Advice: How to set up a second network?
Bing Zhang
We are a small company with Solaris/SunOS and Window NT/95 boxes on
our local ethernet. We run NIS, domain name server, mail server and
web server on a SunOS machine. A 128 k frame relay router connects us
to our ISP.
Now we plan to open another office 60 miles away and a new ethernet
network will be set up there. I need some advices on setting up the
network between the two offices.
Option 1) Add one frame relay router (can not use ISDN, since
it incurs long distance call) in each office. But this comes the
headache of subnetting. Also I am not sure whether I need to run NIS+
or something in the new office such that the machines in the new
office will recognize subnet mask. Could I use a NT server instead?
Could I take some load of mail server, domain name server capability
off the current SunOS machines and put on machines in the new office
to reduce latency?
Option 2)Set up internet connection with another local ISP. The
communication between two office is through internet. To do this, I
believe we have to register a new domain name for our company. Does
internic allows two domain name for one company?
Any other options? I believe there are lots of companys out there who
have face the same problem and solve it nicely. If you have done this
before, would you please give me some advices?
Any good books on this subject?
Thanks
Bing
Matthew Levine
Cost is usually the determining factor in network planning. I would say go
with a local ISP. You shouldn't have to register a new domain name. You
should be able to register the new IP's under the same domain name and
resolve between the two networks via your dns table. That will put a little
more strain on your authoritative dns server having to answer outside
requests for both networks but you can set up a dns server on the new
network to handle all the internal requests for that network.
If you do go with this plan, then I would strongly suggest duplicating mail
servers, dns servers, etc on the new network for exactly the reasons you
mention (reduce load/latency). Even if you went with the frame relay
connection, it would still be a wise decision to duplicate those services.
I'm not very familiar with frame relay but I would think that a frame relay
circuit would be more secure than an internet connection if security is
important to you.
As far as UNIX vs. NT to use for your network services, that's where
religious arguments start. I'm a UNIX junkie myself but I would say go with
whatever your network managers are more familiar with. After all, they're
the ones who are going to have to install them and they are the ones who
will have to support them.
My $.02 worth,
Matthew
---
-----
Matthew Levine
Quality Assurance - Cisco Systems, Inc
mle...@cisco.com
* To reply, please remove "nospam." from the e-mail address
Spammers will be shot on sight.
All opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Cisco
Systems, Inc
Bing Zhang wrote in message <3522d823...@news.cyberweb1.com>...