Access across subnets

[notime2ski]

Hello,

 

I am sure this has been addressed before, but I haven't been able to locate an answer,

 

so my apologies for any repeats.

 

I handle desktop support, training, etc. for R+D within a major corporation. As such, I have control

 

over the networks within our buildings, but not the overall LAN. Each building on site is on a

 

seperate subnet, larger buildings have a different subnet on each floor. The scientists I am responsible

 

for are in 2 different buildings, and will be expanding to 3 soon.

 

I have supplied backup for everyone using Retrospect on a Mac server for a number of years. Up till now, I have not been successful in being able to back up IP clients across subnets, but already had another tape

 

drive in the other building, and had someone else keep an eye on it. now they are leaving, and I need to be able to back up all three subnets to one location. I spoke with our Site Network Administrator, to make sure

 

port 497 was open (it is) and to see if subnet broadcasting and multicasting were available. Multicasting

 

is, but they will not turn on subnet broadcasting, because of the chance of spreading a virus, should one appear in any subnet.

 

Does anyone know of any workarounds, etc.? I am currently running 4.3 - any benefit to upgrading for this purpose? Any advantage to the Windows version versus the Mac? Or am I dead in the water without

 

subnet broadcasting available? I am able to back up Appletalk clients across the subnets, but their numbers

 

are shrinking as fast as the Windows clients list grows.

 

Thanks

[Guest]

If the computers have static IP addresses, you can add each one manually. If they're DHCP, then you do need to have subnet broadcasting enabled.

 

 

 

The Windows version does have an option to increase the TTL value (Time to Live) which allows multicasting to make more than one router hop, aka work in another subnet. Very, very few networks are set up to accomodate this though, so it isn't helpful for most people.

[notime2ski]

Thanks for the reply. We are running DHCP, but in such a way that everyone still

 

has a static IP assigned. Worst case, I could switch select machines back. However,

 

I have repeatedly tried adding clients by address - well before the switch to DHCP,

 

with no success. Is there something else that I may be missing?

[AmyJ]

In reply to:

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I have repeatedly tried adding clients by address - well before the switch to DHCP,

 

with no success.

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Can you provide specific information about happens when you try to add by address? Where exactly is it failing?