From: meireles on
Hi,

I have a small network with 60 PCs. Right now the network is a mess,
with several switches cascading each other. We have a Linksys BEFSR41
connected to one of our switches to give us access to the internet
(8Mbit cable connection). All the PCs have the Linksys's IP address as
their default gateway.

Recently we've installed a new Cisco 2800 router to give us access to
our corporate offices. All internet traffic should be routed through
this router, so we are going to disable the Linksys router.

But for now I would like to have the two routers connected
simultaneously to the network to do some tests, so that some PCs can
connect to the internet through the Linksys and the others from the
Cisco.

What I've done is that I've set some PCs to have the Linksys IP
address as their default gateway and the other have the Cisco IP
address as their gateway.

Although at first it seemed to work, people started complaining that
the internet connection through the Linksys was unstable. I set up my
PC to go through the Linksys and in fact the connection was strange. I
could open a web page, and sometimes it would be fast, sometimes
slower, other times it wouldn't open at all. Disconnecting the Cisco
from the network immediately resolved the problem.

Can someone please tell me what is the problem with this setup? I
don't even know if I'm supposed to be able to connect two routers on
the same network.

Thanks in advance for any help.


Best regards,
Meireles.

From: Ian Wilson on
meireles wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a small network with 60 PCs. Right now the network is a mess,
> with several switches cascading each other. We have a Linksys BEFSR41
> connected to one of our switches to give us access to the internet
> (8Mbit cable connection). All the PCs have the Linksys's IP address as
> their default gateway.
>
> Recently we've installed a new Cisco 2800 router to give us access to
> our corporate offices. All internet traffic should be routed through
> this router, so we are going to disable the Linksys router.
>
> But for now I would like to have the two routers connected
> simultaneously to the network to do some tests, so that some PCs can
> connect to the internet through the Linksys and the others from the
> Cisco.
>
> What I've done is that I've set some PCs to have the Linksys IP
> address as their default gateway and the other have the Cisco IP
> address as their gateway.
>
> Although at first it seemed to work, people started complaining that
> the internet connection through the Linksys was unstable. I set up my
> PC to go through the Linksys and in fact the connection was strange. I
> could open a web page, and sometimes it would be fast, sometimes
> slower, other times it wouldn't open at all. Disconnecting the Cisco
> from the network immediately resolved the problem.
>
> Can someone please tell me what is the problem with this setup? I
> don't even know if I'm supposed to be able to connect two routers on
> the same network.
>

I'd guess that the routers are sharing routing information, you might
try disabling routing protocols like RIP etc and maybe suppress ICMP
redirects. For such a simple network there are probably other protocols
that are not doing any good (e.g. CDP).

Of course, in theory, routing protocols should be a help rather than a
hinderance so there is probably something else at the root of the
problems. Nevertheless I'd turn RIP etc off.

I'd expect a network sniffer like wireshark would reveal some
interesting information about what is going on.

My only qualifications for the above advice are that I have a simple LAN
with two routers, each with concurrent Internet access until I phased
out one ISP. One router is a Cisco, the other a Netgear. In the past I
have had some PCs using one router and other PCs the other for Internet
access, just as you describe. I did't have the problems you reported.
From: Walter Roberson on
In article <1175677443.694058.170230(a)b75g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
meireles <pedroameireles(a)gmail.com> wrote:

>I have a small network with 60 PCs. Right now the network is a mess,
>with several switches cascading each other. We have a Linksys BEFSR41
>connected to one of our switches to give us access to the internet

>Recently we've installed a new Cisco 2800 router to give us access to

>But for now I would like to have the two routers connected
>simultaneously to the network to do some tests, so that some PCs can
>connect to the internet through the Linksys and the others from the
>Cisco.

>Although at first it seemed to work, people started complaining that
>the internet connection through the Linksys was unstable.

RIP is active on the BEFSR41 and probably cannot be disabled on it
(except possibly by disabling routing mode, which would disable NAT.)
From: Bod43 on
On 5 Apr, 04:25, rober...(a)hushmail.com (Walter Roberson) wrote:
> In article <1175677443.694058.170...(a)b75g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
>
> meireles <pedroameire...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >I have a small network with 60 PCs. Right now the network is a mess,
> >with several switches cascading each other. We have a Linksys BEFSR41
> >connected to one of our switches to give us access to the internet
> >Recently we've installed a new Cisco 2800 router to give us access to
> >But for now I would like to have the two routers connected
> >simultaneously to the network to do some tests, so that some PCs can
> >connect to the internet through the Linksys and the others from the
> >Cisco.
> >Although at first it seemed to work, people started complaining that
> >the internet connection through the Linksys was unstable.
>
> RIP is active on the BEFSR41 and probably cannot be disabled on it
> (except possibly by disabling routing mode, which would disable NAT.)

The above RPI theory is worth checking out.

Also you may wany to turn off Proxy ARP on the cisco.
And maybe ICMP redirect too?

conf t
int [inside-one]
no ip proxy arp
no ip redirect

(from memory so may not be exact)

If you wanted, you could check the routing tables and
arp caches on the various devices to see
if they have what you expect

cisco:
sh arp
sh ip route

windows
route print
arp -a

before blindly turning thing off.