to bridge or not to bridge, that is the question

[calvinkim]

I have two DSL connections in my office. One is ADSL and the other is SDSL for VoIP usage. Office network is connected to router to ADSL using private IP addresses. New SDSL is using public IP addresses for its network segment without firewall restriction.
Now if I bridge these two segments, what kind of security risks am I going to face?

One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all... And in the GPL free them.

 

[AvayaNovice]

When you say bridge... I'm confused.

Usually bridging an interface creates a path between the two of them.

Ie. if you had a point to point T1 to office A, and another to office B, you could bridge the two gateways which would allow them to communicate with one another.

Now, are you planning on using the SDSL for voice only, and ADSL for data usage, on the same network? If so, I would assume you'd just want to use a dual interface router, with a switch capable of QOS allowing you to segregate the IP phones into a seperate VLAN.

 

[bcastner]

I am confused as well.

Do you mean "bond" the connections to somehow increase bandwidth, or provide failover?

 

[calvinkim]

I meant two separated networks bridging to make one network. Problem is, one is protected(behind firewall) and the other is not(open to internet).

I'm thinking that combining these two networks as one using a simple bridge box is like to have a backdoor to firewall; making protected network wide open to the public. But it's only my guess, and I want to know exactly what would happen.

One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all... And in the GPL free them.

 

[manarth]

yes, if all traffic from unprotected network routes through to protected network, protected network is suddenly very unprotected.

what's your goal? faster connections? load balancing?

there are a miriad of ways of achieving these results, and you need to carefully consider the implications.

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