Hello! I’ve tried surfing the forums and looking for answers but haven’t had luck so far. So, I bought a 5-port ethernet switch to connect my two computers individually to the internet, which is working flawlessly. I used to have a home network with file sharing between them, but I’m having now problems configuring CFP to allow the connection… Here’s the “schematic”: Cable–>Modem–>Switch–>pc1 w/external network adapter & pc2 (laptop w/internal NA). I had Comodo installed before buying the switch, and the network was easy to set up by using the ‘Define a new trusted network’ -wizard, since my internet connection was coming via usb and I was connected to the laptop via the ext. network adapter. Now, because of the switch, my internet connection AND the network comes via the network adapter. If I run the wizard, it allows everything coming from the network adapter, now I don’t want that do I, because Internet is coming from there too? I’ve tried a bunch of things to set the network, like rules and stuff, but I just can’t get it working. If someone could be so friendly and provided me a step-by-step guide I’d be really greatful! I hope you get what I’m trying to say as I’m not a native English speaker, and sorry for the long post…
Cheers!
Wouldnt a router be the better solution?
Does your ISP provide you with 2 external IPs?
Does one PC use a shared internet connection on the other to connect to the internet?
Anyway: Both PCs should have a fixed IP, right? ^.^
Now use those 2 instead of the Zone. With 2 PCS you only have to replace the “Zone” with the IP from PC1 on PC2 and on PC1 with the IP from PC2.
The Zone is like a wildcard that would allow you to dynamically add more PCs w/o changeing/adding rules. For private networks you usually use 192.168.x.x and those IPs arent used by the internet, so… it should be the same.
Unless you have some special setup?
mikhot,
It will help if you can provide IP address setup info. Do your two computers have internal IP addresses (such as 192.168.1.1), or are they showing the same as the external IP address (from your ISP, which matches the IP address in the lower right corner of your posts here in the forum).
If you don’t know, you can open the CFP GUI; the Summary page shows your IP address under the Adapter info in the lower right corner.
If you have internal IPs, you should be fine to set up the trusted network.
LM
Thanks for your responses! The CFP GUI shows my ip: 2xx.xxx.xxx.xx3, the ip on the laptop is slightly different; 2xx.xxx.xxx.xx7. These are not fixed ip’s, that I know. So, is it internal or external?
E:Thanks for watching my back there, Little Mac…I’m not too bright I guess
mikhot,
I edited your post to mask the IP addresses, as they match up with your external one (well the first was a match; I presume that’s where you’re posting from at the moment). The switch is obviously not translating the IP’s for a network, as a router might.
I’m not a networking guru; I’d suggest using a router with built-in firewall and NAT (network address translation), which would result in internal IP addresses that are fixed and different from the external/public/visible IP address assigned by your ISP. That, however, is obviously a cost factor (I’d anticipate paying $60-$100 US for such a router).
I’m thinking there is a way to secure your connection even doing the network wizard, but I’m not sure of all the implications there, and I sure don’t want to steer you wrong. Let me see if I can get some more info…
LM
Yeah, a router would definitely be the optimal alternative, but I really wouldn’t want to spend more money on it, especially as I’ve purchased the switch today. I hope there’s some other solution! Thanks for your time.
What brand and model is it?
jasper
It’s a TP-Link TL-SF1005D.
I’m not too familiar with the product specified here, but it’s obviously a L3 capable switch (switch with a built in router function). Can you telnet or use your browser to view its configuration? It’s usually the default gateway address on your computer thats the address of this type of devices.
Unless it has a filtering option or firewall capability, your best option would be to use personal firewall on all your participating computers and allow inbound LAN traffic, but deny all inbound WAN traffic. Eg make a trusted zone on all firewalls in your LAN.
The switch in itself doesn’t provide any firewall functionalities. Switches doesn’t normally operate with IP’s, it just forwards packets to the port it knows the receiver is on. This is the main benefits from using switches over HUB’s as HUB’s flood (broadcast) on all ports.