2 Nics, 2 Networks and Connecting the 2

[thesaltman]

Hi,

Currently in a situation where there are a number of users all connected to a switch (which I don't have access to) which is then connected to the internet. This switch turns 'off' automatically at 11.00pm, and 'on' at 6.00am and uses MAC address filtering to regulate who/what is on the network. I also have a wireless router (which I do have access to) which is connected to a 1TB NAS box. The users on the wired network currently connect via wireless to the NAS box for basic file sharing. My computer is connected to both the NAS box and the wired network by wire (I have 2 NICs). My question is this: is it possible to route the NAS shares through the wired network to the users by using my computer as a sort of router between the 2 networks?

Below is the information about subnets and IPs etc which I have pulled from running the command "ipconfig /all":

Wired Network (that I cannont access):
DHCP Enabled: Yes
IPv4 Address: 172.20.24.38
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 172.20.24.1
DHCP Server: 10.30.0.2
DNS/WINS Server: 10.30.0.32

Wired Network (which has NAS and that I can access):
DHCP Enabled: No (although it is enabled in the router configuration ??)
IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.172
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway:
DNS/WINS Server:

The router that I have access to is set to assign IPs in the range of 192.168.1.100 upwards. I am surprised that "ipconfig /all" shows DHCP to be disabled for this connection.

Currently, my computer works fine and can access both networks simultaneously. So can I connect both networks? The purpose of connection is not to share the internet connection, but to allow access to the NAS (through my computer) through the wired network for a quicker connection.

Any comments appreciated,

Cheers.

[DavidHB]

Essentially, you are talking about connecting the NAS to the network you don't own. The NAS will have its own MAC address, so unless you can persuade the owner of the wired network to filter in the NAS, and also allow access to it from those users (and only those users) who should have access to it, what you propose will not be possible. As your wired network presumably belongs to some (educational?) institution, which clearly (but to me understandably) enforces some tight networking rules, I'd forget that option.

How close are the other intended users of the NAS? Could they use the wireless connection that you own and control? There is no logical difference between wired and wireless connections, they'd just all be connections on the same network which happens to be served by a wireless router.

DHCP may be enabled on your own router, but it is clearly not enabled in the network connection of the NIC connected to the router. This is probably because you have set an explicitly associated an IP address with the NIC; in the properties of the IPv4 connection, you should select the option to obtain an IP address automatically; the NIC will then be allocated an address by the DHCP server on the router.

Hope this helps,

David

[johnwill]

I'm going to close this one. Obviously, the switch (which I don't have access to) is owned by someone else.

I suggest you work with them to solve this issue, we don't assist in hacking other folks network or bypassing their restrictions.