[Dingus]

HI there,
At the moment I have PCs (98 and XP) that are networked thru a router. They get addresses thru DHCP. This causes a slight problem when try to access them using pcAnywhere as the addresses sometime change but pcAnywhere needs to know the address.
So I tried assigning them static addresses outside the DCHP but this only stops them connecting.
I would like each to keep their assigned address. Is this possible and can I disable DHCP for good?

 

[Corvus]

You will have to log into the router and turn off DHCP .

 

[Bob Cerelli]

If you leave on DHCP and have both the Internet and and local network functioning, on both computers:


1. Open a command prompt
2. Run "ipconfig > c:\ip.txt" - no quotes
3. Open c:\ip.txt with notepad and see what all the IP information is (IP address, DNS and Gateway).
4. Then manually assign the same information on each computer.
5. Then turn off DHCP on the router.

 

[coulterp]

Some routers allow you to tie a particular PC to a specific IP address. Then that IP address can be prevented from being in the DHC IP address pool; you don't need to turn off DHCP in this case and you have some IP addrs reserved.

You can do it in Netgear routers, I assume some others also provide the facility. They usually do it by allowing you (via the GUI) to reserve a specific IP address and assigning it to a specific MAC address. Check out your documentation for the feature.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Hopefully, if they are just trying to set up a basic network with just two computers, they are first trying to something a little simpler. Usually configuring the workstation is easier than the router. There's usually minimal information that needs to be entered (IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS server) and, like you mentioned, not all routers allow it.

 

[JohnWill]

If you never connect any other computers, you won't miss DHCP. OTOH, if you would like to connect other computers and not have to manually configure them, DHCP is handy.

There should be no issue with assigning manual IP addresses outside the range of the DHCP server IP pool, I do it all the time. The only thing you have to do is make sure they're in the same subnet...