Windows file sharing/different networks

As a result of trying out a new router I have ended up with two network ranges at home. One is 192.168.0.* (created to support two devices on fixed IP) the other is 192.168.1.*

This has upset Windows file sharing so I'm wondering what the options are for dealing with it. My preferred option would be to leave the ranges as they are rather than mess with the configuration of the two devices. OTOH I don't want to have to configure every machine on the network to setup routing. I also don't want to reconfigure the router away from its default network range (1.* - the cause of all the hassle).

So - I've probably listed all the solutions and dismissed each one. Aside from telling me I'm a picky sod can anyone offer a nice, simple solution?

Does your router support using a secondary IP range? If so, setting that to 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 should resolve your issues.
If it doesn't then at the moment the best solution I can think of is to bite the bullet, set the router to its default range and set up each attached unit accordingly.
In saying this I'm thinking of the likely possibility of having to reset the router to its defaults at some future time.

The router (a Speedtouch 780) can have multiple DHCP pools which is how I got it working (I was just doing a comparison at that point). It's fine for IP based solutions like POP3 but not file sharing.
One of the fixed IP devices is a server and it being cut off from the workstations is suboptimal .

But yeah, simplifying the range will mean I leave the machines with default settings and it shouldn't be too hard to remember if the same issue crops up in the future.

Edited by Andrue (Tue 01-May-07 13:05:31)

Put the fixed IP devices inside the range of teh router subnet, and configure the DHCP server to leave half of the192.168.1.0/24 subnet free. Or is there something I am missing?

That's how I had it configured on my old router and I think I'll probably be going that way again.

The 'problem' is that when trying out the new router I didn't want to monkey with the fixed IP addresses because I thought it likely that I'd be going back to the old router in a few days. As it turned out (and much to my surprise) the free Speedtouch 780 is doing a better job of maintaining my ADSL2+ connection than my NetGear DG834PN.

So I now have to get my network back into a final, stable state but wanted to try and keep it set up so that I can just plug the old router back in if I want to.

I suspect I'm looking for a simple solution that just doesn't exist but there's no harm in asking

Edited by Andrue (Tue 01-May-07 15:04:28)

could always change the subnet mask on all the nodes so that they can see both networks - aka 255.255.0.0 would work.

If each of your routers has the option to have a second LAN IP address, then you should be able to set up both routers to connect one network to the other - that is basically what routers do - route between different networks:)

Certainly, DrayTek routers will do it. - Been there - Done that - Although the tee-shirt is now history.

I don't know if the NetGear does but that's certainly another idea.

Interesting. I might try that.

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255.255.0.0 would work

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255.255.254.0 [ie /23] is a better match to the OP's network.

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I suspect I'm looking for a simple solution that just doesn't exist but there's no harm in asking

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As your objective is no more than to be able to slot either router in place, then you really are buffering about. As you have some machines on fixed IP, these dictate your network range. change the LAN IP address on one or the other router to be on the same subnet.

That is true - your suggestion for the mask is technically better.....

But doing that will effectively combine the two networks into one - possibly with two DHCP servers allocating IP addresses to any of the PCs regardless of which network they were originally on.

If the OP is going to do that then he should use only one router - which could well be the simplest solution.

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But doing that will effectively combine the two networks into one - possibly with two DHCP servers allocating IP addresses to any of the PCs regardless of which network they were originally on.

If the OP is going to do that then he should use only one router - which could well be the simplest solution.

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AFAICS, the OP's intentions only extend to 1 router at a time. The network mask makes no difference to the issue of having 2 dhcp servers, which I agree could cause problems

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But doing that will effectively combine the two networks into one - possibly with two DHCP servers allocating IP addresses to any of the PCs regardless of which network they were originally on.

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yup. turn dhcp off on one of them.

I bit the bullet and moved the static devices onto the new router's default IP range. It wasn't so bad and I made a note of it in a short document on the server.

Make sure that you do not have static IPs in the range used by the DHCP server (unless the server controls them).

Best not to have static IP's at all. Just use DHCP, and a hosts list which ensures that the same devices always get the same IP. The "static" IP's issued by ISP's work in this manner - they are not really static at all.