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First, I'll try to explain the current network layout. I'm not a super-experienced networking professional (yet...) and I have come up with a possible solution, but I wanted to run it by some experts and see what the cons are to my plan.

So we have a small business setup servicing about 12 users, right now it looks roughly like this:

Comcast Business Modem (providing two public IPs), this modem is ethernet wired to two different routers, each with its own LAN (10.0.0.1 and 10.3.2.1) corresponding with the outgoing public IP. These routers are wired into separate switches with no logical or physical link. The 10.0.0.1 network manages all of our computers (and other network devices via Wi-Fi), while the 10.3.2.1 network is reserved for phones only. All of the drops in the office are split, the PC drops wire into the 10.0.0.1 switch and the phone ethernets wire into the 10.3.2.1 switch.

No, I don't know why the network is split in half. I wasn't here when the company had it installed, nor do I know the logic or reasoning. The phone network has an old OLD machine running Windows 7 for a 3CX server. I think the last update it received was in 2014. My guess is nobody wants to touch the old system since it is somehow still working this many years later...

So I'll summarize my plan. I wish to move the 3CX server over to a much stronger network server on the other LAN and host it on a virtual machine instance (3CX is a nightmare to configure, would rather create a small redundant VM configuration so it can failover to a backup if needed), and route all phones from the 10.3.2.1 network into the 10.0.0.1 network. My plan was just to wire the two routers together and write rules for the connections. Issue is, I'm currently not sure this is the best solution. I've read a few other topics discussing how many softwares and programs can become confused by this kind of solution. Not to mention, we have some supportive devices in the office to assist with the phone system and I've no clue what they do at this time. One is a Patton VoIP gateway, the others are Arris boxes and I've not got their login credentials yet (or guessed them).

Would the better plan be to just link the networks or to make a plan to combine them and re-configure the phone 3CX system. Having the phone sessions being hosted across this link may not be the best solution.

Michael
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  • I understand the need to upgrade/update your 3CX server, but why does that necessitate a network reconfiguration? What are you hoping to accomplish? What's the end goal? – joeqwerty Oct 18 '21 at 18:05
  • The only circumstance I see requiring a reconfiguration would be if linking the two networks together would cause unforeseen concern, such as security risks (the phone network has no firewall configuration) or incompatibility. The 3CX computer is a 10 year old PC running very slow and I'm expecting it to fail in the coming year, so I'm acting in advance. If it would be possible to allow both networks to exist BUT tell the 3CX router the server is on a different LAN, that could also suffice. – Michael Oct 18 '21 at 18:14
  • I guess I'm not understanding why you don't just put the new 3CX server on the existing phone network. – joeqwerty Oct 18 '21 at 20:11
  • We don't want to purchase a replacement machine if possible. Our current server on the other LAN is more than powerful enough. – Michael Oct 18 '21 at 20:22
  • I was able to link the two networks with static routing rules and an ethernet cable (verified by ping), but I cannot bring up the router interface from the other network. – Michael Oct 18 '21 at 22:51
  • The phone network is probably separate to guarantee bandwidth. Connect the VM to the existing network via a separate NIC, or use VLANs to bring in the second network. – NiKiZe Oct 19 '21 at 07:13
  • Ah that makes a lot of sense actually. I made a network link but need to add proper routing, I can ping the router but not machines on the other network. We decided we were ok with the idea of keeping the older machine for the moment and eventually purchasing a new machine when needed. We most likely will dual-boot the machine and install Windows 10 to setup the updated 3CX system on. The Win7 OS would be a fallback if I couldn't setup the Windows 10 system in our downtime window. – Michael Oct 19 '21 at 13:19

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