User's Manual

User’s Manual
34
4.4 Wired LAN Configuration
Before all computers using wired Ethernet connection (i.e. those computers connect to this
router’s LAN port 1 to 4 by Ethernet cable) can communicate with each other and access
internet, they must have a valid IP address.
There are two ways to assign IP addresses to computers: static IP address (set the IP
address for every computer manually), and dynamic IP address (IP address of computers
will be assigned by router automatically. It’s recommended for most of computers to use
dynamic IP address, it will save a lot of time on setting IP addresses for every computer,
especially when there are a lot of computers in your network; for servers and network
devices which will provide services to other computer and users that come from Internet,
static IP address should be used, so other computes can locate the server.
Suggestions on IP address numbering plan:
If you have no idea on how to define an IP address plan for your network, here are
some suggestions.
1. A valid IP address has 4 fields: a.b.c.d, for most of home and company users,
it’s suggested to use 192.168.c.d, where c is an integer between 0 and 254, and
d is an integer between 1 and 254. This router is capable to work with up to 253
clients, so you can set ‘d’ field of IP address of router as 1 or 254 (or any
number between 1 and 254), and pick a number between 0 and 254 for field ‘c’.
2. In most cases, you should use ‘255.255.255.0’ as subnet mask, which allows
up to 253 clients (this also meets router’s capability of working with up to 253
clients).
3. For all servers and network devices which will provide services to other
people (like Internet service, print service, and file service), they should use
static IP address. Give each of them a unique number between 1 and 253, and
maintain a list, so everyone can locate those servers easily.
4. For computers which are not dedicated to provide specific service to others,
they should use dynamic IP address.