Network setup in IRAQ

orlando832 · Post by **orlando832** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:31 am

Hello im new to the site and im wondering if i can get some help with something.
A group of soldiers serving in Bagdad bought a SAT system. I have good background on networking terms but i dont know anything about satelite internet. The provider tell us that we have 4 IPs coming from a SM 1000 Surfbeam modem, 4 IPS for CPE's. The system, the way its configured now works but is very spotty, and after doing some research I dont think its the ISP.
Here are some of the errors.
1.pcs have globes can ping yahoo.com and google but cant display the pages in web browsers (DNS Issue?)
2.IM programs like skype and Yahoo work but webbrowsers wont disply pages.

So my question is how would I configure the hardware for a modem that according to the ISP is giving us 4IP's.

Heres how I have it now.
1.)SM1000 modem goes into a Dlink switch.
2.)3 Routers also connect to the dlink switch.(Each which pull there dynamic IPs from the modem) I have verified this. Each router gets a diffrent address.
3.)Users then connect to the 3 routers. (PC are set to auto detect settings).

Does this sound right? Should I be assigning every manually?
It just seems to work for a few day then it dies. I reset everything and it starts working again.

One more thing on its worst times I can ping yahoo.com and run tracerts to it with out missing a single hop, then i open my broswer and nothing.

HELP!!

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:21 am

I'm assuming (and hope) that the 4x IPs from the ISP are static? If so, I'd set the IPs manually on the WAN interface of each of your routers.

The 3x routers...how large is each network behind each router? Wireless also?

What exactly is plugged into the LAN interfaces of each router?

orlando832 · Post by **orlando832** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:15 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:I'm assuming (and hope) that the 4x IPs from the ISP are static? If so, I'd set the IPs manually on the WAN interface of each of your routers.

The 3x routers...how large is each network behind each router? Wireless also?

What exactly is plugged into the LAN interfaces of each router?

Yes the 4 IP's are static.

Everything is hard lined.

laptops and PC are hooked up to the lan ports. maybe an xbox or 2.

Total of 15 people through out the network not all are on at times were split shift.

3 Routers give us 12 lan ports to get an extra 3 ports we neede we plugged a switch from one of the routers could this be causing issues.

When i plug in the modem to our Dlink switch to feed the routers does the switch take an addres for itself??(I could have sworn some of the CISCO switches had addreses). I have an AS in Network Engineering an this network is gona be the death of me. Everything that i was taught tells me we have internet service. Ping Lan, Ping WAN, Ping DNS servers, Ping the routers, ping loopback and everything responds yet the system seems to hicup and just stop working after a few days.

If I had a a really bad connection to the SAT. Could it be the case that we all get the little globe for internet connection but yet be to slow to bring up a browser?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:18 am

15x people total? Do these people have to be broken into 3x separate networks?

You're not uplinking all the LAN sides of the 3x routers to the same switch are you?

Ideally...modem==> Smaller switch==> 3x routers WAN interfaces. So this switch here in between the 3x routers and the broadband modem will have 4x ethernet cables.

From the LAN interfaces of each of the routers, plug in the PCs..and if you need more slots....uplink a switch to the LAN interface of just 1 of the routers. Don't have the switch uplinked to more than 1 router. Unless you have a managed switch where you could do VLAN'ing...then you could actually uplink it to all 3 of your routers and spread out to several port based VLANs.

orlando832 · Post by **orlando832** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:35 am

[quote="YeOldeStonecat"]15x people total? Do these people have to be broken into 3x separate networks?

You're not uplinking all the LAN sides of the 3x routers to the same switch are you?

Ideally...modem==> Smaller switch==> 3x routers WAN interfaces. So this switch here in between the 3x routers and the broadband modem will have 4x ethernet cables.

From the LAN interfaces of each of the routers, plug in the PCs..and if you need more slots....uplink a switch to the LAN interface of just 1 of the routers. Don't have the switch uplinked to more than 1 router. Unless you have a managed switch where you could do VLAN'ing...then you could actually uplink it to all 3 of your routers and spread out to several port based VLANs.[/QUOTE
I have it set up this way. From the Modem to a Dlink 16 port switch. From the routers WAN port to the Switch. Pc's are connected to the LAN side of the switch. From one of the routers Lan port I go to a Dlink 8 port switch to get my extra ports. Its working ok right now LOL im sending this on it. Im really starting to think we dont have very god signal strenth from the VSAT even though they say we do. I wish I had a spectrum analyzer.

I have to work with the equipment I have. Kind of hard to find a best buy in IRAQ.

orlando832 · Post by **orlando832** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:38 am

Oh BTW the Modem only has one port. Not sure if I understand "the broadband modem will have 4x ethernet"

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:45 pm

orlando832 wrote:Oh BTW the Modem only has one port. Not sure if I understand "the broadband modem will have 4x ethernet"

The switch in between your 3x routers, and the 1x modem...will have 4x CAT cables plugged into it. 1x going to the broadband modem, the other 3x going to each WAN interface of your 3x routers.

Wondering, if since the signal strength may be low, why not toss 2x of the routers? Just use your first public IP address with 1x router?

Modem==> WAN interface of router==//Router//==> LAN port of router to your 16x port switch..and all your other computers into that switch.

bilbus · Post by **bilbus** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:25 am

Bad latency, packet loss, and other bad things are normal for satcom internet.

As for your setup, its simple and will work jsut fine.

I also think you just need one router.

When you have to reset it to get it working .. what do you have to do?
What do you reset? What is the minimum needed to reset? just the modem? just the router?

Do all 3 routers have issues when you have problems (or just 1 or 2)?

Could be the modem or switch also.