The 192.168.0.x is the range that Windows has used since WWG3.11 for Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). The machine that has the internet connection is automatically 192.168.0.1, and Windows - since way back then - has an extremely rudimentary DNS that assigns numbers to other machines. The ICS hookup is sort of the "basic scheme" for Workgroups - up until Vista.

A common problem with the Windows sytem is that it can use the whole range for the last segment, from 0 - 255, so there's no place to put a device with a fixed IP address where Windows can't assign something else the same address and create a conflict. There NEVER HAS BEEN an official admission by Microsoft that this happens, but one "whitepaper" about half a century ago included a comment by one of Mickey's whiz kids that "higher is safer, stay above 100." (It did help when I moved my printer address up.)

Different router makers use different segments, but the Linksys stuff all uses the 192.168.1.x range, with the top router 192.168.1.1 for the "gateway." I think Linksys puts the "control management" page at 192.168.1.110. They only use part of the range, so there's some range where you can drop a fixed IP device in and not clink. I just have to figure out which end of the range is the safe end.

I have gotten through a second computer, and seem to have gotten it connected to the first one. The change in the "Microsoft network setup" wasn't the only one required though. I did have to back engineer the policy changes the Norton guy made. He created a new "Firewall policy" that allows devices in the 192.168.1.1 thru 192.168.1.255 to access each other for some functions, and sorted all the other rules - which changes their priorities - some rather drastically.

I probably could add another rule to allow traffic to/from the print server that's at 192.168.0.xxx, but I think I'll worry about that when I get the other couple of computers connected.

My next problem is that the two I've got up are using NIS2007 on WinXP Pro. The other WinXP machine is a WinXP Home OS, but has NIS2008 on it, which is a completely reshuffled interface. The fourth machine has NIS2007, but is running Vista which has NO SYSTEM AT ALL for user management of stuff.

John