I am wondering if it would be safe to setup my network with a single switch running both internal and external interfaces.
Currently I have a 255.255.255.240 block of IPs from the ISP and a 10.10.10.0/24 private network running from the router. The router has one WAN port and is setup with one of the external IPs as a static IP. All computers are currently off of the private network. The switch being used is a NETGEAR JGS516.
Basically the current setup is like this:
Computers ---- Switch ---- Router ---- ISP's Switch
What I would like to do is this (basically plugging both the WAN and LAN port of the router into the switch):
Router
/\
Computers ---- Switch ---- ISP's Switch
I have tried doing this and it seems to work. I can assign both public and private IPs to computers and they both function.
The reason I am wanting to make this change is so computers that are behind the switch can be assigned public IPs. I want some of them to only have public IPs, some only private IPs, and some to be assigned both private and public IPs using the single NIC in the computer.
What I want to know is:
What would be any downsides to this setup?
Would this compromize security on the network?
Could machines access computers that only have a private IP assigned to them?
Anything else I should know?