At the moment, I have 4 Static IPs coming into my home, but with 5 computers.  I'm trying to figure out a way to hook up all the computers to the same network.

My router/modem is an Efficient Networks, but I also have a 8-port Linksys switch, a 4-port Netgear hub, and a 4-port Linksys router (last 3 are not being used right now).

My current problem is that I can't have all the computers on the same network because of IP address conflicts.

So, I got to thinking that I could hook the Linksys switch up to the modem/router, and designate it as one of the IP addresses.  But, how would I set up my computers after that?  Would they be on a static IP?  Or would I set them up to obtain an address automatically?  

I'm confused about how this works, and I don't want to spend all day and possibly screw up my network.

Any help would be appreciated.

From your phone line to the Efficient Networks (Speedstream 5360?), from there to the 8-port Linksys switch, from there to the computers.
Only one external IP address needed, the Speedstream will fetch it.
The other computers will get their dynamic internal (not visible to the outside world) IP addies from the 8-port Linksys switch, or you can assign static internal IPs, if you want to designate certain computers for certain serving tasks.
Where in Tx. are you?

Damn Kar98 you beat me

This is normally done by configuring Network Address Translation (NAT).  If your router has a NAT option, you set up a local network (ie, 192.168.0.0/24) where all your computers reside and those get translated to a single outgoing IP.  The down side of this is that your individual machines can't be reached from the outside world directly, even though they can connect out to anywhere they want.

I any one of your machines are running some version of Unix (BSD, Linux, etc) and has two network cards or could have a second added, you're in luck.  If they're all windows, there is some internet connection sharing stuff that might do what you want, but I've never used it and couldn't tell you anything about it.  Either way, the machine that's doing NAT for the other machines would have to be on all the time when you want the other machines to use the net connection.  If you have any questions on the Unix side, let me know.

Get a Linksys broadband router, it uses NAT (damn NAT can't even be turned off on the internal network), then you can have up to 252 hosts behind it.

Uhm, that's what the Linksys switch is for.

It's a 5861.



I'm in the Houston area.


So...in TCP/IP properties, I need to turn on the "Obtain an IP address automatically", right?  At the moment, I have the IP address fields filled, as well as the DNS address.

If you have 4 static IP's then you have 4 different networks. If you want to network all 5 computers, you will need to drop back to 1 static IP, put your LinkSys router on that, use it for NAT, and DHCP to your computers.

If for some reason you need all 4 static IP's than you will have to put a router between each network so they can see each other.

If this is confusing, let me know and I will give you a call, and explain it in more detail.

dave

Actually, you might be able to network them depending on your static addresses, and your Subnet Mask.

This can get all confusing trying to explain online, if you want I can give you a call.

A switch is just a smart hub.  If it's doing address translation, it's not just a switch.

Right, 'cause then it's actually a router. My fault.