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Art Saffran

One Windows server shared by two clients -- now need two different Internet connections

Current Situation:

  1. Windows Server 2016 with Essentials role
  2. Two organizations share AD, Internet connection, and remote access via VPN and web access
  3. Each organization has their own set of server folders secured by AD group membership. They also have a shared server folder structure available to both organizations.
  4. There is a VOIP phone system from Avaya that uses a vendor IP hosted PBX.
  5. There is a single Internet connection with 200 Mbps download/11 Mbps upload service. Router is a Ubiquiti Edge Router Max and there are two Ubiquiti network switches (both managed and one having POE ports).
New Situation:
  1. Client A is moving to Fiber Internet service provided by a phone company that will also provide them with hosted VOIP service. They provide the connection via the vendor provided Cisco switch to which the client router will connect. The vendor provides both Internet and VOIP over the same Fiber connection and used the Cisco switch to segregate traffic.
  2. Client B is retaining the Avaya phone system and moving to a new vendor to provision hosted phone service via Internet. So, two clients, two phone vendors, both hosting PBX service.
  3. The Fiber vendor says that the Client B cannot access Client B's hosted PBX via the Fiber vendor's Internet connection. They say that Client B has to use its own Internet connection. The Fiber vendor will provide a separate Internet service to Client B at a good price.
Question:
  1. Is it possible to separate data traffic from both clients to their own Internet service while still allowing access to the shared server? If so, how would this be done?
NOTE: There is a meeting today with the Fiber vendor to talk about options. 
 
Thanks for any suggestions.
 
--Art
asked08/03/2020 14:02
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Last Activity 08/05/2020 14:11

1 Answer(s)

  • Robert Bird

    You state "Client B cannot access Client B's hosted PBX via the Fiber vendor's Internet connection", so I assume they can use that for general internet browsing?

    If so, as Client B has a hosted PBX I assume they are using IP Handsets. Setup the IP handsets on a separate VLAN and the DHCP for that VLAN can set the Default gateway as the Internet connection for Client B (pretty sure the Ubiquiti Edge Router can do that). Client B PCs will still have the Client A connection as their default g/w so all their normal browsing will go via that.

    If they actually mean Client B can't use Client A internet at all then:

    You are possibly looking at 3 VLANs, one for each clients PCs, phones etc and one for the server. The 2 VLANs for each client have has the DHCP set the g/w to each respective internet connection. You might need a layer 3 switch to handle the 3 VLANs and the routing between them (I have used Cisco for similar and also a Draytek Vigor 286x will do it as I use them for something similar, but you might have to set some static routes).

    One last option (came to mind, haven't thought through too much!), is it looks like you are using Windows 2016 Std with the Essential role. How about setting that up as a HyperV, if not already, and then 1 VM each for each company and use the VLAN for each VM to isolate the data. Setup a FreeNAS VM and put the shared data there for them to access. This would make it easier to separate them if required in the future (if one compnay sold off (going through this with a client at the moment).

    Anyway 3 suggestions to think about...

    Rob

    answered 08/05/2020 14:11
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