Manual IP addresses

I'm looking for help with the use of manual IP addresses - they never seem to work!!! let me explain: I just got a D-Link DWL-G700AP range extender so that I can pick up my wireless network everywhere in my home; do I need to manually change the unit's IP address so that it is in the range of the wireless router? how do I then configure the laptops so taht they pick up the strongest signal? I've tried various things but it never seems to work - maybe the problem is simply that the dwl unit can't connect to the network because of a password problem, it picks up the router's signal and tells me that it's a "WPA PSK" password although my router's instructions tell me that the password is a "WEP" password...

any help greatly appreciated

martin

Manually set IP addresses work OK - You can even have some allocated by DHCP and some set manually.

Just make sure that they are all mutally exclusive (i.e. do not set a manual one in the same range as allocated by DHCP)

When using manually set IP addresses you need also to set the gateway address, the DNS server address(es) and the subnet mask.

The remainder of your post suggests that maybe you are having troubles with WEP/WPA security. Set it it up with no security first, to check that you have the addressing correct.

Thanks - so you can't just set 1 computer manually, you need to set all on the same network manually? or can I set 1 manually and the router will assign from the remaining available IP addreses?

regards

Martin

Quote:

You can even have some allocated by DHCP and some set manually.

Both the netgear and d-link routers I have used have a system to allocate a given IP address to a MAC address - so you are essentially reserving one IP address from the DHCP pool for each MAC you enter.

Much easier to maintain than setting up static IPs on each connected computer. Leave the PCs set to collect their addresses automatically.

On the routers that I have seen, DHCP just seems to work its way upwards through the range of available IP addresses. So if your router has address 192.168.0.1 then in default mode the router will assign the first computer to 192.168.0.2, the next to 192.168.0.3 etc.

You can certainly mix static and dynamic IP addresses but if your static IP is down the bottom of the range (e.g. 192.168.0.2) then you need that computer to be on before you turn on the computers with dynamic addresses. If not and there is a clash then you should get an error message.

I mix static and dynamic addresses on my small home network. The settings on my static computer are:

IP Address: 192.168.0.10
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.0.1

with my router having address 192.168.0.1

This said, your description of the problem does not sound as if it is anything to do with static/dynamic IPs.

Thanks for all the help - I think I'm making progress, however I still can't access the internet via my wireless repeater: whether I'm connected to it physically via an Ethernet cable or wirelessly, my iBook still tells me that I am connected to the right network but can't connect to the internet. No idea how to resolve this, could it be related to the DNS numbers that I also need to input manually? if so, do I need to make any changes to them or can I just put in the ones that my Router gives me?

One more thing: my router has a "LAN address" 192.168.95.129 (which I take it is my gateway) and a "Lan Broadcast address" (192.168.95.143) which is outside the IP range (plus the router's own static IP address, which is a 193.xxx.xx.xx number) - are either of the 2 latter numbers of any relevance for setting up a repeater?

Martin

Re: "...... but if your static [maunually set] IP is down the bottom of the range (e.g. 192.168.0.2) then you need that computer to be on before you turn on the computers with dynamic addresses."

You should not be using a manually set IP address which is in the range allocated by the DHCP server in the router. (But it obviously needs to be within the same subnet.)

Assuming you are using a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 (which is standard for the 192.168.x.x subnet), then all of your LAN addresses should be within the range 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

All of your PCs should have a gateway address set to the router address and should have DNS addresses set to either the router address or the address(es) given to you by your ISP.

You can check if you have a DNS problem (or a routing problem), by using both domain names and IP addresses to access webpages.

eg. to access the BBC website, try both:
http://www.bbc.co.uk
and
http://212.58.224.124

If neither works you have a routing problem, probably associated with gateway addresses

If only the IP address works, then you have a DNS problem.

If both work, you've cracked it

Edited by Sandgrounder (Tue 08-Aug-06 12:13:28)