Networking question: WRT54GL assign IP outside of LAN subnet? [Archive]

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royaljelly

Aug 18th, 2009, 03:07 AM

I'm a real networking newb, so any help is appreciated. I have a home server which does daily backups of the office server. I need it such that if my office server crashes, I'll bring in my home server, plug it in and keep on working. I managed to set everything up without using any network consultants.

Now I just managed to get free internet at my workplace, but I'm on some kind of special network (?VPN) such that I need to have my server with a fixed IP addresses of

10.244.13.194 .... up to .207
subnet mask: 255.255.255.192 (whatever that means??)

I managed to figure out how to flash the firmware on my WRT54GL (to v4.71.1, Hyperwrt 2.1b1 + Thibor15c) such that I could assign a static IP to my home server, but when I try to assign 10.244.13.194 to it (based on it's MAC address), without changing the default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, it gives me this error msg:

"The DHCP server cannot use an address outside of the LAN subnet"

So now I'm stumped w/ my limited networking knowledge, and can't figure it out from readings from google searches. Is it even possible w/ my current router, or should I just buy a new one that will support this? Would changing my Router IP address from 192.168.1.1 to 10.244.13.194 allow me to assign other IPs in the same range (i.e. up to .207)? Any other ideas?

Thanks.

Kwirky

Aug 18th, 2009, 03:16 AM

So, your home server needs to connect to the office VPN and use an IP in the range of 10.244.13.194 to 207 over the VPN, correct? If so, you're going about it the wrong way; in the properties for the VPN connection, click on the networking tab, then double click on "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and set the static IP address information in there.

jetway1212

Aug 18th, 2009, 08:35 AM

I'm a bit confused here.

How did you get your home server connected to the office server?

They both require to have WAN connection which confused me when you said "now i just managed to get free internet at my work place"

What kind of VPN tunnel are you using?

To be honest, i think you should rewrite your post clearer of what you want given the conditions.

Menace

Aug 18th, 2009, 08:55 AM

jetway1212

Aug 18th, 2009, 09:05 AM

Is "10.244.13.194 .... up to .207" public addresses belong to your work place? If that is the case, you can't assign them to WRT54L's WAN port. I'm not sure VPN can do that as well :?: However, you can access to your home servers from work via VPN. You need to talk to IT department for configuration info...etc.

Thats what i thought at first but it seems like the OP want to bring the .... network from so he can get free internet at home..... which further confused me.

If thats true then its not doable, he needs a wan connection at home.

Heres a scenario, you have wan connections at both end. You can connect your home computer to your work network using VPN. Its best to ask permission from the IT department even though you dont need any firewall rule from them. You can do a transparent bridge with VPN tunnel throught port 443 (SSL port which is most likely open). This can be done and the IT guy wouldnt have to change a single thing. However it certainly against policy without the permission from IT deparment. So DONT.

royaljelly

Aug 18th, 2009, 10:43 AM

Sorry guys, I'm confusing the heck out of you all (that's the problem w/ us network newbies). At home I have teksavvy DSL internet which I plan to keep using. But at work, I was paying for Bell DSL, but now I have a free internet service which is a secure VPN (I think), so eventually I'll ditch the Bell DSL.

My home server is configured to be 192.168.1.1 w/ my WRT54GL router w/ teksavvy, but in case of emergency if my office server crashes, I want to bring that home server physically to the office and just plug it into the office VPN network hardware.

So my question is can I configure my home network to mimic what I will have at work (i.e. the 10.244.13.194 .... up to .207 IP address), since I may not have the time or expertise to reconfigure things in case of a crash at work. Thx.

jetway1212

Aug 18th, 2009, 01:32 PM

Wow.... this is kinda strange.

Your office has a Wan connection routed through a VPN tunnel?
Are you still able to connect to your office server from home? Because if you can, then its not VPN tunnel. (VPN tunnel is always encrypted. Its a short for Virtual Private Network..)

How do you know its VPN? Does someone at your office set it up for you?

Hello-

Aug 18th, 2009, 01:50 PM

jetway1212

Aug 18th, 2009, 01:58 PM

I don't see the problem here.

When you bring your home computer to work, reconfigure the network interface for a static ip 10.244.*.* whatever you wanted and setup the VPN again.

I'm guessing you want to mimic the work server setup on the home server so there's no hassle at work. Set the router IP to 10.244.13.* then setup the ip's based on MAC addresses in the router or simply set a static ip in the network interface options on your home server.

Still wonder how he would use the home server as backup server tho..... He cant connect to his office server because it doesnt have a public address (being through a VPN tunnel).

As for the server fail over. Its simpler if he use DHCP server.

royaljelly

Aug 18th, 2009, 03:25 PM

I'm guessing you want to mimic the work server setup on the home server so there's no hassle at work. Set the router IP to 10.244.13.* then setup the ip's based on MAC addresses in the router or simply set a static ip in the network interface options on your home server.

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to try to setup at home first. So I should have no problem setting the WRT54GL router at home to be 10.244.13.194, and then issue the home server as 10.244.13.195?

BTW, is the subnet mask: 255.255.255.192 important to change as well? I don't quite understand what it's for.

I double checked and for sure it's a VPN that I have at work. They even gave me a password to do remote login to the VPN from home. Configuring the home server to do proper backup of the office server is gonna be a pain, but I'll try to figure that out at a later time.

Thanks for the help thus far guys.

siriuskao

Aug 18th, 2009, 04:13 PM

...

BTW, is the subnet mask: 255.255.255.192 important to change as well? I don't quite understand what it's for.

...

If you leave it as 255.255.255.0, it just means you can have range 10.244.13.1 to 10.244.13.254 instead of 193 - 254

maybe tried turning off dhcp and assign router
10.244.13.193/255.255.255.192

individual system 10.244.13.194/255.255.255.192 - gateway 10.244.13.193

jetway1212

Aug 18th, 2009, 08:53 PM

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to try to setup at home first. So I should have no problem setting the WRT54GL router at home to be 10.244.13.194, and then issue the home server as 10.244.13.195?

BTW, is the subnet mask: 255.255.255.192 important to change as well? I don't quite understand what it's for.

I double checked and for sure it's a VPN that I have at work. They even gave me a password to do remote login to the VPN from home. Configuring the home server to do proper backup of the office server is gonna be a pain, but I'll try to figure that out at a later time.

Thanks for the help thus far guys.

You're confused...

Your office does not have WAN connection through VPN tunnel. Its just a dedicated line with public address. They setup a VPN server so you can .... connect to your office through VPN tunnel.... see the differences?

So if you want to make the home server with the same IP as the office server you would have a problem when you connect to the office through VPN.

Infact your home network has to have a different subnet all together to void any conflicts.

In short, if you want to remote connect to your office, you cant mimic the home network to save....1 min ... when you do a fail over.

I dont see a problem at all with your situation. As i said, either set the server with static lease or do a DHCP lease.