[ale] Switch redundancy and physical network layout lameness

[chris.kleeschulte at it.libertydistribution.com (Chris Kleeschulte)]

I am trying to get a handle on our company's physical network.


The problem I am running into is automatic switch redundancy. I have  
CARP for my pfsense boxes, but the physical network at this company is  
sort of a mess. We have switches that feed one cable out to a node  
where there is a small feeder switch that can branch 2-16 more times.  
I guess the company just did not want to go to expense of running a  
bundle of wires out.


Before I hang my head in absolute shame over this, has anyone overcome  
this? Most of the problem is just growth. They ran 'n' cables in the  
beginning without thinking about printers and other potential IP nodes  
that may be used in the future.

So the result pretty much looks like this, main switch -> small  
netgear 8 port switch -> accountant's computer, his printer, his  
assistant's computer, her printer.

We tried wireless and this works most of the time, but the building we  
are in seems to be grand central station for 11000 WAPs and they  
compete a lot with each other.


Is this complete bush league or is this something that you have dealt  
with on the IT management side? I also just can't figure out a cost  
effective way to make this scheme fault tolerant. Any suggestions  
would be....excellent.







Chris
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