India Broadband

just4kix

Background:
When setting up a wireless home network, using DHCP for assigning IP addresses to Computers simplifies setup and gets you online quickly. While DHCP is convenient, devices such as printers should be assigned a fixed IP addresses manually to avoid conflicts on your wireless network. Here's how you can setup a printer with a static address even if it has a wireless card, while still using DCHP on your wired/wireless router.

Scenario:
a) Wired or wireless LAN at Home Office or Small Office (SOHO)
b) Printer is attached to wired or wireless LAN
c) Network is switched off from time to time
d) Issue: IP address of printer is not constant because of DHCP

What's the big deal?
Unlike USB connected printers, networked printers are connected via LAN ports. This LAN port is bound to an IP address. If the IP address changes because of automatic DHCP, you will not be able to print.

Solutions:
Solution 1: Assign a static IP address to your printer
This is possible in most Inkjet, Photo Inkjet and Laser Printers which have a networking option.

a) First select the (static) IP address that you would like to assign.
b) Your router has an IP address (usually 192.168.1.1). The valid IP addresses that the router can address are from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.255.
c) The IP address 192.168.1.255 is reserved in most routers and this should not be chosen. So you have a choice of 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254.
d) Note that router's DHCP has an IP address range, e.g. 192.168.1.2 ~ 192.168.1.50. This is used for automatic IP assignment. You can still use IP addresses from 192.168.1.51 onwards.
e) Choose the highest IP address in the range, e.g., in the above case, 192.168.1.254
f) Assign this IP address to the printer.
g) When configuring an address for the printer, the IP configuration would look like:

... IP Address: 192.168.1.254
... Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
... Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Since the menus may be different I cannot cover entire step by step process for all printers.

Solution 2: Reserve IP addresses for certain devices based on MAC address in the router
This is possible in some routers only. Netgear WGR614v7 provides this facility. Here is how it can be done on this router:

a) First find the MAC address of the printer. This is easy - all you have to do is print a full network configuration from the printer or print a test page from windows.
Most network printers have a on printer menu button and a small display panel. Using this, it is possible to print the printer and network configuration.
b) On the Netgear router, login to the web interface and from the main page, select LAN IP Setup from the LHS panel.
c) On the LAN IP setup page, there is Address Reservation at the bottom. Click on the Add button.
c) In the IP Address box, type the IP address to assign to the computer or server.
(choose an IP address from the router’s LAN subnet, as explained above in Solution 1)
d) Type the MAC Address of the printer.
e) Click Apply to enter the reserved address into the table.

Now if power goes out or you need to restart your wireless router, your printer will retain the fixed IP address instead of being assigned a diiferent address than it previously had by DHCP . And you will always be able to print with out any conflicts.

Source: Linksys Tip: Assign Static IP Address To Printer While Using DHCP On Your Wireless Network

__________________
*** My computer can beat me at chess but is no match when it comes to kick-boxing ***

My Albums | My Movie Collection | Moser Baer Movies