Configure Router as Switch

How to configure router as switch?
Most likely you will ask this question if you plan to expand you home network, and you have only extra Ethernet router but not switch. At the same time you try to make use this extra router if possible without paying more on extra switch. Well… It’s pretty simple to get it done, keep on reading.

As you can see from 2 examples below, we can use second Ethernet router to expand existing wireless network or Ethernet home network, so that you can connect more computers to your network. Please note that first and second routers must be located on same network, because the second router just acts as a switch, not router anymore.

Ok. Let’s start to configure second router as switch.

1) Connect first router’s LAN port to second router’s LAN port by using a crossover cable. If one of the routers supports auto MDI/MDI-X feature, you can use either straight or crossover cable. Remember, don’t make any connection to second router’s WAN or Internet port.

2) Ok. Now assuming your first router's LAN IP is 192.168.1.1 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0, and then this will act as gateway for entire network (including the computers that connect to second router). If you would like to enable DHCP, then just enable the DHCP setting on first router and it will act as DHCP server for entire network (you don't need to enable DHCP on second router anymore). As an example, you can enable DHCP with IP range 192.168.1.2-250, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.1.1, DNS servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 on first router.

3) After talking about first router's configuration, proceed to log on to second router’s configuration page, then give this router an IP by configuring an IP and subnet mask under LAN setting. The IP that you configure should be located on subnet same with first router's subnet and this IP is not being used by any other device. If you have configured first router’s LAN IP and DHCP setting as shown in step 2 above, you can easily configure second router with LAN IP 192.168.1.251, 192.168.1.252 or 192.168.1.253 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

4) After that, don’t enable DHCP or any other settings on second router. If you have enabled DHCP or other settings, disable them. Finally SAVE all the settings. And now your have completed your mission of making second router as switch.

5) If you have computer that is configured to obtain IP automatically, connect it to other LAN port of this new "network switch", then it should be able connect to network, ping router IP and access to internet.

What’s New in SQL Server 2014 since SQL Server 2008 R2

What’s New in SQL Server 2014 since SQL Server 2008 R2

PERFORMANCE & SCALE

o        In-Memory OLTP

o        Enhanced In-Memory ColumnStore for DW

o        Support for 640 logical proc. & 4 TB memory

o        Support to 15,000 partitions

o        Resource Governor IO governance

o        Buffer Pool Extension to SSDs

o        Query optimization enhancements

o        SysPrep at cluster level

o        Predictable performance with tiering of compute, network, and storage with Windows Server 2012 R2

HIGH AVAILABILITY

o        SQL Server AlwaysOn

o        Delayed Durability

o        Recovery Advisor

o        Windows Server Core

o        Live Migration

o        Online Operations enhancements

o        Clustered Shared Volume support, VHDX support (Windows Server 2012 R2)

o        Manage on-premises and cloud apps (System Center 2012 R2)

SECURITY

o        User-Defined Server Roles

o        Default Schema for Groups

o        SQL Server Audit

o        SQL Server Fine-grained Auditing

o        Enhanced separation of duty

o        CC certification at High Assurance Level

o        Backup encryption support

PROGRAMMABILITY

o        SQL Server Data Tools

o        Local DB runtime (Express)

o        Data-tier Application Component project template

o        Data-Tier Application Framework (DAC Fx)

o        Query optimization enhancements

o        Interoperability support (ADO.NET, ODBC, JDBC, PDO, ADO APIs and .NET C/C++, Java, Linux, and PHP platforms)

T-SQL ENHANCEMENTS

o        Enhanced support for ANSI SQL standards

o        Transact-SQL Static Code Analysis tools

o        Transact-SQL code snippets

o        Intellisense

o        Unstructured & Complex Data Support

o        FileTable built on FILESTREAM

o        Remote Blob Storage with SharePoint 2010

o        Statistical Semantic Search

o        Spatial features, including Full Globe & arcs

o        Large user-defined data types

MANAGEABILITY

o        Distributed Replay

o        Contained Database Authentication

o        System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2012

o        Windows PowerShell 2.0 support

o        Multi-server Management with SQL Server Utility Control Point

o        Data-Tier Application Component

ACCESS ANY DATA

o        Power Query

o        Windows Azure HDInsight Service

o        Analytics Platform System (PDW V2)

o        Mash up data from different sources, such as Oracle & Hadoop

INSIGHTS WITH FAMILIAR TOOLS

o        Power BI in Office 365

o        Power Map for Excel

o        Mobile interfaces for Power BI

COMPLETE BI SOLUTION

o        SQL Server BI Edition

o        HA for StreamInsight, complex event processing

o        BI Semantic Model

o        SQL Server Data Tools support for BI

o        Change Data Capture for Oracle

ANALYSIS SERVICES

o        Import PowerPivot models into Analysis Services

o        Enhancements on productivity, performance

REPORTING SERVICES

o        Power View

o        Configurable reporting alerts

o        Reporting as SharePoint Shared Service

o        Report Builder 3.0

DATA QUALITY SERVICES

o        Build organizational knowledge base

o        Connect to 3rd party data cleansing providers

MASTER DATA SERVICES

o        Master Data Hub

o        Master Data Services Add-in for Microsoft Excel

INTEGRATION SERVICES

o        Graphical tools in SSIS

o        Extensible object model

o        SSIS as a Server

o        Broader data integration with more sources; DB vendors, cloud, Hadoop

o        Pipeline improvements

HYBRID CLOUD SOLUTIONS

o        Simplified backup to Windows Azure

o        Support for backup of previous versions of SQL Server to Windows Azure

o        Cloud back-up encryption support

o        Simplified cloud Disaster Recovery with AlwaysOn replicas in Windows Azure VMs

EASY ON-RAMP TO THE CLOUD

o        New Windows Azure Deployment UI for SQL Server

o        Larger SQL Server VMs and memory sizes now available in Windows Azure

o        DAC enhancements: Import/export with Windows Azure SQL Database

COMPLETE AND CONSISTENT FROM ON-PREM TO CLOUD

o        SQL Server Data Tools

o        License Mobility (with SA)

o        Resource Governor enhancements

o        Snapshot backups to Windows Azure via SQL Server Management Studio

Dynamic DNS in Wireless CCTV Systems (For Beginners)

Wireless internet CCTV, also known as IP CCTV, communicates through your broadband line and onwards to the internet.  This can cause problems if your home broadband has a dynamic IP address, because when you want to connect to your cameras from outside, you won’t know what that address is.  This article shows you how to overcome the problem by using Dynamic DNS.

Most home ADSL packages still give you a dynamic or changing IP address, which is simply the address of your home’s network on the internet.  These addresses are allocated from a pool of available addresses and allow the internet provider to have fewer addresses than customers, saving money. 

This used to work well because early broadband modems “dialled” a connection when the attached computer requested it, rather like the old dial-up modems.  Nowadays, though, modern wireless modem/routers tend to remain connected permanently, so we are reaching the point where the internet provider is having to allow one IP address per customer, and may as well allocate a static or unchanging one.  However, as of today most people have dynamic addresses and this is an obstacle to contacting your wireless internet camera from the outside world, as I will explain in the next section.

Just as your broadband line has an IP address, so your camera has its own address or port.  For example, if your home IP address is 91.103.218.59 and the camera’s port is 8765, assuming your router is set up with port forwarding (outside the scope of this article) you can contact your camera by typing “http:// 91.103.218.59:8765” into a browser window.  This may work today, but by tomorrow that  91.103.218.59 IP address could have been allocated to someone else, and you will not find your camera on the end of it any more.  This is where Dynamic DNS or just “DDNS” comes in.

DDNS allows you to contact your wireless internet CCTV camera using an address that never changes, even when your broadband’s IP address changes.  It requires two things in order to work: a DDNS service provider and a router or camera that offers DDNS support.

Most modern wireless routers offer DDNS support, but few internet CCTV cameras do.  As long as either the camera or the router offers this feature, all is well.  First, you visit the website of the DDNS service provider and sign up for an account.  The most popular provider is dyndns.com and it’s free.  You choose your own unique internet address such as “mywirelesscamera.dyndns.org” and you will also have a user name and password.  (Incidentally, the purpose of this service is simply to make that link between your IP address, whatever it happens to be at the time, and a fixed address or domain name.)  Having registered a DDNS account, next you log into your router’s administration pages and find the DDNS section.

Here you simply key in the DDNS provider name, your account details and the address that you chose.  Now, whenever your broadband provider changes your home IP address, your router will tell dyndns.com, and this means you can always contact your camera from wherever you happen to be, by keying the same unchanging address into a browser window, in our example: “http://mywirelesscamera.dyndns.org:8765”.