IP address conflicts, lose connection constantly

[JBAXTER]

I've been having problems with my internet connection for about a year. I have a cable modem, a Linksys wrt54g router, a Linksys range expander, and 5 desktops and 1 laptops- all with wireless cards.

The internet constantly loses connection even with a great signal, and I get IP address conflicts. I've tried using Linksys chat support and they are more than annoying making me go through all sorts of things that I've already tried myself, only to have the same problems once they've "helped me".

It seems to work okay for a little while after I power cycle, but sometimes that's not enough, and I have to reset the modem and router, then reconfigure my WEP security and all that. Oh, and if I have a power outage (like during a storm), I definitely have major problems- Linksys says this is because the modem and router both power back on at the same time, and ideally the modem should power on 1st.

I just figured you guys (the real experts--I HATE linksys support) might know a way to configure this for good so that I don't have to go through this every day. What about assigning each computer it's own ip address??? Will that work? What about mac cloning- what is that and will it help???

[z1p]

Since you didn't tell us all that you have done, I can't be sure I'm not given you a suggestion you've already tried... :^)

But, here we go anyway... Have you tried statically assigned DHCP addresses. I like to shrink my DHCP address range then use assign specific IP addresses using DHCP. That way the computers still get automatically assigned IPs, this means if you change the network you have to worry less about the computer settings. But by statically assigning the IPs at the DHCP server (linksys), you know what IPs are assigned to what computer and that won't change as systems come and go offline.

BTW - mac cloning shouldn't make a difference in this issue, it is basically to make the router appear as another system to the ISP. Some ISP require you to register the MAC address of the computer being connected, so your connection may end up not working if you toss in a router. Cloning the MAC address of the registered computer to the router, makes the router look like the registered computer to the ISP and they are happy...

[JBAXTER]

I think i've done the static ip thing with Linksys support to get connected, then they had me change it back to automatic before we were done.

I willing to give it a go if you can walk me through it. I know how to go to network connections> Wireless connection> properties> General tab> Internet Protocol> properties. Is that where I do it? Or on the router page? If i set up static ips for each computer, will i have any problems with the cable modem renewing the (is it) IP address lease every 24 hours??

BTW...things I've already tried in the past included power cycling, pinging the router, resetting the modem and router, releasing the ip- some of which made it work, but only temporarily.

[z1p]

Sorry, I was sending you off in the wrong direction. i looked in the linksys manual and it doesn't support static DHCP assigned addresses.

You could assign the machines all static IP addresses and that won't affect you're ISP connection. You'd have to do that at each machine instead of just at the router.

[JBAXTER]

Okay, i think i know how to do that. I have a few questions though..... If my router's ip is 192.168.1.1, do i start the 1st computer with 192.168.1.101, then 102 and so on for each computer for the static ip addresses? And what about the expander? The expander can't be the default gateway, can it? What about DNS server, should that remain set to automatic?

[z1p]

It is best to use IP address outside the address range that the DHCP server in the router is using. Anything IP address that isn't already in use, except 192.168.1.255 should be ok.

The default gateway is the router, the expander should be pretty much transparent.
You can't leave the DNS server on auto, so you need to set it. Try setting it to the router, but if you start to see 'can locate host' type messages in your browser then use your ISP's DNS servers. You should be able to see what they are by checking the router config to see what it has for DNS servers.