the broadcast domains and give your network a different IP address, use a router with an interface on the wired connection to the other house, a connection to your house and your internet gateway.

I think your IPTV is probably doing a lot of talking and if that link is truly only 100m it could easily start bottlenecking there. Also the quality of the line makes a difference, if it's buried and outdoor rated, it shouldn't be too bad but look at the ends and see if they're in good shape.

Essentially the best way (again given your resources) would be to get a router that supports static routing and possibly 3 networks/vlan's), check with his router to see if it can handle at least static routes, if it can, you're golden. Keep his network on the 192.168.0.x subnet, make yours something like 192.168.1.x and set up the routers to statically route between the two.

You could accomplish the routing part with an old PC and a couple of NICs with a free operating system (I have something similar running on an Ubuntu server that was pretty easy to set up). If you could put an old PC/router on both sides of that buried cable, that'd be even better (though it would increase the complexity slightly). Look around and you could probably find a couple of used home 1Gb routers (such as the linksys e2500) that can be made to work in this configuration with a little bit of time.

Given a couple of extra gig routers (which you can usually find at garage sales, ebay, craigslist, swap meets for less than $10 each), I'd put one on either side of the buried cable, configure them to act as normal routers (no NAT/PAT), have them connected to each other and the to their respective internal networks.

His house--->Router1<-------------BURIED CABLE------------->Router2<---Your house


His house running 192.168.0.x
Your house running 192.168.1.x
Interconnect can be something like 192.168.2.x

This configuration will ensure that only traffic that you need to traverse the buried cable will, without adding much latency.

The alternative would be a site-to-site VPN, which would work fine but probably be slower than a dedicated 100m or 1g link.


As for the automatic failover, that's a whole other can of worms to open. If you guys have the same provider, would it really be worth the hassle to set it up knowing that if there's an area outtage, you'll both be out anyways?

 

[azazel1024]

As suggested, I'd join as two seperate networks in this case.

You both have two routers. Each has a router acting as your own DHCP server and connecting out through your internet link acting as a gateway.

Then a seperate router connecting each other's network.

Router 1 for each of you has router 2 plugged in to the LAN side and both of your router 1's has their LANs plugged in together. Its a double NAT, but fine for what you want to do with a little config.

As for the link between homes, don't know what to suggest. You said that the cat5 can't be replaced, but you also said you were looking at laying some fiber for some of it. I assume that means that burying another cable isn't that big of a deal. Why not just get some direct bury Cat5e and go to town? Its something like $100 for 500ft and since you are looking at 100m or less anyway, that should be plenty (unless you have a repeater in there somewhere too).

 

[theonlyski]

Here's a drawing of what I was talking about. With a little bit of work, I think it would give you the best bang for the buck and everyone be happy.

 

[Chunky]

Thanks guys and my apologies for the very delayed reply - I've had a lot on my plate.

I'll give it a go. It means buying a couple more routers but it'll be worth the cost and effort.

I'll report back on how it goes.

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[theonlyski]

You should be able to find some very cheap routers that people have at swap meets or the similar. You're looking for one that can function as a router WITHOUT NAT. There is no want, need or desire to NAT these networks, so you can get away with something like a Linksys e1000 or similar.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VYEYE0/?tag=snbforums-20 something like that should fit the bill, turn the Wi-Fi off though. They're fairly cheap here, not sure what you can find in the UK that's equivalent just make sure it can do static routing.