How can I
configure my W2K Pro / XP Pro machine to
act as a router between to network
segments?
Routing is
configured on a W2K Server / Windows
Server 2003 machine by use of the RRAS
snap-in. However, this console is NOT
available on a W2K Pro or XP Pro
machine.
If you
have 2 small network segments populated
with no more than a handful of computers
per segment, you CAN use a W2K Pro / XP
Pro machine as a router between these
segments.
First, you
need to install at least 2 NICs on the
machine.
Now you
need to configure each NIC with the
appropriate IP address for the segments
that it's connected to.
Next, you
need to configure that IP as the Default
Gateway for all the computers on that
NIC.
For
example, if you have 2 segments (we'll
call them Segment A and Segment B
respectively) with the following Network
IDs:
(/24 means
255.255.255.0 - see my What's CIDR? page
for more info)
and on
your computer you have 2 NICs (we'll
call them NIC A and NIC B respectively)
with the following IP addresses:
-
NIC A
- 192.168.0.1
-
NIC B
- 192.168.1.1
Then the
IP addresses of NIC A and NIC B will be
the Default Gateways for segment A and B
respectively.
Next, you
need to configure IP Routing between the
segments. As I said, this feature is not
configurable via any GUI in W2K Pro and
XP Pro, so you'll need to edit the
registry:
-
In the
Run command type Regedit.exe and
press Enter.
-
In the
registry navigate to
-
Select
the "IPEnableRouter" entry
(by default the value is 0) and
change it's value to 1.
-
Close
Regedit.
-
Reboot.
Done!
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