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My office requires a connection to a private corporate cloud and also the internet. Up till now i have used dual network cards on all client machines and then added static routes through command on each of them. It works well but now the number of client machines has increased and it is getting difficult. Not to mention the added cost of adding a dual network card to each machine.

I have setup static routes inside my Server machine and both networks work fine on it. I added another network card and setup a new DHCP server role. The client machines are successfully being assigned IPs from the server, but they have no access to the server's connected networks.

I was hoping the server would share this access and hence i won't have to add static routes to each client machine, just the server. What exactly do i need to do for this, if at all this is possible?

All help is appreciated. Let me know what further information i should provide here.

My Existing Setup:

There are two routers, one for our corporate cloud connection and another for the internet.

This setup requires the addition of static routes on each machine.

enter image description here

Required Setup:

A windows server 2012 R2 machine with a quad NIC card. Two NICs take an IP each from the corporate router and another from the internet router. I add the same static routes to the windows server and check that it has access to both networks (Corporate and Internet). I setup a DHCP server on this machine and I disable DHCP on the internet router so that there is only the server machine giving out IPs.

On each client machine, i use only on network card (Configured to receive IP dynamically). The client receives IP from server machine.

So far things have worked. But i want the client to have access to the corporate cloud and the internet. Right now only the server machine has access.

enter image description here

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  • Usually, you have a central router (as default gateway for the clients) and you add a route to the router. Do you have both network ports connected to different switches or VLANs? Are there any overlapping network addresses or what is the reason for using dual ports? Please add a network chart so we can see what you're trying to do.
    – Zac67
    Nov 2, 2017 at 12:06
  • The server doesn't automatically function as a router. You'll need to install RRAS or use ICS.
    – joeqwerty
    Nov 2, 2017 at 12:53
  • @Zac67 Please see the diagrams. Thanks
    – notANerdDev
    Nov 2, 2017 at 13:56
  • @joeqwerty Hi thanks for the input. I don't know what those are and i tried to google them, a whole bunch of information comes up. I've added some diagrams to explains what i am trying to do. Could you provide a little more details on how i can solve my problem. Thanks.
    – notANerdDev
    Nov 2, 2017 at 13:58

3 Answers 3

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+50

Your comment says you have a Cisco Rv 320, so I'll give the list of steps for using the GUI interface to configure it with the route to 202.x.x.x through your "Private Cloud Router" address of 10.114.43.49.

You said it is already configured with Internet and DHCP, and clients will receive IP addresses in the 192.168.1.x/24 subnet.

DHCP:

  • In the GUI, click DHCP on the left menu, and confirm it provides the DHCP and DNS settings you'd like.

Add another IP address:

  • In the GUI, click Setup on the left.
  • In the "Multiple Subnet Table", click the "Add" button.
  • Add "10.114.43.55" with subnet "255.255.255.240".
  • Click the "Save" button.

Add the static route:

  • Under Setup, click Advanced Routing
  • Under "Static Routing Table", click the "Add" button.
  • Set "Destination" to 202.0.0.0, "Subnet Mask" to 255.0.0.0, "Default Gateway" to 10.114.43.49, "Hop Count" to 2, and keep the "Interface" as LAN.
  • Click "Save".

All of your clients should get 1 IP address on 192.168.1.x from DHCP, including the Windows Server. They'll only need 1 LAN port and 1 IP address now. Remove any DCHP server from the Windows Server.

https://www.cisco.com/assets/sol/sb/RV320_Emulators/RV320_Emulator_v1.1.0.09/default.htm was used to come up with these steps.

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  • Though this is not the answer i was looking for. It limits further expansion. I was really hoping i could do it using the Windows Server. I'll be forced to remove one internet connection from the Cisco Router and add the backup wan port to the private cloud router. The problem is, soon i'll have another private cloud, and that'll need to be added to each client as well. Target IP address will be within the same range... 202.x.x.x but the gateway will be 172.31.x.x. So i will need a Server based solution soon. Thanks for the effort.
    – notANerdDev
    Nov 17, 2017 at 14:48
  • You can plug the Internet router LAN port, private cloud router, Windows Server, and clients all to the same Layer-2 switch without changing your WAN ports. For a second private cloud, there isn't really a way to have routes to two different 202.x.x.x subnets unless they have different subnet masks. I think 1:1 NAT could map a different subnet to 202.x.x.x though.
    – axus
    Nov 17, 2017 at 15:10
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@notANerdDev - I think you could address this situation by adding a low-end firewall to your network that would also serve as a router. I will use a Sonicwall as an example.

The Sonicwall will use 3 interfaces - LAN, Internet and Corporate Cloud. An IP address for each network will be configured on them. There is some minor configuration you will have to do on this device.

The gateway for all LAN traffic is the Sonicwall which will allow your routes. The 2012R2 serer provides DHCP to the LAN.

If you have the money - less than $300 (hopefully from no more 2nd NIC) - this is what you want. It will also save you tons of time. If you needed to firewall traffic from the Internet to the 2012R2 server, it could serve that function in the future.

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Dell explains how to set up your Windows Server as a router: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/how10169/configuring-windows-server-2012-r2-as-a-router?lang=en

You can assign 10.0.2.1 to the Windows Server port connected to the client LAN. Your Windows server will have 3 IP addresses now:

  • 10.114.43.50
  • 192.168.1.2
  • 10.0.2.1

Set the Windows Server's default gateway as 192.168.1.1, and static route 202.x.x.x through the 10.114.43.49 as before.

Distribute 10.0.2.2 - 10.0.2.254 from the Windows Server DHCP to the clients. The clients' default gateway will be 10.0.2.1 (the Windows Server), and their subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

Alternatively, you could add 10.114.43.50 as a secondary IP address on the internet router's LAN port, and add route everyone to 202.x.x.x through that, but the router would have to have all the features needed to do it.

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  • The IP settings you have recommended are what I am using right now. But they aren't working. Let me try what the guide is recommending and I'll get back to you. Thanks
    – notANerdDev
    Nov 10, 2017 at 15:50
  • One problem with my answer, it creates a "Double NAT" for your clients; this can be work, but it makes things harder for your Internet router. Could you provide some more details about the Internet router in your main post?
    – axus
    Nov 10, 2017 at 21:34
  • It is a dual Wan Cisco Rv 320. I could set up the two networks in it, but the problem is I already have two internet connections connected for backup and load sharing.
    – notANerdDev
    Nov 11, 2017 at 2:49
  • Wow Cisco has a nice emulator for that here: cisco.com/assets/sol/sb/RV320_Emulators/… . I'll see if I can make a second answer after looking at that; you can definitely add static routes, provide DHCP, and add more IP addresses to it.
    – axus
    Nov 13, 2017 at 16:06

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