Assigning fixed ip addresses to a router?

Hi,

we have a local network that uses a Belkin wireless router. It has been
showing unreliability and slowness in connecting to mapped drives, even
for computers that are hardwired into the network.

As an attempted solution, I have assigned fixed ip addresses to some of
the computers - based on the ip addresses originally allocated to them.
This has definitely improved the speed of accessing mapped drives.
However, do you need to do anything to tell the router that some ip
addresses are fixed/reserved, or will it automatically detect this -
problematic if the computer is turned off presumably.

"Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e0166q$iot$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> we have a local network that uses a Belkin wireless router. It has been
> showing unreliability and slowness in connecting to mapped drives, even
> for computers that are hardwired into the network.
>
> As an attempted solution, I have assigned fixed ip addresses to some of
> the computers - based on the ip addresses originally allocated to them.
> This has definitely improved the speed of accessing mapped drives.
> However, do you need to do anything to tell the router that some ip
> addresses are fixed/reserved, or will it automatically detect this -
> problematic if the computer is turned off presumably.

I don't have one of those models to play around with but on most routers you
set the starting LAN DHCP address range like 192.168.1.100 and then tell the
router the maximum number of IP address's it is allowed to give out like say
50. That sets up the DHCP to give out 192.168.1.100 to 150. You then can
assign address values from 102.168.1.151 and higher for your fixed IP
values.

Should your site have a power failure I suspect the router as you presently
have it setup will most likely try to assign those values you have set as
fixed to another router using DHCP. I have seen networks like you describe
brought to a halt by a simple power line hit until every machine that had a
"fixed IP" was unplugged from the network and were re-assigned a fixed IP
higher than those in use by the DHCP part of the router.

GlowingBlueMist wrote:
> "Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:e0166q$iot$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> we have a local network that uses a Belkin wireless router. It has been
>> showing unreliability and slowness in connecting to mapped drives, even
>> for computers that are hardwired into the network.
>>
>> As an attempted solution, I have assigned fixed ip addresses to some of
>> the computers - based on the ip addresses originally allocated to them.
>> This has definitely improved the speed of accessing mapped drives.
>> However, do you need to do anything to tell the router that some ip
>> addresses are fixed/reserved, or will it automatically detect this -
>> problematic if the computer is turned off presumably.
>
> I don't have one of those models to play around with but on most routers you
> set the starting LAN DHCP address range like 192.168.1.100 and then tell the
> router the maximum number of IP address's it is allowed to give out like say
> 50. That sets up the DHCP to give out 192.168.1.100 to 150. You then can
> assign address values from 102.168.1.151 and higher for your fixed IP
> values.
>
> Should your site have a power failure I suspect the router as you presently
> have it setup will most likely try to assign those values you have set as
> fixed to another router using DHCP. I have seen networks like you describe
> brought to a halt by a simple power line hit until every machine that had a
> "fixed IP" was unplugged from the network and were re-assigned a fixed IP
> higher than those in use by the DHCP part of the router.
>
>

Great, that makes sense, and the router does indeed let you set the
starting and ending ip addresses for the dynamic addresses. Thanks for
your help.

"Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e02db9$k4g$(E-Mail Removed)...
> GlowingBlueMist wrote:
>> "Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:e0166q$iot$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> we have a local network that uses a Belkin wireless router. It has been
>>> showing unreliability and slowness in connecting to mapped drives, even
>>> for computers that are hardwired into the network.
>>>
>>> As an attempted solution, I have assigned fixed ip addresses to some of
>>> the computers - based on the ip addresses originally allocated to them.
>>> This has definitely improved the speed of accessing mapped drives.
>>> However, do you need to do anything to tell the router that some ip
>>> addresses are fixed/reserved, or will it automatically detect this -
>>> problematic if the computer is turned off presumably.
>>
>> I don't have one of those models to play around with but on most routers
>> you set the starting LAN DHCP address range like 192.168.1.100 and then
>> tell the router the maximum number of IP address's it is allowed to give
>> out like say 50. That sets up the DHCP to give out 192.168.1.100 to 150.
>> You then can assign address values from 102.168.1.151 and higher for your
>> fixed IP values.
>>
>> Should your site have a power failure I suspect the router as you
>> presently have it setup will most likely try to assign those values you
>> have set as fixed to another router using DHCP. I have seen networks
>> like you describe brought to a halt by a simple power line hit until
>> every machine that had a "fixed IP" was unplugged from the network and
>> were re-assigned a fixed IP higher than those in use by the DHCP part of
>> the router.
>
> Great, that makes sense, and the router does indeed let you set the
> starting and ending ip addresses for the dynamic addresses. Thanks for
> your help.

One last note, leave enough room between the end of the DHCP to the first
fixed IP for possible future additional DHCP enabled devices.

We usually stuck our fixed IP servers out in the xxx.xxx.xxx.222 to
xxx.xxx.xxx.250 range just to get them out of the way and freeing up the
lower range of address for DHCP users. It the fixed IP range pretty much
depends on the personal preference of the person setting up the network.