Opinions on renumbering a network?

[OTSCon]

I have a network of about 20 servers, 300 users and 75 printers. It was originally numbered with 192.168.1.x/255.255.255.0. As they needed more numbers, they put in a router and did another 254 host block of numbers. I now face renumbering. DHCP isn't an option. I don't mind redoing the workstations, but the servers need to stay what they are because of hardcoding inside some apps. I have thought of going to 192.168.<floor_number>.x/255.255.0.0 and have no routers at all. Everyone's gateway would be the insside of the firewall to get to the internet. The other option is to renumber all the PCs and Printers 172.16.<floor_number>.x/255.255.0.0 and have one router to get to the servers. The only fear I have is that all traffic would then go through this router and therefore have a hop. This would include logins, data and email. The question is which would be faster, 1 big subnet or the hop? Just trolling for opinions. Thanks for your help!

[johnwill]

OK, I have to ask. Why isn't DHCP an option? It's very rare to see a network of any size with hardwired IP addresses for the very reason you now face!

[OTSCon]

Unfortunately, we have a few law-practice specific packages that know who you are only by your IP. DHCP wouldn't help as much with this question as you'd still have the whether to have separate subnets behind a router or to have one big subnet with no router. On a side note, I'm not sure it is OK to have 192.168.x.x with a sub of 255.255.0.0 anyway.

[johnwill]

You can configure the DHCP server for reservations that will reserve a DHCP address based on the MAC address of the computer. This allows you to still do all the maintenance from a central location and not have to visit each computer to make such changes.