Hi guys. I have a network set up at my house, 3 computers all hooked up to a Linksys Router, and a DSL connection to the router. All computers are connected to the internet, connected through LAN, and running very very nicely. But the problem is, static LAN ip's. One computer connected I want to act as a server, running on WinXP Home edition. I have always used dynamic LAN ip's, so they change if we have a power surge, if I restart the router, etc. And for the server, it has to be a static LAN so that the ports I forwarded will stay, and I dont always have to change them. But I want to know how it would be possible to set a static LAN ip to the server comp on XP. Dynamic, it works fine, but if I go into the Network connections > Properties on Network bridge, then the properties on the TCP/IP where it gives me the 'Obtain IP Address automatically' and the 'Obtain DNS server address automatically'. I know I need to set it to the 'Use this IP address' setting on both, and when I fill in all the info (Subnet, IP, gateway) and apply, the IP address I defined does work on the LAN, so other comps can access it, but it wont connect to the internet for some reason. I didnt set a DNS server, so maybe that would be the problem? Well, I cant set it, because the DNS I have is an address, and when I try to fill it in, it will only take numbers, so I really dont know what to do. I need to know if I need the DNS address to be set for it to work, and if so, how I could get it to work if I my DNS is only words (dns.blahblah.blahblah.net) and not a numbers only address (123.467.736.536) or whatever. Thanks for reading, and any help appreciated.

On any of your PCs go to Start-Run, type CMD and click OK. In the Command window type "Ping dns.blah.blah.net" without quotes, press return and it will return the address to enter into the DNS box for your fixed IP. Not sure why you would want your IPs to change over a power surge or reboot though. Statics work great and you always know the addresses of your machines.

Your static IP address you set must be within the domain of the Router, but outside its DCHP range. For example: Most small routers like Linksys are set for 192.168.1.xxx as its domain range. The routers default IP address gets 192.168.1.1 and is the gateway address, and it sets it DCHP starting at 192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.149 (or however many it is set up for). So for machines on your local network, that you want to have Static IP address on the local net, they would be set to say 192.168.1.10 through 192.168.1.99 so there is no conflict with the host router or DCHP assigned addresses. You would then set the Static IP address(es) in the server(s), the SubMask 255.255.255.0 and the gateway 192.168.1.1 as required. If you don't specify a DNS, then DNS requests go the the gateway (your router) and it inserts the DNS values it has (either those you entered as overrides or what was downloaded from the ISP's gateway). You do have the option of specifying a specific DNS if you want a particular machine to use a specific DNS for its Domain Name Server.