Routing question

[joblack23]

I have two separate networks. They do not touch each other, other then the server has two nics supporting both subnets

In the past I’ve setup the router to route traffic in between them but I’ve noticed that one of the previous techs setup route commands to route traffic between the subnets through the server. To explain better here is the setup

Server has 2 cards with the followings:

Nic 1 IP address 10.10.10.5 gateway 10.10.10.1
Nic 2 IP address 10.10 20.5 gateway 10.10.20.1

On the workstations I see the route add command with the followings:

Route add 10.10.20.0 subnets 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.5

Instead of routing the traffic thorough the gateway, the packets are passed between the nics. It actually works surprisingly but I am not sure if this is good practice. I am having problems with one application that refuses to work properly. It works but very inconsistent. Most of the time if the application fails it takes 10 to 15 tries to get it back up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[burtsbees]

There are problems, like broadcasts normally do not pass network boundaries, not many (if any) rules can be put in place (acl, firewall, route maps, vpn config, etc). Many limitations.

Burt

 

[lerdalt]

I've setup servers before as NAT routers between networks. Does work very well, but like you said, when it breaks, it can take quite a bit to get working again.

When the application breaks, you might want to run a traceroute just to see which path it is trying to use to get to the destination...maybe it's just confused.

Personally, I'd set it up to not route through the server.