Networking Fancystuff, How do I share LAN without sharing internet?

MeepZero

My neighbor and I want to share a LAN connection, but I don't want to share my internet with him. Is this possible through some kind of router magic? He has his own internet connection, so our two connections must stay separate of each other save for basic LAN traffic. Any ideas?

tachyon

MeepZero wrote: »

My neighbor and I want to share a LAN connection, but I don't want to share my internet with him. Is this possible through some kind of router magic? He has his own internet connection, so our two connections must stay separate of each other save for basic LAN traffic. Any ideas?

Over wireless? Does the LAN and internet connection need to be simultaneous?

Let us know your current equipment to see if it's something that can be done now, or if you need additional kit.

MeepZero

Ethernet based, would be nice if I could just set it up for LAN and be able to use the internet on my end and leave it. I have just a WRT310N router on my end and he has some other Linksys (dunno the model) router on his end. I have a couple of basic switches as well.

Phyphor

Most routers will have a "network filter" page or something that you can set mac addresses to allow/deny, just set that up to allow only your machine. You will also need to coordinate with your neighbour; the two routers must allocate addresses in the same subnet (usually 192.168.0.0-192.168.0.255) but not from overlapping ranges or you'll get conflicts when the two routers try assigning addresses in the same space

StrifeRaZoR

Another "easy" way to do this is to do what Phyphor suggested and filter out his MAC addresses or Class C IP addresses to only local content and not the internet itself. Once the computers can see each other, you can easily map the network drives for each other and make it a little easier on yourself. Make sure the 2 routers are on the same subnet, and ensure they're both in ROUTER mode. I know the old Linksys and D-Links used to have a switch internal (sometimes external) to move it between router and gateway mode.

As long as the two routers can see each other, they'll think of each other as just a regular node, not a complex piece of equipment.

Alternatively, you could just buy a 20$ switch/hub and run a network within a network. That requires 2 NIC cards on each of the PCs you want to connect though. 1 for the internet, and the second for the LAN. That's how I have mine set up. Dual NICs make life easier!