Chapter 6 LAN Setup

IP Pool Setup

The P-870HN-51D is pre-configured with a pool of IP addresses for the DHCP clients (DHCP Pool). See the product specifications in the appendices. Do not assign static IP addresses from the DHCP pool to your LAN computers.

LAN TCP/IP

The P-870HN-51D has built-in DHCP server capability that assigns IP addresses and DNS servers to systems that support DHCP client capability.

IP Address and Subnet Mask

Similar to the way houses on a street share a common street name, so too do computers on a LAN share one common network number.

Where you obtain your network number depends on your particular situation. If the ISP or your network administrator assigns you a block of registered IP addresses, follow their instructions in selecting the IP addresses and the subnet mask.

If the ISP did not explicitly give you an IP network number, then most likely you have a single user account and the ISP will assign you a dynamic IP address when the connection is established. If this is the case, it is recommended that you select a network number from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.0 and you must enable the Network Address Translation (NAT) feature of the P-870HN-51D. The Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) reserved this block of addresses specifically for private use; please do not use any other number unless you are told otherwise. Let's say you select 192.168.1.0 as the network number; which covers 254 individual addresses, from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 (zero and 255 are reserved). In other words, the first three numbers specify the network number while the last number identifies an individual computer on that network.

Once you have decided on the network number, pick an IP address that is easy to remember, for instance, 192.168.1.1, for your P-870HN-51D, but make sure that no other device on your network is using that IP address.

The subnet mask specifies the network number portion of an IP address. Your P- 870HN-51D will compute the subnet mask automatically based on the IP address that you entered. You don't need to change the subnet mask computed by the P- 870HN-51D unless you are instructed to do otherwise.

Private IP Addresses

Every machine on the Internet must have a unique address. If your networks are isolated from the Internet, for example, only between your two branch offices, you can assign any IP addresses to the hosts without problems. However, the Internet

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P-870HN-51D User’s Guide