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I'm a programming intern, and since I'm the only one in the company who seems to have rudimentary knowledge of Linux I've been given the task of setting up a network so that employees may share files and so that we have a local testing server for our websites.

Now while making the network file shares and testing them on each machine, a coworker told me that developers and designers are actually on separate Internet connections.

What would be the best way to join these two networks so that there are no conflicts between IP addresses? I know VPNs might the answer but the networks would have to use bandwidth to use the file share, which doesn't make much sense considering that both networks are the same building.

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Do the networks use public IP addresses for all machines, private IP addresses, or some of each? If any private IP addresses are used, do they conflict? Is dynamic routing (like OSPF) already in use on either or both networks? Your whole game plan will depend on the answers to these questions. –  David Schwartz Jan 30 '12 at 21:14
I believe they are public and are assigned by the routers that my coworkers have set up (so dynamic), they use different ip groups (192.168.1 and 192.168.4) like I said though I'm still quite green with advanced networking so I'm not up to speed with terminology. –  Native Jan 31 '12 at 19:32
192.168 addresses are private. If the networks use non-overlapping private addresses, you can just route between them. Do not exchange default routes, just private network routes. –  David Schwartz Jan 31 '12 at 20:31
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up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you are able, I'd do a complete re-work of the network. In a nutshell, here's what I'd do:

  • Procure a router capable of multi-WAN load balancing and failover. pfSense can do this, and can be installed on spare hardware if you have any sitting around.
  • Create three networks - a network for devs, one for designers, and one which your servers will sit on. These can be physically separate networks or VLANs if you have VLAN-capable switchgear.
  • Bring both internet connections into the new router and set up either load balancing between the two connections or just simply failover.
  • Create routes and firewall rules such that the two "client" networks can access the needed services in the server network.
  • Profit?
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Thanks man, I look into what I can do to get this done, since I'm still quite green with setting up a server like this. –  Native Jan 31 '12 at 19:24
pfsense will do the job! –  The Unix Janitor Mar 6 '12 at 20:21
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