I recently moved and am having trouble getting my DSL Modem/IP addressing setup the way I like it and am wondering if others have run into this problem before.  Typically, this has not been a problem for me to setup in the past.

I have multiple computers (Win2000, XP, and XP64) and I assign static IP addresses by hand to all of them.  For example:

PC10 has an IP address of 192.168.1.10
PC11 - 192.168.1.11
PC12 - 192.168.1.12
etc.

For DNS servers, I check what the DSL service has dished out (by using ‘ipconfig /all’ at a command prompt) and use that.

This has worked great for years and my network functions and all systems can access the web, and network rendering happens flawlessly.

But now when using the new DSL provider (Qwest), I can’t seem to get the DSL Modem setup such that I can continue to use my static IP setup for the computers.  So for example, if I change my network Local Area Connection TCP/IP settings on a particular computer to ‘Obtain an IP Address Automatically’… that computer will connect to the Internet just fine, but will not be visible to other computers within my network.  If I use my static IP settings, it will be visible on my network but will not connect to the net.

The DSL modem/Qwest system is wanting to automatically assign IP addresses to each computer that connects to the modem… I don’t want it doing this.  The DSL modem has many config settings but so far I have not been successful in getting this automatic IP assignment turned off.

On the DNS servers… if I do an ‘ipconfig/all’ on other DSL providers, it gives me 2 IP addresses and I use those in my settings.  When I look at the DNS servers being used by Qwest, the first IP address is the same address as the modem itself… 192.168.0.1.  The next number is a real DNS server address.  But when I try to plug these numbers into my own static DNS settings, I still can’t get my static IP settings to work.

1.  Have others dealt with this in the past?

2.  If I use automatic IP assignment by the DSL modem, why are these computers not visible to the other systems on my network?

3.  If I use automatic IP assignment by the DSL modem and CAN get my network to work, how will this affect my MAX network rendering?

Thanks for any ideas!

Sincerely,

Mike Truly
--------------------------------------------
Truly Media
1.800.829.4990
http://www.trulymedia.com

Does the modem allow you to configure the range of addresses from which it will allocate dynamically? Any static IPs should be from outside this range because it will “know” that it hasn’t allocated them.

Have you set the “default gateway address” to that of the Modem?

Beyond that I’m not sure, because I’m on a cable connection, which means a Cable Modem supplied by the ISP and a separate Router (supplied by me). I had a similar problem to you when I first tried to set it all up - no problems with connecting (local or to the net) but I could not access the status pages on the Modem (192.168.100.1) - I had to change the lan addresses (PCs and router) to a different subnet (192.168.1.x) then it all worked.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

Steve,

Sorry for the delayed reply… moving… always such fun.

I’ve made some progress on this issue but still have a major problem.

For some reason, Qwest uses a modem gateway address of 192.168.0.1 (all previous DSL providers have used 192.168.1.1).  When I have changed my static IP setup to match this convention (such as PC11 being 192.168.0.11)… now each system has a static IP address and can also access the net through the modem just fine (and I believe will net-render as before once I get all systems changed over to this new IP addressing scheme).  The modem has many settings but without changing any of them, this one IP naming change worked to make all systems have static IPs and also be able to connect to the net.  (For good measure, I did make one modem setting change which was to turn off the automatic assignment of IPs entirely).

Before this change, if I went to ‘My Network Places’ while on one PC… the other PCs would not be displayed in the list.  Now they are displayed in the list.

But the problem now is that even though they are now displayed in the list, I can NOT click on them and see the disk contents on those other systems.  I get an error that says ‘PC11 is not accessible… the network path was not found… etc.’

So I am closer but still need to get my network functioning as normal.

Thanks for any ideas.

Sincerely,

Mike Truly
--------------------------------------------
Truly Media
1.800.829.4990
http://www.trulymedia.com

I never use “My Network Places” preferring Explorer - I just opened it and my other systems don’t show in it either, at least not at the top level.

Try navigating to them:-
Entire Network | Microsoft Windows Network | Workgroup - they are listed there (for me). If I click them there then they work as expected.

I also got fed up of doing that and created “Favourites” for them instead.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

Steve,

Thanks for the ideas!

I always use Windows Explorer as well… was just generally trying to describe the fact that they didn’t show up.

Anyway… got it all sorted (at least until something else bites me).

All of the DSL/IP sillyness was solved by 3 things:

1.  Simply reassigning the IP address of the modem to what I have always used in the past… 192.168.1.1 (instead of 192.168.0.1).

2.  Setting the modem to NOT assign IPs to the attached computers.

3.  Using some other DNS servers (rather than the ones indicated by the default setup of the modem).

Now all systems can connect to the net as well as each other.

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Mike Truly
--------------------------------------------
Truly Media
1.800.829.4990
http://www.trulymedia.com