n00b switch question

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penguinrusty

n00b
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Oct 17, 2006
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So, I just bought this 32 port and another 24 port switch for a big lan party i'm having....I managed to hook the two together via their uplink ports, and, well, when I plug my comp into one of the jacks, it says "limited or no connectivity" So, my question is, how would I configure the TCP/IP settings? I know the subnetmask is 255.255.255.0, and the ip address is 192.168.1.xx, but what about the default gateway and DNS servers? Do I put anything there? At the last LAN party I went to, I had this same problem and someone showed me how to do it, but I forgot Any help would be appreciated!
 
You are going to need to setup a DHCP server to hand out address whether this is a simple router or an actual computer doing it.
 
Yes, DHCP would be the easiest thing to do.

However you could also just do manual IPs, using no gateway and no dns.
 
There are a few things to consider for your network. If you don't plan on having internet access, then all you need are different IP addresses, and all computers on the same subnet. 192.168.1.xxx is the most common private ip range. note only increment the xxx's (1 through 254 in this case)

If youre just gonna have everyone manually enter ip addresses, i suggest printing out a sheet of ip addresses (192.168.1.2 through .100), one address per row, and cut them into individual slips. hand one to each player as they come through the door.

If you plan on having internet access at your lan party, this is where the Default Gateway and DNS server entries become important.
The default gateway is the ip address of where the computer will go to communicate with the outside world. In most cases, it goes to the router (which is usually set to 192.168.1.1).
DNS (Domain Name Service) - it translates requests for names that we understand -google- into addresses the network understands -64.233.187.99-. This entry (typically two of them) is dependant on your Internet Service Provider.

The easiest way to handle this would be if you have a router already on site (like if this is in your basement); just uplink one of the switches to a port on the router. (be sure the router is set to give out enough ip's (i.e. linksys defaults to the 50 (192.168.1.100 through 149).
 
penguinrusty said:
Are you sure? it's supposed to be a plug and play switch.
Click to expand...
Wihtout wanting to become too technical: a switch operate on a different layer than the IP protocol, it does not hand out IP addresses. Switches temselves have no IP address either. Some switches come with a management module, which has an IP address...

Anyway, if you had a correctly configured DHCP server, or manually configured the IP addresses beforehand, the switch would have shown you that it's plug & play.
 
XP will automatically hand out an IP in a certain range with a known subnet if it cannot contact a DHCP server.
All the PC's should eventually join the network if left for a few minutes, using the same subnet with a random IP in the correct range (soz, I cant remember the ranges).
This will probably work but it can be a pain waiting for an IP to be allocated and is even more of a pain if you have a connection issue and need to trouble shoot it.

As mentioned earlier I would set each PC's IP up if you havent got a DHCP server.

If you already have an modem router on CAT 5 use it as a DHCP server.
If you dont want the others to access the internet, unplug it from the phone/cable.
When you need to use the internet, you can unplug the router from the network and connect it only to your PC or configure the router to a different IP and only set your PC up to use it.
No one will be affected when they are disconnected from the router as long as they dont reboot or mess with their network.


If all else fails, try a crossover network cable to link the switches.
 
Assigning people an individual IP address is a potential nightmare considering you are talking a total of possibly 56 ports!

-People will forget to turn their machine back to DHCP and will call you after they get back home.

-Someone fatfingers and you end up with an IP conflict or debugging what is wrong.

What Cherynobyl1 is talking about regaurding this "XP will automatically hand out an IP in a certain range with a known subnet if it cannot contact a DHCP server.
All the PC's should eventually join the network if left for a few minutes," Is an APIPA address and may actualy be the easiest thing to do ( which is do nothing). The only potential issue I see is occasionaly a machine will use it's last dhcp address instead of assigning an APIPA, but that is rare.

Cherynobyl1 also mentions hooking them up to a cable router (NOT modem) (if you have one) This would be the easy route that I would take if I didnt own a server, but you want to make sure the router has enough availiable addresses. (in dhcp setup) .

With anything above 10-15 people you should consider a server. Any machine equal to or greater than a Pentium 400 Mhz with a 10 gig drive should be more than fine. Set up a share with the latest Nvidia drivers, ATI drivers, and game patches / demos, and have it do DHCP as well.
 
get a router and tun on DHCP, OR setup an IPCop box for DHCP.... either way....

QJ
 
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