Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?

Subject: RE: Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 10:02 AM

For a single machine connecting directly to the DSL provider via a suitable "port device" the address should be settable using the Start|Network Connections|Network Setup Wizard or New Connection Wizard. The AOL helper should have been able to walk him through whatever steps are required. Possible reasons that AOL Help couldn't do it are that he didn't know what address had been assigned to him, or he couldn't adequately describe what hardware he was using for the connection. He may need to go to "account administration" or some other place rather than "tech help" to find out what his address is (or look at his paperwork?). He also needs to at least know the names of the parts he has hooked up to get tech assistance.


John, what you've said is exactly what I have always understood about how this works, so I am baffled by the answer he was given. I'll see if I can talk him through the detect network settings process, because he shouldn't need to know the number at all. Back in the old dialup days you had to set a number manually, but that hasn't been necessary for a long time, either.

He'd probably benefit from having a router in place anyway, even if he has only one computer, just because it blocks a lot of crud. I'll see what I can do to set him up.

Thanks, all!

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 04:49 AM

It was my understanding that with most high speed connections the ISP reserves a block of addresses, and tells you what one to use. The address for a router can't be set until you sign up for the service and receive an address from the service. If you register your own server, you get your own address; but for a subscription service through an ISP it's their responsibility to tell you what to use.

The 192.168.xxx.xxx range is reserved for "local use," so it doesn't matter if you use the same local address someone else on a different LAN is using, but on the open internet each "fixed base" machine (usually the router?) has to have a unique address that nobody else is using.

The "tech" who installed/provided his router couldn't set an address because until he subscribed for his DSL connection (or registered his own domain) the tech would have no way of knowing what address to set.

On a dial-up connection, "Dynamic Allocation" is generally used. When you're machine calls the ISP phone number, your subscription and identity are confirmed, and a "session address" is assigned that's good only as long as you remain connected. Hang up and redial and you get a different address. The dial-up ISP server keeps track of which belongs to whom for the duration of the connection.

Some DSL providers insist on you using their "interface box" and it should come with the address they've assigned to you already set. If you use your own box(es) the DSL provider has to tell you what external address to use. Some boxes are software settable, but may require a specialized program that comes with the box. Others can be "told" by the primary connected computer what address is to be used. Some require what amounts to a "PROM Flash" (BIOS update) to set an address. (Note that I haven't "probed" any such boxes, so this paragraph is all hearsay - which is not saying that the others aren't also.)

For a single machine connecting directly to the DSL provider via a suitable "port device" the address should be settable using the Start|Network Connections|Network Setup Wizard or New Connection Wizard. The AOL helper should have been able to walk him through whatever steps are required. Possible reasons that AOL Help couldn't do it are that he didn't know what address had been assigned to him, or he couldn't adequately describe what hardware he was using for the connection. He may need to go to "account administration" or some other place rather than "tech help" to find out what his address is (or look at his paperwork?). He also needs to at least know the names of the parts he has hooked up to get tech assistance.

He may also need to log in as an Administrator to make necessary setting changes, and from the description may not know how to do that - or how to tell whether he needs to.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 01:55 AM

Am unclear about his setup. Mine, for example uses a Linksys router to access the net. My router uses my permanent IP address and the computers see the router as 192.168.0.0. which is quite common. He may have the wrong address on the wrong piece of gear. Also, when I installed my DSL router, the connector was a crossover but not marked as such. It wouldn't work til I found out and reversed it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 11:40 PM

I think it's an AOL problem also (even if only being able to describe it clearly)--and you're right, the connection would be through the Control Panel. Not being privy to the 63 minutes of conversation I don't know if they went there. But I'll ask tomorrow.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?
From: NH Dave
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 11:25 PM

Sounds as if this is an AOL problem - nothing new here - but he's going to have to use slightly different procedures depending how he is hooked to the AOL "MODEM". Generally he or the techie will tell him to go into ControlPanel, open up the Network Connections file, and create a network connection for the AOL system. Once thie network connection has been established, he can get onto the AOL service by clicking onto this new neyworkconnection - easier if he creates a shotcut on his desktop - and then get his email and browser programs signedinto whatever service he is using.

   Dave

Subject: Tech: Unique Computer IP Addresses--How?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 10:46 PM

I have a friend with a computer problem that has stumped me. He is functionally illiterate with computers, in that he uses one every day but resists learning anything about how it works or working on it. So the reporting is spotty, but this is his problem:

He has AOL (that's a problem to begin with!) and uses a computer built a couple of years ago. I gave him a laundry list of things he should have for functionality for years to come, and he seems to have gotten all of those things. He has been using this with a regular dialup modem, and the computer has the DSL 10/100 Ethernet jack also.

He finally arranged to get DSL through AOL and has the modem and the cables, but he can't get it to work. He was on the phone today for an hour with the AOL folks and this is what he tells me:

Just spent 63 minutes on the phone with tech support...after that heinious recorded stuff...and we tried the USB port as well. I need to take the computer to the guy who made it. If I understand correctly, I do not have a Router IP Address installed on this phucking thing.

This is something I've never run across before. Not have an IP address? Isn't that assigned by the service provider? Or should he just get a router and plug into the modem (some of the modems today act as routers, but apparently this one doesn't). I am in Texas and he is in New York City, so I haven't seen this, we've only discussed it.

Any ideas on how to remedy this problem without his having to unplug it and lug it across the street to the hack who built it (and installed a pirated version of Windows XP Pro that I had to replace when I visited last summer)? That guy will certainly gouge for the work, and probably not explain it. Is there a BIOS approach or a card or something?

SRS