How To Distribute?

Gadgetman496

What are my options or which is the best way to distribute 4 20meg lines between 19 apartments?

Each apartment has one RJ45 socket & all 19 Cat5e cables are coming back to one central point.

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johnciall

probably easiest way to do it would be to get yourself a load balancing router and then run it all through a 24 port switch into you patch panel and fromt here onto the apartments

Gadgetman496

johnciall wrote: »

probably easiest way to do it would be to get yourself a load balancing router and then run it all through a 24 port switch into you patch panel and fromt here onto the apartments

Didn't even know such a router existed John.

Are they expensive and do you have any good source for one of them?

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johnciall

Like any technology it can cost as much as you like,

you can pick up a 24 port rack mount switch on komplett for about €50+

As for a load balancing router, most cisco routers do it, or you can get yourself a PC put 5 Network cards in it and set it up running linux with a load balancing protocol if cash is an issue

NullZer0

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Didn't even know such a router existed John.

Are they expensive and do you have any good source for one of them?

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www.cisco.com
Can do this on pretty much anything you'd require.... try a 2600 XM series or something along those lines.
You can pick up a cisco catalyst 2950 for pretty cheap, put eacn apart ment in a different VLAN and the use the 2600 for layer 3 connectivity to the interweb

I'd imagine you'd want some sort of QOS/shaping too with such a setup ... but then again I don't know what you want to achieve.


You can get the above pretty cheap on Ebay

If you need it configured .....


Cheers,


iRock

NullZer0

Sorry just seen the mention of the 4 lines there... although I think this is achievable on 2600 with the right cards... there is definately another model that can do this.

Gadgetman496

Just to confirm the requirement, it sounds straight forward,

Need to use the four 20meg lines to supply one broadband connection to each of the 19 apartments. The one thing I don't want is for any of the apartments to share or network with each other.

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hobochris

A cisco router should do the job.

you can block any internal traffic with one(i.e. keep it apartment to isp router traffic only).. I think you may need to put each apartment on its own Vlan but its been a good while since I did the ccna so I can't remember.

NullZer0

hobochris wrote: »

A cisco router should do the job.

you can block any internal traffic with one(i.e. keep it apartment to isp router traffic only).. I think you may need to put each apartment on its own Vlan but its been a good while since I did the ccna so I can't remember.

Indeed, you can do it with a Cisco Router.

Load balancing is a standard functionality of the Cisco IOS® router software, and is available across all router platforms. It is inherent to the forwarding process in the router and is automatically activated if the routing table has multiple paths to a destination. It is based on standard routing protocols, such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP), RIPv2, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), and Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP), or derived from statically configured routes and packet forwarding mechanisms. It allows a router to use multiple paths to a destination when forwarding packets.

Nothing too heavy there, its a pretty straight forward setup anyway.

As far as dividing the traffic, well there are a couple of options but I would use 1 VLAN per Apartment.

I would imagine you'd want to block questionable/illegal sites and/or peer-to-peer?


More on Cisco IOS load balancing:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094820.shtml



Another thing I should ask - how many devices planned per apartment?
I mean, will the end users have more than one device?

Do you want to divide this using a Switch/WAP or do you want the users to provide their own Router/Switch with DHCP?

If not you will need to allocate addresses to each VLAN using DHCP.



HTH,

iRock

FusionNet

Hey gadget,

I have a business with a guy who is well familiar with this kind of kit. If you wanna talk to someone in person i can ask him to buzz you...

NullZer0

A good friend of mine owns a small training company called www.internetworkexpert.com

I've just asked him about this (as im interested in it myself). When I get a reply I'll post back

daffy_duc

Or you could look at a Mikrotik Routerboard.
Much cheaper than a Cisco, and a whole load easier to configure

http://www.mikrotik.com - the OS
http://www.routerboard.com - the boards, come preinstalled with the Mikrotik OS

http://www.wirelessconnect.eu - Local dealer for the boards.
http://wirelessconnect.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=575&Itemid=615


I'd recommend a VLAN capable switch.
Create a seperate VLAN for each apartment
Create a trunk port on the switch, and run that port to one port on the Mikrotik.
Then on the Mikrotik, create a seperate corresponding VLAN for each apartment, and you can manage the bandwidth/usage/whatever for each one individually.

I'd recommend an RB493 - since it has 9 ports.
1 port goes to the Switch, and the other 8 can be used for your links to your ISP.
A little bit of poking about and reading the documentation, and you'll have loadbalancing working across your four incoming lines.

If you need a hand, let me know.

rmacm

Don't mean to single Mikrotik out for a bashing but weren't they one of the crew who were involved in the recent BGP instability on the internet.

http://www.renesys.com/blog/2009/02/the-flap-heard-around-the-worl.shtml

Of course Cisco aren't totally without blame either, cheap is not always better.

daffy_duc

rmacm wrote: »

Don't mean to single Mikrotik out for a bashing but weren't they one of the crew who were involved in the recent BGP instability on the internet.

http://www.renesys.com/blog/2009/02/the-flap-heard-around-the-worl.shtml

Of course Cisco aren't totally without blame either, cheap is not always better.

Yes, but thats what you get for using a cheap unit as a border gateway.
Everything has its place.

Mikrotik's will do what the OP needs...

rmacm

True enough it looks like it'll cover his needs just fine.

FusionNet

there are plenty of cheap seconds out there. i know where there is a 2600 just lying there gathering dust, not to mind the six pcs 8monitors 3 macs and god knows what else!!

NullZer0

FusionNet wrote: »

there are plenty of cheap seconds out there. i know where there is a 2600 just lying there gathering dust, not to mind the six pcs 8monitors 3 macs and god knows what else!!

Indeed! - Every server room and IT store room in the country. I have an interesting collection now ... and i got them all for free!

Even a 3560 :eek:

noclee

Just use the l3 switch this do the job for you, i.e 3550 cheap enough on eaby. Install the l3 ios.

Tks,
Noclee