Windows 7: How can I split a network without changing hardware?

Hello, I have a small office network, it consists of a wireless router, 8 port switch, 5 computers and a DVR for my surveillance cameras.

Router is Linksys E2500 dual band wireless
8 port over the counter switch
Two computers are running windows xp pro
One computer is running windows vista home
Two computers are running windows 7 premium 64 bit
All computers are hard-wired and wireless connection is disabled.
Bell DSL internet

I recently leased out one of the offices in the building and I am providing the tenant Internet via my network.

Is there any way that I can split the network such that my tenant cannot access my computers while my computers can talk to each other? I would like to do it with software if possible.

Hello,

To do it correctly you would need a managed switch and would need to assign VLANs to ports to seperate the networks. It isnt something that you will be able to do without a good understanding of Networking. The easiest thing to do would be to contact a local IT Engineer and ask them to have a look for you.

Another option would be physically seperate the networks. I.e. a new DSL Connction, new router and new switch.



Dave

You didn't mention if the tenant will be using wired or wireless?

You said you have the wireless connection turned off but you might want to check and see if there is a wireless guest network option in your routers settings that you can enable. This would put a wireless guest connection outside your regular network by using a different SSID thus creating a secondary network for guests only. My Dlink DIR-655 has a wireless guest connection option which uses a seperate SSID.

If you need to use a wired connection you could enable password protected sharing on all of your networked computers which would prevent your guest from accessing your network files unless they had the password.

No Sure what you meant by hardware, if you're referring to the router/switch, than that will be hard, the first suggestion (VLAN) is great, however, you need good knowledge of networking..

I have configured this type of network hundreds of times on my previous work place (ISP), using a german router call FUNKWERK, which splits your network into two different sigment(e.g. corp, and guest), on both WLAN and LAN, it's just like you have two different routers with one adsl line.

If you can get one of them from ebay or somewhere, give me a shout and I will send you a sample config file, all what you need to do is upload it to your router and off we go.

You can also achieve same thing on cisco wireless router(not linksys), but they're pricy (for no reason).