John Kennedy wrote:
> I am planning a home network of 3 to 5 machines and
> could use a little help with the planning.
As usual, you're getting good advice. But at risk of duplicating what
someone else will tell you, I think there's a bit more I can add.
Stephen M Lavelle wrote:
> I think the two networks is overkill.
> Use 1 Linux box with IP Masq - and Private Class IP'S on all the other
> boxes (192.168.0.__)
I absolutely agree, with one caveat. The Private Class IP scheme is
described in RFC1918, if you're interested in looking it up. Generally
speaking, it's a great idea because it avoids using critical
resources--"real" IP addresses-- in private networks that won't be seen
on the "real" Internet, and because active network elements (e.g.,
routers, bridges, etc.) are generally programmed not to pass packets
bearing these private addresses.
However, one thing I've found over the years is that some network
components have problems with zero octets, even though they're supposed
to be valid, e.g., "192.168.0.xxx". This mostly historical, sometimes
just buggy firmware/software. In any case, it's a harmless protection
to avoid them in defining network addresses. Note that you don't have
to do this--you can just write it off to me being old enough that I
still "sync,sync,sync" before a shutdown...
Charles Galpin wrote:
>Use any any numbers between 0 and 255 for the boxes, but it's better to
>keep them close together for future subnetting/expansion.
>
>Why not number them 1 - 5?
This advice has one error, and one violation of convention that is
sometimes ensconced in software.
In any IP address--let's take the Class 'C' network 192.168.1 for
convenience--the zero and all-bits-set values cannot be used for
devices. For Class 'C', this means '192.168.1.0' and '192.168.1.255'
cannot be used. Why? The latter is the network broadcast address.
The former is a bit of history--the zero address used to be the broadcast
address--and a bit of followup convention to avoid the special use of that
value, to refer to the entire network. Under no circumstances ever assign
these values to an actual device.
There are also standard conventions that are in use when assigning
network devices. The '1' device, e.g., 192.168.1.1, is by convention
the gateway for that network. Many programs and network devices will
default to this. And any experienced person working on a network, in
lieu of explicit information otherwise, will assume this first.
Next, low-number devices have conventionally been used for network components
themselves, e.g., '2' commonly used to be the address of the first terminal
server, etc. This wasn't/isn't nearly as entrenched as the default gateway
address, but it's still common to reserve the low addresses. It doesn't
cost you anything, and will look familiar to anyone working the network,
to start workstations at something like '100'.
Cheers,
---
Dave Ihnat
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