Router Configuration/Assigning IP addresses

[upnorth]

If they are on differing subnets there would be no ip conflicts. There would either be a different IP address or there would be a router running NAT between them. And you can make two routers with the same internal networks talk, but you have to do some routing voodoo to make that work but it work but it is an ugly thing.

Not to talk down here, but one subnet would be 192.168.1.0 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and another subnet would be 192.168.2.0 subnet mask 255.255.255.0. You couldn't put a 192.168.1.0 address on the 192.168.2.0 network and have it work, as it would be off it's internal network.

[spearchucker]

That was the point I was trying to make, but I didn't explain myself very well.

That could be why he couldn't connect between two computers when using static mode. If the one with a static IP had an IP address that was on a different subnet than the router DHCP was setup with, there would be problems.

[MuleShack]

Well I didn't realize I fixed one problem, but created another by going berzerk with the settings in the router. Yesterday I was only working on the laptop and trying to go thru then network to get to the other PC...didn't try to access internet.

Today I tried to go online thru laptop wirelessly and am showing local access only. However on the plus side, when I go to the network settings the PC upstairs is always showing as part of the network now and I access all the files at any time now. Previously it would only show up sporatically. But now I cant get online...No time to play with it today...I'll have to monkey with some settings later in the week when the plowing is all done.

[upnorth]

Did you mess with the settings on WAN side of the router? If you changed that from DHCP/Dynamic to static you may not be getting an IP address and DNS settings from your ISP any longer. If you are missing either you are going to have issues access the web.

[spearchucker]

Good point upnorth,

The static IP that was being talked about here is the settings on the client PCs, not the WAN/internet side of the router.

[MuleShack]

The static/automatic IP address is from the basic settings tab on the linksys router interface. I did a full reset tonight and it seems that while on auto IP it only gets local network.

I'll have to change it back to static tomorrow and look up the DSL carriers IP address because those 3 fields are blank when I change it back. Luckily I am at work and can look this stuff up.

[upnorth]

You should be able to call customer support for your ISP and they can tell you if you need to DHCP or Static and if static what the IP settings are.

[spearchucker]

You can use OpenDNS for your DNS Servers. They will work with any ISP and seem to be a little faster too. Just enter the following for your DNS servers:

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

[LMITOUT]

Yay! Got my two PC's talking finally.

First of all I installed a Microsoft Hotfix on the XP machine which allowed it to be displayed on the network configuration map on the Vista machine.

Then I went through the network wizard setup again on the XP PC, created the network config disk, and installed it on the Vista PC. What is funny is that when it was done going through the motions it said there was an error but didn't say what it was. I figured, oh great, that didn't work.

Went to the network menu on the Vista PC and the XP machine showed up so I shared the D:\ drive on the desktop and it appeared on the Vista machine. Bingo. In business.

I went through this process before but didn't have any luck. Maybe I missed something at the time, I dunno, but it seemed to take this time.

Thanks for the suggestions and help!

[MuleShack]

Hey Limit,

I'm still having problems between my systems.

some times they will see each other and some times they will not.

And some times when they do see each other, i get the not authorized message and other times it will let me move/change access the files.

Do you have passwords set on both machines or just one?

I have the same user account name on both, but with no password on the XP and with a password on the vista laptop.

I have not tried the static IP address yet.

I'm thinking of changing to windows 7? but after reading the requirements, not sure my XP machine qualifies with memory.

I might try to redo the network set up again to see if that changes anything.

The one thing i notice is that the wireless laptop always seems to take a while to lock on to the router. I mean it will go online right away, but it always says configuring (public network) and then after a few minutes it locks and changes to private network.

Is this the computer trying to get an IP address from the router or do I have some setting wrong in my wireless adapter?

[upnorth]

If you are able to get to the Internet you are getting an IP address, the router is not the issue.

Accessing shares on another PC is easiest if one computer acts as the server. And yes you will need to have the username/password from the host PC and it should be the same, part of the reason to keep it to one PC acting as the host/server.

[LMITOUT]

I do not have a username/password on either machine.

[MuleShack]

Accessing shares on another PC is easiest if one computer acts as the server. And yes you will need to have the username/password from the host PC and it should be the same, part of the reason to keep it to one PC acting as the host/server.

Can you elaborate on this a little more...how or where do you set one up as a server in the network set up process? And does it matter which one you use?

I wont have time to mess with this until Saturday anyway.

[upnorth]

OK what I am saying is that you use one PC to be the one that does all the file/printer sharing. What you or if you need a username/password combo depends on how it is setup. Here I have on PC that I have all the files and the printer I want to access from other devices. I then setup shares on that PC and then connect to it from other devices. That one I have a static IP address on. I am running XP pro on 2 of the PCs and my laptop is Vista. You can open it up so that you don't need a password, but unless your network is pretty secure I wouldn't leave it open to no user name and password myself And there are different ways to do this. XP pro allows me to create shares on my PC and share my printer without going through all the windows networking stuff that you would need to with XP home.