Workgroup network problems 1

[GinjaNinja]

We have just added a ADSL router to our network of about 10 win 98 / xp machines. We were only given 6 ip addresses for the new connection which is ok but the other 4 machines can not see any other machines on the network anymore. Does anyone now how to connect all of the machines together but only having 6 machines that have access to the internet.

 

[manarth]

You may be able to set it up so that 5 machines have real IP addresses, and the other 5 have internal IPs sharing one through nat...

router
IP1 ------- pc1
IP2 ------- pc2
IP3 ------- pc3
IP4 ------- pc4
IP5 ------- pc5
IP6 --nat-- pcs 6 - 10

You will need to configure the router and the PCs on the network...

What Make/Model is the router?
What operating systems are the 10 PCs using?
Do any of the PC's need to be visible to the outside internet (i.e. are any of them webservers, etc.)

there's a number of solutions, depending on configuration.

marc.

 

[GinjaNinja]

The router is a NETOPIA 4541 ADSL but I think we have got a non NAT account.
The machines on the network are a mixture of win 98, 2000, Xp and Me, just to make things difficult

At the moment we have 1 Xp, 2 98 and 1 Me machine with Ip address's issued by our ISP and they all connect to the internet and can see each other, the other machines do not need internet access but need to be able to see all of the machines.

Cheers

Barry

 

[manarth]

Hi Barry

There a number of ways to approach fixing this - depending on how you've configured your network.

One (cheat) way to do would be to install the IPX protocol on all your machines. It doesn't resolve your IP problem, it just gives the machines another way to communicate across your LAN. It is the easiest way to get all the machines on your lan to communicate, but a much better solution (albeit more technical!) would be to resolve the TCP/IP issues on your net.

The simplest way to resolve this is to use DHCP assigned IP addresses on all of your PCs.

Do your net enabled machines have to use a static IP (e.g. they're running a web/ftp server)?

If not, you can use the router's inbuild NAT function.
If they do, the router can be set up to reserve specific IP addresses for particular machines.

The router's user manual is available online -

http://www.netopia.com/equipment/pdf/manuals/4541_manual.pdf

Chapter 8 pertains to setting up the IP allocations.

In addition to configuring the router, you will need to set up the PCs to receive their IPs from the router.

To set the PCs up to take up it's assigned IP

On windows 95/98/ME
a. rightclick Network Neighbourhood, select properties
b. locate the entry in the list beginning "TCP/IP ->" followed by the name of your NIC (network) card
c. select this entry then click "properties"
d. select the tab for "IP address", select the option "Obtain an IP address automatically"
e. select the tab for "DNS configuration", select "Disable DNS"
f. select the tab for "WINS configuration", select "Disable WINS resolution"


If this doesn't help...
-What's the IP range / subnet mask assigned by your ISP?
-What IP settings are your PCs using? (do check all your machines - not just the ones you're conecting to the interenet with)
(to find the settings, go to the dos prompt and type "ipconfig" - it will tell you the machine's IP, subnet mask, and default gateway)

marc.

 

[GinjaNinja]

Weve installed the IPX protocol on all your machines and that seems to have done the trick.

Cheers marc it was driving me nuts!!