Linking the business & industrial networks together

[ARYankee 0]

I have my laptop setup so that I can easily connect to our business network or industrial network. My issue is that I am tired of plugging and unplugging ethernet cables. I'm not network saavy at all so I'm turning to you guys for some assistance. I want to start here before I hit up out IT folks because you know how controlling they can be. They are 2 separate networks one (industrial) has static addressing and the other (business) is DHCP. I'm wondering if I could do it with a router. I would even be happy with an old school type actual switch like I've seen for printers back in the day.

[JRoss 84]

Why don't you add a second network card? There are ExpressCard ones available for a little bit of nothing. I've seen maintenance doing this at other facilities with a split network.

[RussB 22]

This works for me on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit: The "General" tab is left at DHCP for the business end. Edited 11 Mar 2014 by RussB

[ARYankee 0]

I've got my network settings setup so I can get on both networks without having to change those. My issue is actually having to physically unplug my ethernet cable from one network (business) and connect the cable from the other (industrial) to my laptop.

[ARYankee 0]

I guess that I could do that. What about a USB to ethernet adapter? Would that work?

[Crossbow 294]

Personally I use a USB-Ethernet adapter for this. My laptop's built-in port is always DHCP for my office network, and my USB-Ethernet has a fixed IP address on my PLC network. It's worked for me for over 10 years this way.

[ARYankee 0]

Cool. Thanks for the reply. I was sort of leaning that way but had never dealt with the adapter nor did I know of anyone that had either.

[Crossbow 294]

Got mine from TigerDirect.Com. Think the brand name was Sabrent. Real small and easy to keep in laptop bag.