Static and Dynamic IP addressing
Setting up static IP addressing for your home LAN network, ensures each device and PC on the network has a unique IP with which to connect to the routers Lan. This ensures you always know whose who on your network and prevents the router assigning duplicate IPs to different devices.
The first place to start is looking at your routers Lan setup information. In my case its Sky’s DG834GT router incorporating an adsl modem. In the routers admin area determine the IP address (192.168.0.1) and the subnet mask (255.255.255.0). Also the Starting and ending IP address (192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254). For each Device or PC on your network you need to assign it a unique IP within the Starting and ending IP address range. For example if you have three PC’s on your network assign them 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.4.
To assign a fixed IP’s to a PC go to your control panel and select network connections. Within this highlight Local area connection, right mouse click and select its properties. Then select Internet protocol TCP/IP. Then properties. Enter the settings in the picture to assign a static IP 192.168.0.5
Restart you PC and repeat for other devices on your network but with a different IP
Most internet providers issue dynamic IP addresses to each client/user. Thus each time you switch your ADSL modem off, it will reboot with a new IP address to the outside world. This presents the problem, that to access your PC or NAS server remotely, requires the new IP address to be known and entered. This is a headache for those with NAS servers, who want to FTP or HTTP into it when its connected the other side of their ADSL modem.
To get over this you can register your IP with a free database, which will assign a domain name to it. Hence you only need to remember the assigned domain name rather than the changing assigned IP. Obviously the assigned IP to the domain in the database will require updating when its changed but their help at hand here too.
To set this up, you firstly need to find out what your current assigned IP is, using www.whatismyipaddress.com/. Then register and set up a dynamic DNS service with DynDNS at www.dyndns.com/. During this process you will enter your current IP and choose a domain name. i.e. mydomain.homedns.org.
Next the dynamic IP information must be entered into the router. My setup is a QNAP NAS TS-101 Server via a Netgear DG834GT and Sky ISP. The router setup page is entered by typing into your browser http://192.168.0.1 then admin/sky at the login panel. In the router setup page, select Advanced/Dynamic DNS. Within this page it lists the approved DynDNS provider. Enter your DynDNS domain name, and its user name and password. Finally enable it.
Once set up, typing in http://mydomain.homedns.org will take you to your network (remember typing this in only works from remote PCs). Now you are left only with the issue that when youre assigned IP changes (by turning off your modem) you need to update the database records at www.dyndns.com/. Well this can be done with a handy utility at www.dyndns.com/support/clients. Install this and let it run on your PC. Walla all you need to remember to access your devices remotely is http://mydomain.homedns.org
