Fairly New to networking... HELP!!!

[THE V_I_R_U_S]

OK. I have been networking for about a year, and I am sort of getting the hang of in but i still am a little confused, especially about manually assigning IP addresses.

OK first of all, DHCP is the service that autmatically assigns IPs right?

When i want to manually assign IP addresses, frequently it will mess up my whole connection, making the network neighborhood inaccessable. As far as I understand that there are some IP addresses used in the private range and some for use in a WAN or public IP range. What are these ranges?

How do the IPs of different machines have to be for them to recognize each other?

[lost-and-found]

make sure that the subnet masks on all of the computers are the same as the one on the router IE: 255.255.255.0 and the IP addresses 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x

You are right about DHCP automatically assigning IPs. Also, you want client for microsoft networks as the primary logon in windows.

[meese]

Here is a link about subnetting:

http://www.firewall.cx/ip-subnetting-basic-concepts.php

[muno]

Private ip addresses ->
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Also, the automatic private ip addressing range is private.
169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255

Your computers need to be on the same subnet to communicate with each other.

Usually you're pretty safe when you set your subnet mask to 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0

If your network has a dhcp server, you need to exclude the manually assigned addresses from it's address pool, otherwise things might get messed up
-M

[lost-and-found]

or you can disable the automatic DHCP in the router options

[Scott Tiger]

I had DNS problems with my RT314 when I disabled DHCP. I think Muno's idea of removing that number from the pool is much better. It's a bit more to configure but it's a great idea IMO.

[muno]

I've used the automatic private ip addresses for years. That is, if your dhcp server happens to be not working, clients will still be able to access network and have full functionality.

My dhcp server assigns addresses of 169.254.1.1-169.254.1.5, but even if it ran out of the addresses or decided to not work, the clients would still have ip addresses of 169.254.x.y and function in my network because every server/workstation has address from that range.

I don't understand the desire to use 192.168.x.y or 10.x.y.z addresses in small networks.

Where did you guys get the idea he has a router?
-M

[meese]

muno,

I think XP is the first OS to use the automatic private ip range. I've never seen it before on a w2k or win9x machine. I personally don't like this automatic ip feature. It causes more confusion than its worth. Sure its good for the newbie who deosn't use a router and doesn't no an ip address from a home address. I want to be in control of the ip address assigned to my pc or pc's. (I want to be in control of everything on my pc's, I HATE when windows assumes it knows what you want) I don't want windows guessing what I want.

IMO I would rather have my network stop working when there is a problem (such as the DHCP server failing), so I can address the problem and fix it.

[muno]

Since w98 MS has used the private ip range, any computer running any os between 98 and xp will automatically obtain an ip address.

That attitude is pretty normal, I argued about this issue with cisco representative, and even he admitted that what windows does automatically is good at some situations.
It's good for me, and I don't see myself as a newbie. I am in control of the addresses, as you can see in my previous post - but also if something fails, it will still work - and if my dhcp server fails, I will know it.
The automatic private ip addressing is one thing I trust with windows. For people who use other private networks, it might look like 'it assumes to know what you want', but in my network, it does

Of course, when the dhcp server fails, the clients who still have network connectivity will NOT have internet connectivity as the dhcp server is responsible for sharing other information along with ip and subnet mask.
-M
-M

[meese]

I definitely do NOT consider you a newbie. Sorry if it came across that way. I understand your reasoning.

I've worked on many pc's most win98 and w2k in a network environment. I have never had any of these machines optain an address automatically in the 169 range when the normal configuration failed. I will test this out today on a few machines.