IP Address

i was wondering if i could change my ip address from 169. something to 192 or 196. something not sure which one of the 9's that it is but i have tried ip release and renew and that didnt work. plus i updated the driver to the ethernet adapter to. Its a VIA rhine fast ethernet adapter. This also didnt work was wondering if there was anyway to possible do this so i can get my dsl running.

Did your DSL come with username and password? If so, you use PPPoE and you have to "dial up" like with a normal modem, of course you will get DSL speed and not 56k.
If you have a router or don't need username/password, it should use DHCP by default.

The IP ranges you mean are 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x. But since you usually only use them if you have a router (routers are a very good thing have security wise), I'm not sure if those would help you. If you connect directly to a DSL modem you normally shouldn't use those IP ranges since they wouldn't work.

Maybe give us more input on your situation and what hardware you have.

my ip address is 169.254 and i connect directly to the dsl modem which is a speedstream 5100. is there anyway to change the ip to one of the ranges that would work.

I would contact the ISP to see what you should do. a 169. address is a self assigned DHCP address so if you have to set a static IP you would need to get that info from the ISP. If you should be using a DHCP then you arent conctacting it.

If you connect your computer directly to the DSL modem, you must use the IP that they assigned you for your ethernet adapter (wether it got it through DHCP or you configured it directly).
Hope you have a good firewall program because you are very vulnerable to attacks when connected like that.

If you connect a router directly between your computer and the DSL modem, then the router uses that assigned IP (it's taking the computer's place) for it's WAN (outside world) port, and you can choose one of those private IP ranges for your LAN (in the house network) between your computer and the router.

The private IP ranges are only for "in the house" networks, and the static IP they gave you is only for communicating with that service (DSL).

I'd give their tech support a call and have them walk you through the setup. That way it should work without guessing.
BTW, your home install package came without an instruction sheet?...odd.

10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16 are reserved CIDR net-blocks, used for networks that do not need to have their hosts directly visible to the Internet. Please see RFC 1918 for details.

169.254/16 are reserved under RFC 3330 for single-link connections, like if you're hooked up directly to your modem (not safe!). These addresses are handed out when a DHCP server is not found.

Without permission from your Local Assigned Names and Numbers Authority responsible for the assignment and delegation of IP addresses, you may NOT use any IP address other than the CIDR or single-link net-blocks reserved for special usage above. The reason is that you might confuse yourself and your computers.

I would contact your ISP for further support.

thanks for all the help but the modem was the problem it was assigning me a ip so my computer auto assigned itself one. BUt finally i got help from the higher up people from my isp