B-8 Firmware User Guide
•For a dynamic address, the Router releases the address back to the address pool after it has lost contact
with the Mac workstation for over 2 minutes.
•For a static address, the Router releases the address back to the address pool after it has lost contact
with the Mac workstation for over 20 minutes.
Netopia Firmware Version 8.4 MacIP server characteristics
The Mac workstation uses ATP to both request and receive an address from the Router's MacIP server. Once
acquired, NBP confirm packets will be sent out every minute from the Router to the Mac workstation.
Manually distributing IP addresses
If you choose to manually distribute IP addresses, you must enter each computer’s address into its TCP/IP
stack software. Once you manually issue an address to a computer, it possesses that address until you
manually remove it. That’s why manually distributed addresses are called static addresses.
Static addresses are useful in cases when you want to make sure that a host on your network cannot have its
address taken away by the address server. Appropriate candidates for a static address include a network
administrator’s computer, a computer dedicated to communicating with the Internet, and gateways.
Using address serving
The Router provides three ways to serve IP addresses to computers on a network. The first, Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP), is supported by PCs with Microsoft Windows and a TCP/IP stack. Macintosh
computers using Open Transport and computers using the UNIX operating system may also be able to use
DHCP. The second way, MacIP, is for Macintosh computers. The third way, called Serve Dynamic WAN Clients
(IPCP), is used to fulfill WAN client requirements
The Router can use both DHCP and MacIP. Whether you use one or both depends on your particular networking
environment. If that environment includes both PCs and Macintosh computers that do not use Open Transport,
you need to use both DHCP and MacIP to distribute IP addresses to all of your computers.
Serve dynamic WAN clients
The third method, used to fulfill WAN client requirements, is called Serve Dynamic WAN Clients. The correct
term or protocol is a subset of the PPP suite call IPCP. Originally, this would apply only to switched WAN
interface gateways, and not to leased line gateways. However, a new feature can give you Asynchronous PPP
dial-in support on the Auxiliary por t on any gateway including leased line Netopia gateways.
In any situation where a device is dialing into a Netopia gateway, the gateway may need to be configured to
serve IP via the WAN interface. This is only a requirement if the calling device has not been configured locally to
know what its address(es) are. So when a client, dialing into a Netopia gateway's WAN interface, is expecting
addresses to be served by the answering gateway, you must set the answering Netopia gateway to serve IP via
its WAN interface.
You can do this in either of two ways:
•use the Serve Dynamic WAN Clients option in the Address Serving Setup screen.
Enabling Serve Dynamic WAN Clients only allows you to specify a pool of addresses from which the dial-in
client may get an IP address. It does not allow static addressing.
If you want to serve addresses dynamically, use Serve Dynamic WAN Clients.