Reference Manual for the Model DG824M Wireless ADSL Modem Gateway
B-10 Network and Routing Basics
Many of the resources on the Internet can be addressed by simple descriptive names such as
www.NETGEAR.com. This addressing is very helpful at the application level, but the descriptive
name must be translated to an IP address in order for a user to actu ally contac t the resou rce. J ust as
a telephone directory maps names to phone numbers, or as an ARP table maps IP addresses to
MAC addresses, a domain name system (DNS) server maps descriptive names of network
resources to IP addresses.
When a PC accesses a resource by its descriptive name, it first contacts a DNS server to obtain the
IP address of the resource. The PC sends the desired message using the IP address. Many large
organizations, such as ISPs, maintain their own DNS servers and allow their customers to use the
servers to look up addresses.
IP Configuration by DHCPWhen an IP-based local area network is installed, each PC must be configured with an IP address.
If the PCs need to access the Internet, they should also be configured with a gateway address and
one or more DNS server addresses. As an alternative to manual configuration, there i s a method by
which each PC on the network can automatically obtain this configuration information. A device
on the network may act as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. The DHCP
server stores a list or pool of IP addresses, along with other informati on (such a s gateway a nd DNS
addresses) that it may assign to the other devices on the network. The DG824M gateway has the
capacity to act as a DHCP server.
The DG824M gateway also functions as a DHCP client when connecting to the ISP. The gateway
can automatically obtain an IP address, subnet mask, DNS server addresses, and a gateway address
if the ISP provides this information by DHCP.