SOLVED Seperate IP address for individual nic

[xxxGODxxx]

I want to build a freenas system using the c2550d4i, and I know that it has 2 intel nics onboard. My home setup will consist of a gaming rig, a htpc and a plex client. What I want to do is for my htpc and plex client to connect to 1 nic, and my gaming pc to connect to the other nic so that the laod would be balanced as I plan on running some VMs off my htpc, which might use up quite some bandwidth. My gaming pc will also be loading some games which I don't play as often on my freenas system. I know that I can use LACP to do that but as it is I'm don't have the budget to by a 802.3ad switch, so I hope that this setup will work. I will be using CIFS shares

Gaming pc - nic 1 (192.168.1.2)
HTPC - nic 2 (192.168.1.3)
Plex client - nic 2 (192.168.1.3)

Can anyone advise me on this? I have yet to build any of these systems and I would like to know if what I want to do is workable or should I just save up for a LACP switch?

 

[Darren Myers]

You certainly could....But you then have to remember what IP ranges and subnets are what, were you planning on directly connecting your FreeNAS server to your gaming pc? And then connect FreeNAS to a switch to reach out to the HTPC and plex client(s)?

You can find managed switches for cheap (ish) http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-D-Link-...DES-1210-28-/221880313748?hash=item33a918e794 i have used that switch alot and it does support LACP

 

[xxxGODxxx]

No. I was planning to connect both ports to the 8 port gigabit switch that I will buy (costs around $40) and then from the switch to the separate clients. I can’t really connect the nas directly to my gaming pc as my nas isn’t in my room and I don’t want to use wifi to connect my pc to the internet. Anyway thanks for your suggestion :)

 

[depasseg]

Unfortunately, you can't configure 2 ports on Freenas to exist in the same network. I don't think your plan will work.

 

[Darren Myers]

Unfortunately, you can't configure 2 ports on Freenas to exist in the same network. I don't think your plan will work.

i think you can use 2 different subnets and using 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.2.2 should do the trick, subnet such as 255.255.255.0 and 255.255.0.0 or something along those lines.

 

[xxxGODxxx]

So that would mean that instead of configuring port 1 to be 192.168.1.2 and port 2 to be 192.168.1.3 I have to configure port 1 to be 192.168.1.2 and port 2 to be 192.168.2.2?

 

[Darren Myers]

As well as a different subnet to be safe. So port 1 would be 192.168.1.2 subnet 255.255.255.0 and port 2 would be 192.168.2.2 subnet 255.255.0.0


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[JJT211]

You'll save yourself time and money in the long run if you do it right the first time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124519&cm_re=802.3ad-_-33-124-519-_-Product

Think I might just pick one up myself for 80

 

[rogerh]

As well as a different subnet to be safe. So port 1 would be 192.168.1.2 subnet 255.255.255.0 and port 2 would be 192.168.2.2 subnet 255.255.0.0


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NO! The second subnet mask has to be 255.255.255.0 as well. The 255.255.255.0 ( /24 for short) just shows which bits of the IP address are common to the whole subnet. If you put 255.255.0.0 for the second one, the second subnet will include the first one!

 

[rogerh]

So that would mean that instead of configuring port 1 to be 192.168.1.2 and port 2 to be 192.168.1.3 I have to configure port 1 to be 192.168.1.2 and port 2 to be 192.168.2.2?

And you probably have to use a managed switch or two separate unmanaged switches to keep the two subnets separate and make sure packets go to the right place.

However, what are you trying to achieve by using two separate subnets? Is it a matter of firewalling or bandwidth? It is not straightforward to achieve either.

 

[xxxGODxxx]

You'll save yourself time and money in the long run if you do it right the first time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124519&cm_re=802.3ad-_-33-124-519-_-Product

Think I might just pick one up myself for 80

I wish I could, but I'm just a student and all this money come from my parents and I still can't work so yeah... I'm doing this with a very tight budget so I don't think I can buy a managed switch - anyway I don't live in the states so a managed switch will cause me around $110 and if anything happens I will have trouble with the warranty. A managed switch on my country costs $120 :(

 

[xxxGODxxx]

And you probably have to use a managed switch or two separate unmanaged switches to keep the two subnets separate and make sure packets go to the right place.


However, what are you trying to achieve by using two separate subnets? Is it a matter of firewalling or bandwidth? It is not straightforward to achieve either.

I'm trying to achieve 1gbps to both my gaming PC and the rest of my network concurrently, so I'm doing this for getting more bandwidth without having to buy a managed switch due to my extremely tight budget

 

[solarisguy]

Connect your gaming PC using just a cable (no switch) to the second NIC on your FreeNAS server.

 

[rogerh]

Connect your gaming PC using just a cable (no switch) to the second NIC on your FreeNAS server.

Yes, and put the gaming PC NIC and the FreeNAS NIC it is connected to on a separate subnet from the other NIC on the FreeNAS server. The downside is that then you need a second NIC (or WiFi) on the gaming PC to connect the latter to the Internet.

Edit: there is a neater way to do this without separate subnets by using bridging on the FreeNAS server, but this is way beyond my networking skills.

 

[xxxGODxxx]

Yes, and put the gaming PC NIC and the FreeNAS NIC it is connected to on a separate subnet from the other NIC on the FreeNAS server. The downside is that then you need a second NIC (or WiFi) on the gaming PC to connect the latter to the Internet.


Edit: there is a neater way to do this without separate subnets by using bridging on the FreeNAS server, but this is way beyond my networking skills.

So I have to configure freenas such that nic 1 is a bridge to nic 2 and connect nic 2 to my PC directly?


Nic 1 (192.168.1.2) - unmanaged switch

Nic 2 (192.168.2.2) - gaming PC

Nic 1 and nic 2 configured as bridged interface


Do I do this by creating a bridged interface with nic 1 and nic 2 and will this allow me to see the rest of my network as well as connect my gaming PC to the internet?

 

[rogerh]

That sounds right to me, but I don't know how to do it.

 

[depasseg]

Do I do this by creating a bridged interface with nic 1 and nic 2 and will this allow me to see the rest of my network as well as connect my gaming PC to the internet?

Keep in mind that all your network traffic will still be going through those single 1Gbps links.

This seems like an awful lot of trouble for something which isn't even a problem yet, and likely may never be. Unless you are fortunate to live in an area with 1Gbps internet services, I can't see you VM's (and certainly not a plex client) being an issue on your network traffic.

My suggestion is to keep them on the same subnet/network and if there is a problem later, then figure out how to address whatever the problem is.

 

[xxxGODxxx]

Keep in mind that all your network traffic will still be going through those single 1Gbps links.

This seems like an awful lot of trouble for something which isn't even a problem yet, and likely may never be. Unless you are fortunate to live in an area with 1Gbps internet services, I can't see you VM's (and certainly not a plex client) being an issue on your network traffic.

My suggestion is to keep them on the same subnet/network and if there is a problem later, then figure out how to address whatever the problem is.

Well, I actually just got a 1gbps internet connection yesterday XD. I plan on making a VM that acts as a seedbox that will use 500mbps for seeding so my VM will actually use up quite some bandwidth. My htpc will also be recording and ripping blurays quite often so that will use up even more bandwidth, so would creating a bridge interface make what I want to do work? And on a side note does the 1gbps limitation on gigabit switches and NICs mean 1gbps total for both uplink and downlink or 1gbps simultaneously on both uplink and downlink?

 

[depasseg]

It doesn't sound like the link between freenas and your network would be the bottleneck. It would help if you could draw a diagram with network links and anticipated traffic amounts though. I'm kinda getting a little lost though with the anticipated secondary uses and utilization.

As long as your nics and switch are full duplex they can transmit and receive 1gbps simultaneously.

 

[JJT211]

I wish I could, but I'm just a student and all this moneStrey come from my parents and I still can't work so yeah... I'm doing this with a very tight budget so I don't think I can buy a managed switch - anyway I don't live in the states so a managed switch will cause me around $110 and if anything happens I will have trouble with the warranty. A managed switch on my country costs $120 :(

Well youre about half way there with the 40 youre gonna spend on the unmanaged switch already. And you still might not be able to do with it what you wanna do. So you're potentially throwing that money down the drain, especially since youre talking about running gigabit ethernet, doesnt sound like you got much room for error.