basic home network question

I want to change my home network (Linksys 4 port wireless on cable - almost everything is wired) from automatic IP address assignment (DHCP?) to fixed addresses. I'm also thinking of changing from 192.168.1 to something else, say 192.168.12. I think that the 1 is interfereing with some VPN stuff that I need to setup for my job. I'm going into a network that is 192.168.1 and it is causing problems.

I think that all I need to do is turn off DHCP on the Linksys, set each machine to an assigned IP address, change the Linksys to use 12 instead of one, and reboot the entire mess. I leave DNS set as it currently is (ie, get it from the Linksys).

There is an additional wired hub with three more ports but I don't think that I need to do anything to that. In fact, I don't think that I CAN do anything to that.

I have a new network-ready printer/scanner/fax that has been working fine but I think I'm about to give it a fit. I'll probably need to muck with the settings on that.

I tried setting up one machine with an assigned address that is outside the range of the automatic assignment pool. It works fine within the network but I'm unable to use remote desktop to get into it from outside. I had to change the standard remote desktop port (3389? something like that) because I already use that for another machine on the network. That one works fine. I think that I can't get in from outside because the Linksys is confused about where that address is located.

Well, any comments are greatly appreciated.

It would probably be easier to change the Linksys IP address to 192.168.12.1, and change the DHCP scope to be 192.168.12.100 - 192.168.12.150 and be done with it. No need to mess with static IPs really.

The purpose of the static IP addresses is to allow me to access the computers from outside. I had it set up so that I could use Remote Desktop to get into one of them and PCAnywhere to get into another. That required forwarding in the Linksys but it was pretty easy. I had to remember to boot the machines in the right order whenever I shut down the network or it would forward to the wrong machines.

So I figure that it is all around easier to just assign the addresses and that should work out. I also mapped drives based on IP address but I probably could have used machine name for that.

You can leave DHCP on, but just assign static IPs to the computers that you want to access from the net. Just assign them outside the range of DHCP.

Doesnt linksys have the option to have DHCP statically assign IPs by MAC for certain computers, on my netgear router i have it set to have my 3 computers statically assigned so the fowarding always works, then if i connect more PCs they'll get DHCP goodness, Also having it DHCP static rather than local static saves me a bit of hassle when fillding with Live CD linux distros

My solution for 2 remote desktops.......
D-link router setup with static local IPs for all machines.
Remote Desktop into the main machine and then if I need to go to the other machine I remote desktop from the main, locally, to the other machine. lol sounds stupid but it works! I always use XP machines to remote to my home network.

Kaso said:

Doesnt linksys have the option to have DHCP statically assign IPs by MAC for certain computers, on my netgear router i have it set to have my 3 computers statically assigned so the fowarding always works, then if i connect more PCs they'll get DHCP goodness, Also having it DHCP static rather than local static saves me a bit of hassle when fillding with Live CD linux distros

Click to expand...

I guess that it might. I haven't checked that. I can leave a range of IPs for assignment though and just assign some manually.

SB911 said:

My solution for 2 remote desktops.......
D-link router setup with static local IPs for all machines.
Remote Desktop into the main machine and then if I need to go to the other machine I remote desktop from the main, locally, to the other machine. lol sounds stupid but it works! I always use XP machines to remote to my home network.

Click to expand...

That would work. I'll give it a try but I can't get into the primary right now. I must have rebooted it last night and got the dynamic IP wrong.

Actually, just assign addresses to your machines that are outside your DHCP range, no need to turn off DHCP in the router.

Well I just tried using RD to go from the machine that I RD'd into into another machine on my network and that worked fine. Except when closing it back down I couldn't tell which one I was disconnecting from! So for now on I have the primary screen's RD toolbar unpinned.

Still, I think I'll continue redoing the network.