Suggestions on Handling IP Addresses

[driggins]

Greetings,

I hope you'll forgive these softball questions. I'm a long-time computer geek, but networking is new to me.

My ISP has issued a single static IP for my small organization to use. Ultimately, I intend to use this IP to gain remote access to our data. But, this post is focused on general IP strategy.

I want a solid, lightning-fast LAN. How should I approach IP assignment (or does it even matter)? Currently, I have assigned the static IP to my router. It is providing DHCP to all other LAN devices (they wind-up with IP addresses in the 216.227.xxx.xxx range...is that okay?).

Yesterday, I ran Wireshark for the first time and was generally confused by the results. One thing I noted, however, was a lot of packets simply stating "[IP] is wondering who [IP] is..." and a lot of "[Device Name] is [IP]". These type of packets came up very frequently. Is this normal? Can I help my network be smarter and reduce this type of traffic by a more specific IP assignment?

One strategy would seem to be:

• Assign static IP to router
• Assign static, local IP's to all other LAN devices (in the 192.168.0.x range) and point the devices to the static router address for internet access, thereby eliminating the need for DHCP

Here's a schematic of my network layout. Is there something I can do in the physical arrangement to improve performance?

 

[thiggins]

(they wind-up with IP addresses in the 216.227.xxx.xxx range...is that okay?).

No. Your router needs to use the Private IP address ranges of 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 or 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255.

The "[IP] is wondering who [IP] is..." are normal ARP requests, which are not using significant bandwidth.

Static IP assignment won't help or hurt the speed of your LAN.

 

[driggins]

Thanks. I'll re-visit the IP assignments for my local devices and make sure they use the private ranges. Should I expect this to help performance?

 

[thiggins]

I wouldn't think so. But it will prevent connection /routing problems that come from public IP address conflicts.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Looks like you have a switch in there instead of a router.
"Small Organization" to me means a network for a business. Which means business data, which IMO should remain protected/confidential.

Having workstations of your network obtaining a public IP address...yikes..yikes..and triple yikes!

After rebuilding them (because any Windows computer that sat directly on a public IP address I'd consider compromised and infested within 5 minutes)...put them all behind NAT...a router that provides NAT for basic hardware firewall protection.

We need to define "need remote access to our data". What kind of data..with what program, and how do you expect remote users to access it? There are many approaches based upon the answers to this...starting with simple access to workstations at the office using remote apps such as LogMeIN or GoToMyPC. To VPN and using remote desktop. To wide area networks with VPN tunnels for satellite offices..etc etc.