Home network routing question

I have a home network, all Win98, for which I have a routing question.

All PCs are attached to a hub. The Hub is attached to a router. The router
is at 192.168.0.1. All PCs have IPs of 192.168.0.x. subnet mask is
255.255.255.0 all around.

I have a device that has a known IP address of 192.168.2.1. It also has a
subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. I'd like to access that device from any PC on
the network without having to change the IP of that device. I *think* this
will just require proper route entries in my route table, but I'm not sure.

Changing one of my PCs to use 192.168.2.x rather then 0.x allows me to
access this device. That confirmed to me that the device is working
properly. Now, what do I have to do on one of these Win98 machines to allow
it to reach this device without having to change the 3rd octet to match
between the machine and device?

Here is the current output from "route print" (view in monospace, please):

c:\> route print
Active Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.8 1
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.8 192.168.0.8 1
192.168.0.8 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.8 192.168.0.8 1
224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 192.168.0.8 192.168.0.8 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.8 0.0.0.0 1

192.168.0.1 in the table above is, of course, my router. 192.168.0.8 is my
local machine. There is only one NIC in this machine. Both this machine and
the device I want to communicate with are plugged into the same hub. Both
machine and device are known to have subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (which I
think I understand is not the same thing as the mask from the route table).

Is it possible to just change the routes on one Win98 machine to allow it to
converse with this device?

I've tried adding several route entries (none of which are represented
above) but have failed to gain access. Perhaps it's not even possible to do
what I want without also have similar route entries on the other device.

Any advice appreciated.

- Virgil




Virgil Green

Win98 does not like to multihome with IP addresses. Your
best bet is to have your router have a second IP address
and route 192.168.2.0 to that other device. As something
has to have an address on each network for the packets to
get around.

I think the best option is to change the IP address of the
other device to be on the same netowrk as the PCs.

To really mess with your head you can setup up your
network to be 192.168.0.0 with a mask of 255.255.0.0, then
they are all on the same LARGE IP netowrk. But the problem
there might be that your router will not support a 16bit
subnet mask.

There is also the upgrade route to Win2k or even NT4 that
does support multihoming and then you can have it on both
the 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.2.0 networks and make it do
the routing.

I am not to sure but maybe setting up a static ARP table
may do this too but I have had very little luck with
static ARP entries.

Good Luck

>-----Original Message-----
>I have a home network, all Win98, for which I have a
routing question.
>
>All PCs are attached to a hub. The Hub is attached to a
router. The router
>is at 192.168.0.1. All PCs have IPs of 192.168.0.x.
subnet mask is
>255.255.255.0 all around.
>
>I have a device that has a known IP address of
192.168.2.1. It also has a
>subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. I'd like to access that
device from any PC on
>the network without having to change the IP of that
device. I *think* this
>will just require proper route entries in my route table,
but I'm not sure.
>
>Changing one of my PCs to use 192.168.2.x rather then 0.x
allows me to
>access this device. That confirmed to me that the device
is working
>properly. Now, what do I have to do on one of these Win98
machines to allow
>it to reach this device without having to change the 3rd
octet to match
>between the machine and device?
>
>Here is the current output from "route print" (view in
monospace, please):
>
>c:\> route print
>Active Routes:
>
> Network Address Netmask Gateway
Address Interface Metric
> 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1
192.168.0.8 1
> 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
> 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.8
192.168.0.8 1
> 192.168.0.8 255.255.255.255
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
> 192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.8
192.168.0.8 1
> 224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 192.168.0.8
192.168.0.8 1
> 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255
192.168.0.8 0.0.0.0 1
>
>192.168.0.1 in the table above is, of course, my router.
192.168.0.8 is my
>local machine. There is only one NIC in this machine.
Both this machine and
>the device I want to communicate with are plugged into
the same hub. Both
>machine and device are known to have subnet mask of
255.255.255.0 (which I
>think I understand is not the same thing as the mask from
the route table).
>
>Is it possible to just change the routes on one Win98
machine to allow it to
>converse with this device?
>
>I've tried adding several route entries (none of which
are represented
>above) but have failed to gain access. Perhaps it's not
even possible to do
>what I want without also have similar route entries on
the other device.
>
>Any advice appreciated.
>
> - Virgil
>
>
>.
>

"Virgil Green" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:aYTVa.2224$(E-Mail Removed) m:

> All PCs are attached to a hub. The Hub is attached to a router.
> The router is at 192.168.0.1. All PCs have IPs of 192.168.0.x.
> subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 all around.
>
> I have a device that has a known IP address of 192.168.2.1. It
> also has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. I'd like to access that
> device from any PC on the network without having to change the IP
> of that device. I *think* this will just require proper route
> entries in my route table, but I'm not sure.
>
> [good details deleted]

Changing the routing tables on the PC will work fine for getting
packets from the PC to the printer but then the printer can't send
packets to the PC unless the printer's routes are similarly changed.

If you can't change the IP address of the printer or PCs, then the
next-best solution would be to change the subnet mask to 255.255.252.0
on the printer and PCs. Note that if the PCs get their IP address from
the router via DHCP, then the router's configuration should be changed
to reflect this subnet mask.

HTH,
John

Thanks very much to Chris and John. You have confirmed my fears. John, this
is actually wireless 4-port router (the other device, not my normal router)
and I just wanted to get into it to turn off its DHCP host so I could test
it for my daughter before moving it to a separate location. You've confirmed
that I would have to make similar changes on the other device if I wanted an
ARP solution or that I would have to change my subnet Mask to bring both
devices into the same subnet.

Luckily, I'm free to change the IP of the other device but I wanted to know
if I was able do what I wanted without resorting to that. I'll make the
change and go about my merry way having learned "one more thing" about Win98
networking.

Thanks to you both (and to any others who contribute(d) responses I have not
yet seen).

- Virgil


"Virgil Green" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:aYTVa.2224$(E-Mail Removed) m...
> I have a home network, all Win98, for which I have a routing question.
>
> All PCs are attached to a hub. The Hub is attached to a router. The router
> is at 192.168.0.1. All PCs have IPs of 192.168.0.x. subnet mask is
> 255.255.255.0 all around.
>
> I have a device that has a known IP address of 192.168.2.1. It also has a
> subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. I'd like to access that device from any PC
on
> the network without having to change the IP of that device. I *think* this
> will just require proper route entries in my route table, but I'm not
sure.
>
> Changing one of my PCs to use 192.168.2.x rather then 0.x allows me to
> access this device. That confirmed to me that the device is working
> properly. Now, what do I have to do on one of these Win98 machines to
allow
> it to reach this device without having to change the 3rd octet to match
> between the machine and device?
>
> Here is the current output from "route print" (view in monospace, please):
>
> c:\> route print
> Active Routes:
>
> Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Interface
Metric
> 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.8
1
> 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1
1
> 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.8 192.168.0.8
1
> 192.168.0.8 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1
1
> 192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.8 192.168.0.8
1
> 224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 192.168.0.8 192.168.0.8
1
> 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.8 0.0.0.0
1
>
> 192.168.0.1 in the table above is, of course, my router. 192.168.0.8 is my
> local machine. There is only one NIC in this machine. Both this machine
and
> the device I want to communicate with are plugged into the same hub. Both
> machine and device are known to have subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (which I
> think I understand is not the same thing as the mask from the route
table).
>
> Is it possible to just change the routes on one Win98 machine to allow it
to
> converse with this device?
>
> I've tried adding several route entries (none of which are represented
> above) but have failed to gain access. Perhaps it's not even possible to
do
> what I want without also have similar route entries on the other device.
>
> Any advice appreciated.
>
> - Virgil
>
>