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I am trying to test some things for work and am looking for some assistance. We are currently running out of IP addresses on our 255.255.255.0 subnet. The boss was asking if we could do something similar to the structure below:

LAN 1 - 192.168.1.x/255.255.255.0 (Server LAN)
LAN 2 - 192.168.2.x/255.255.255.0 (Zone 1 LAN)
LAN 3 - 192.168.3.x/255.255.255.0 (Zone 2 LAN)
LAN 4 - 192.168.4.x/255.255.255.0 (Zone 3 LAN)

I set up a 2012 server on LAN 1 and set up routing for testing (server has single network connection with an IP in each range). This seemed to allow all computers on all the various LAN's to communicate, but for some reason the servers cannot access devices (e.g. NAS, PLC ect). Additional information:

  • All devices are on the same physical network
  • They DO NOT want to open the subnet mask
  • Network will contain Computers, Servers, NAS, Printers and Various devices (PLC, Comms, IO ect)

So, can I achieve what we are trying to do with Server 2012 routing? Are there better options to achieve this? Software solution VS hardware solution?

All this is fairly new to me and at this stage just playing around to see what solutions i can come up with. My test enviroment is a ESXi Server with some VM's with access to my main network (192.168.1.x) for testing devices.

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  • This implies adding firewall forwarding rules in your router (server) for every device that you wish to make accessible by other subnets. That seems a lot of work for poorly designed specifications that are not justified. Jun 22, 2016 at 6:04
  • If everything is on the same physical network, then how can limiting the network mask be considered any safer? Anyone could connect their own device and configure it any way they like and it could work. Jun 22, 2016 at 6:04
  • I don't think not opening the subnet mask has anything to do with safety. Just something that was asked of me to investigate. The configuration I set up initially using routing within windows server sort of achieved the goal but for some reason only allowed me to access computers and not devices. We currently can do something similar with a router but seeing if a software solution is possible Jun 22, 2016 at 9:41
  • Each gateway will need to know how to reach all the other gateways. When you segregate your physical network with logical networks (aka subnetting), you need a gateway for each network and each gateway will need a route telling it how to get packets to each other network.
    – MaQleod
    Jun 22, 2016 at 15:18
  • @MaQleod - Does that mean on each "device" on my network, i will need to specify the gateway as the Server that has the routing installed? Jun 22, 2016 at 21:47

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