I need help with this BIG time. I have three computers two laptops running xp and one desktop running 98. I want to use the desktop as a server and a place to automatically backup my files. The desktop is hard wired into the wireless router and also has a printer i want t share. the laptops are both wireless. Am i right in saying i need to set up the server with a static ip because set it up in my network places and it works for a little bit but then i need to set it up again. Now the printer attached to the server i want to share. Do i need to assign this a static also? For some reason this suffers the same issue in that it will work for a bit but then stop and i have to reinstall it. If i do can someone tell me how as i have no idea. Also i would like to assign a static ip to my laptop so it connects as soon as it starts up. This is running windows xp but when i set it up for a static ip in the tcp/ip stack it seems to lose it when my com restarts. I plug in all the correct ips for the dns etc... but when it starts up it takes longer to connect eventually does and the settings revert back to obtain ip address automatically. Any help advice tutorials anyone can give me would be very much appreciated Chris

you need to disable DHCP in the router if you want to use static IPs in the client machines. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Actually, you don't have to disable DHCP, just assign an IP address in the same range that's not in the DHCP scope. By default most SOHO routers use 192.168.0.100 to .199 for their DHCP scope. So you could use any IP between 192.168.0.2 to .99 for your server. (the router itself is likely the .1 address) It's probably a good idea to assign your "server" a static IP. You can't assign an IP to the printer unless it's a network printer (ie: capable of being plugged directly into the network). I'm assuming that since you have it attached to the 98 PC it's not network capable and you don't have a print server. So just attach it to the 98 PC, share the printer once it's installed and map the other PC's/laptops to it. I'm not sure what's going on with your laptop. Once you assign a static IP to a system, it should keep it. There may be something wrong with either the NIC or the TCP/IP stack on your laptop.

I know this is going to open another can of worms, but why don't you upgrade the 98 Machine to WinXP or Win2KPro then have the network as Peer to Peer no no centralized server, You can still share the printer from the Desktop and dont have to worry about Static IPs. They can all be DHCP. Hey, just a thought! Who knows, knows and who doesn't know, dosen't know jack! Una cosa si yo se, que nada se!