Linksys BEFW11S4 and DHCP and DNS

I have two machines connected to a BEFW11S4 router:
- a Windows XP machine via wireless.
- a Mac OS C via good old copper wires.
Both currently use DHCP.

I noticed the other day that on the PC, the DHCP data says something
like "use 192.168.1.101, router is 192.168.1.1, DNS is 192.168.1.1".

I tried to set my Mac box manually to such settings but the DNS part
does not work. As the doc told me I need to put the IP of my ISP's
DNS server instead.

Why do I care?
1 - The outgoing log on the router gives me IP numbers for connections
from the Mac but DNS names for connections from the PC. I'd like
to also get DNS names for the connections coming from the Mac.
2 - I'd like to use static IP address for my Mac.
Ideally I'd do that by configuring the DHCP server on the router
to always hand out the same IP to the same machine, but it seems
that BEFW11S4 does not support that (I should have checked before
buying: I was just too naive).
But if I have to configure the static IP addresses directly on
the machines, I'd like at least not to have to give IP addresses
that are prone to change such as my ISP's DNS server. Using
192.168.1.1 for the DNS server would be much better.

Does anybody know what's going on and how I can solve the above
problem(s) ?


Stefan

Stefan Monnier <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I noticed the other day that on the PC, the DHCP data says something
> like "use 192.168.1.101, router is 192.168.1.1, DNS is 192.168.1.1".

> I tried to set my Mac box manually to such settings but the DNS part
> does not work. As the doc told me I need to put the IP of my ISP's
> DNS server instead.

I think you've quoted those number incorrectly.
The router wouldn't appear at both .1 and .101.
This looks like you may have had Windows ICS set up before you installed
the router.

>> I noticed the other day that on the PC, the DHCP data says something
>> like "use 192.168.1.101, router is 192.168.1.1, DNS is 192.168.1.1".

>> I tried to set my Mac box manually to such settings but the DNS part
>> does not work. As the doc told me I need to put the IP of my ISP's
>> DNS server instead.

> I think you've quoted those number incorrectly.
> The router wouldn't appear at both .1 and .101.

No, the .101 is the machine's IP number dynamically handed out by the
router, of course. It's sometimes .100, sometimes .102, you know what
I mean.


Stefan

"Stefan Monnier" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:jwv1xs6hpjn.fsf-monnier+(E-Mail Removed) ...
> >> I noticed the other day that on the PC, the DHCP data says something
> >> like "use 192.168.1.101, router is 192.168.1.1, DNS is 192.168.1.1".
>
> >> I tried to set my Mac box manually to such settings but the DNS part
> >> does not work. As the doc told me I need to put the IP of my ISP's
> >> DNS server instead.
>
> > I think you've quoted those number incorrectly.
> > The router wouldn't appear at both .1 and .101.
>
> No, the .101 is the machine's IP number dynamically handed out by the
> router, of course. It's sometimes .100, sometimes .102, you know what
> I mean.
>

Use 192.168.1.1 if the router forwards the DNS requests to your ISP - your
DSL/Cable modem will get its Public IP / DNS and Gateway settings
automatically unless you have a static IP based Internet Connection.

Nick Le Lievre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> No, the .101 is the machine's IP number dynamically handed out by the
>> router, of course. It's sometimes .100, sometimes .102, you know what
>> I mean.

I'm sorry, I misread the original poster's comment, due to some nonstandard
labels.

> Use 192.168.1.1 if the router forwards the DNS requests to your ISP - your
> DSL/Cable modem will get its Public IP / DNS and Gateway settings
> automatically unless you have a static IP based Internet Connection.


My SMC router shows itself as the DNS server.

My Linksys BEFW11S4 shows the DNS server of the ISP.
This is with no changes at all from factory default on the Linksys.

Ethernet adapter Orinoco:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : ORiNOCO PC Card (5 volt)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-02-2D-A8-99-99
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 206.13.28.12
206.13.29.12
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, July 16, 2003
9:14:38 PM

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

> My Linksys BEFW11S4 shows the DNS server of the ISP.
> This is with no changes at all from factory default on the Linksys.

Interesting.

> Ethernet adapter Orinoco:

> Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
> Description . . . . . . . . . . . : ORiNOCO PC Card (5 volt)
> Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-02-2D-A8-99-99
> DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
> Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
> IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
> Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
> Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
> DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
> DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 206.13.28.12
> 206.13.29.12
> Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, July 16, 2003
> 9:14:38 PM

In the outgoing logs of your BEFW11S4, do you see IP addresses or
DNS hostnames ?


Stefan

>> >> I noticed the other day that on the PC, the DHCP data says something
>> >> like "use 192.168.1.101, router is 192.168.1.1, DNS is 192.168.1.1".
>>
>> >> I tried to set my Mac box manually to such settings but the DNS part
>> >> does not work. As the doc told me I need to put the IP of my ISP's
>> >> DNS server instead.

> Use 192.168.1.1 if the router forwards the DNS requests to your ISP - your
> DSL/Cable modem will get its Public IP / DNS and Gateway settings
> automatically unless you have a static IP based Internet Connection.

As mentioned in the text you quted, I did try those settings
(i.e. 192.168.1.1 as DNS server) on the Mac but it did not work.
Anybody knows how the linksys thingy works ? Do they only redirect DNS
requests for hosts that are served via DHCP ? Or is it a wireless/wire
difference ? Or a Windows/Mac difference ?

I guess I'll have to try tcpdump or somesuch to see more of what's going on.


Stefan

Stefan Monnier <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> As mentioned in the text you quted, I did try those settings
> (i.e. 192.168.1.1 as DNS server) on the Mac but it did not work.
> Anybody knows how the linksys thingy works ? Do they only redirect DNS
> requests for hosts that are served via DHCP ? Or is it a wireless/wire
> difference ? Or a Windows/Mac difference ?

> I guess I'll have to try tcpdump or somesuch to see more of what's going on.

Using tcpdump for a simple setup seems a little unnecessary.

I'm not at my Linksys-connected system now, and I've never looked at the
logs. We have a couple of WinXP systems and a couple of Win2000 systems,
some wired, some wireless. They all have the default Windows DHCP setups
and the Linksys is straight-from-the-box with the exception of the DSL
PPPoE login information.

A friend of mine has an OS-X laptop connected wired/wireless to his router,
and I think he's using DHCP. I know he uses DHCP at work. He's never
mentioned a problem with the connection.

Why can't your MAC use DHCP?



--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

> Why can't your MAC use DHCP?

The DHCP setup works fine, but I need a static IP (I'd love to deliver it
via DHCP, as long as it is static) because it's a server for the other boxes
and they need to refer to it via a DNS name or an IP number.


Stefan

Try setting a static IP with the gateway as your router's IP and using the
DNS server(s) from your ISP. You'll need to contact your ISP for those
addresses or get them from the "Status" screen of the Linksys router. Unless
you use the Get IP Automatically, you'll need to add the DNS IP's yourself.


"Stefan Monnier" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:jwv1xs79fk3.fsf-monnier+(E-Mail Removed) ...
>
> I have two machines connected to a BEFW11S4 router:
> - a Windows XP machine via wireless.
> - a Mac OS C via good old copper wires.
> Both currently use DHCP.
>
> I noticed the other day that on the PC, the DHCP data says something
> like "use 192.168.1.101, router is 192.168.1.1, DNS is 192.168.1.1".
>
> I tried to set my Mac box manually to such settings but the DNS part
> does not work. As the doc told me I need to put the IP of my ISP's
> DNS server instead.
>
> Why do I care?
> 1 - The outgoing log on the router gives me IP numbers for connections
> from the Mac but DNS names for connections from the PC. I'd like
> to also get DNS names for the connections coming from the Mac.
> 2 - I'd like to use static IP address for my Mac.
> Ideally I'd do that by configuring the DHCP server on the router
> to always hand out the same IP to the same machine, but it seems
> that BEFW11S4 does not support that (I should have checked before
> buying: I was just too naive).
> But if I have to configure the static IP addresses directly on
> the machines, I'd like at least not to have to give IP addresses
> that are prone to change such as my ISP's DNS server. Using
> 192.168.1.1 for the DNS server would be much better.
>
> Does anybody know what's going on and how I can solve the above
> problem(s) ?
>
>
> Stefan