Re: Can't access PC on home network

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Lester Lane wrote:

Thanks again - good reading stuff, and questions. Which has made me
realise that maybe I should have the router acting as a DHCP. I was
informed that it only handed out IPs - but it would appear to act as a
store of IPs that are active and therefore a little like an internal
DNS. I know this is painfully basic but is this roughly right?

No. DHCP is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and that means handing out IP addresses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol

DNS is the Domain Name System which matches human-readable hostnames (www.google.com) to their IP addresses. The router gets DNS from the ISP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system

In a small network situation such as yours, the router also does NAT - Network Address Translation - which enables you to share one dynamic IP address from your Internet Service Provider among multiple computers on your network by assigning private IP addresses to them. The router has the public IP address on its WAN side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation

If you have a true network printer (connected directly to the network either by ethernet or wirelessly and not locally to one of the computers), you should give it a static IP address. Consumer-level scanners can't be shared on the network. There are true network scanners but they cost many thousands of dollars and are usually leased from a business machines company.


If so I may activate the DHCP and move my IPs around (nightmare
thought).

So at home I have no need for a static IP except for the printer - and
I would need to check that too as it might handle automatic IPs. Home
network is 2 PCs, 1 laptop and 1 printer/scanner. At work I have a
Windows Server 03 box (can this be auto IP? I've always forced IPs of
servers before now, and it does have the WINS, File and Print services
available). I also have a UPS with an IP, 2 static PCs and my laptop
(same as home one), and 3 printers (one wireless) - all controlled by
the server. By the way 2 of these printers are the same model and
when each of us prints at the same time to our own printer the server
drops one of the print jobs - stating it was completed. This may be a
further issue/redherring and for now not necessary.

Servers always have a static IP address and what you do at work is only relevant if you want to use Workgroup (peer-to-peer network at home) resources with your domain-member laptop. Just having a server doesn't mean you've got a domain with Active Directory. WINS is usually only set up to support older operating systems.

For a home network, I would set your computers to get IP/DNS automatically and assign static IPs to true network printers using addresses outside of the router's address range.

Also see Chuck's always-excellent advice about computer browser issues.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
.

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