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I've just come across this network diagram:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/router1.htm

And I am thinking if it can be done with a typical home router. Normally for home router, when we plug a computer to one of its ports it will be DHCP-assigned a private IP like 192.168.0.2/24.

If I buy two switches and try to set up like the diagram. Will computers plugged into different switches still be in the same network? I think the router's DHCP will assume they should still be in the same network and assign each computer a 192.168.0.x/24 IP address, but this is not what I want.

I would like them to be in different networks. That is, computers plugged into the switch A will be in the 192.168.0.0/24 network A and computers in switch B will be in the 192.168.1.0/24 network B.

One more question, with this setup, can the computers in network A communicate with computers in network B and vice versa? In particular, do you think computers in different networks can still see each other in the Network Neighborhood on Windows?

Note: I have a spare home router and I am thinking if it can be used in my small office.

bobo
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  • What is a "home router"? Can a car drive on diesel? Depends on model. Yes, there are home routers that can do that. Most likely yours not. – TomTom Jan 28 '14 at 06:55
  • I don't know of any major brand router software that can do this level of network separation. Closest I can think of is the "guest wifi network" some have now. I would look into getting a small form factor system running pfsense - http://www.pfsense.org/ - You need NICs for your networks, otherwise as low end a system as you can get would suffice. – Gomibushi Jan 28 '14 at 08:21

1 Answers1

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I don't know of a home router that can do this, but there exists equipment that can.

You are free to setup two different networks like this. Then you get them to talk to each other by putting a router in between. This router could be a specially configured Linux machine or it could be something you buy off the shelf. After the physical connections are made you'll need to configure the router for the different networks. Whether the router acts as the DHCP server for either or both segments is an implementation detail.

These two networks would be separate, so I would guess that the Network Neighborhoods would be separate too. That being said, I'm not a Windows admin.

toppledwagon
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