Home network issue!

[wcom939]

Hi all,

I relativly new to the networking aspect of computers.

I have been able to do some relativly small home network things, the largest of which was connecting to network switches together to create a 20 computer network that logged into a domain controller windows 2003 server. Thats basically the extent of my knowledge.

Heres the problem: im trying to connect my internet from my garage to my basement but nothing i do seems to work.

Heres my setup:

The cable modem is in my garage which through one cat5 cable gets hooked into a network swtich (Allied Telesyn AT-FS705LE). Port 4 is the internet, port 5 is the upstairs router, uplink is the downstairs switch.

From the switch connected to upstairs is the router Linksys WRT54G2, the upstairs router is receiving internet and all computers connected the this router are receiving internet perfectly.

Downstairs is where im having the issue.
From the Allied Telesyn in the garage another cat5 cable goes to the basement to a Cabletron 2200 switch to port1. The computers connected to this switch is not receiving any internet connection whatsoever, but can connect successfully to other computers on that switch.

I do have one leftover switch: a Compaq Netelligent 2624 100BASE-T Class switch, which i can replace the cabletron switch with if the Compaq switch is a better fit.

So my question is this: How can i successfully connect the garage switch to the basement switch using a 100 ft cat5 wire, and is it possible?

All help is appreciated!

Thanks so much!
-dan

 

[jmacavali]

You have your setup slightly wrong. It should go MODEM>ROUTER>SWITCHES.

Right now it sounds like you have MODEM>SWITCH (then two branches) >1 upstairs to Router >1 downstairs to Switch.

The fact that a router gives out IP addresses is why the upstairs computers are working and the downstairs computers are not. Every computer needs to have an IP address and needs to know what the default gateway is (the device that it should look for to get to the interent). On the upstairs computers the gateway is the router. When the computers need access to the internet, they look to the gateway (router) and it 'shows them how to get to the interent'. The downstairs computers don't have a gateway so they 'don't know how' to access the internet.

If you put your router in place beside the modem and then connect all your switches to it, it should work perfectly. The modem connects to the internet port on the router and then the switches plug into the numbered ports (usually 4) on the router. What will happen then is that the router will be able to assign all the computers connected to it (through the switches) with an IP address. This will allow them to receive the proper gateway address and then will allow them to connect to the internet.

I know this is long and rambling so let me know if you have any questions.

 

[wcom939]

Thank you!

I Understand exactly what you are saying and i appreciate the help. I will replace the garage switch with the router and the upstairs router with the switch.

I appreciate the response!

-dan

 

[jmacavali]

No Prob. Let me know how it goes.