My computer isn't able to find N2200

[tiredbadger]

I have owned the N2200 for a couple of months and have set folders up and transferred documents and video & music files onto it without any problem. However on several occasions since the initial set-up, my computer (3.0GB running Vista Home Premium SP2) has been unable to connect to the N2200. I am using a Belkin N wireless router.

I have resorted to disconnecting the network connections and then using the Smart Utility to reconnect to the N2200.

Does anyone know if there is a way to prevent this problem from happening?

To make matters worse when this happened this evening (and I used the Smart Utility to reconnect to the N2200) I can no longer see any of the N2200 network connections.

I would appreciate any assistance.

Many thanks

[misha]

It is likely that the N2200 is requesting an IP address from the router via DHCP, and the router is assigning a different one when the lease expires.

Most routers can be configured to reassign the same IP address on expiry, mine does this and the IP address has not changed.

Alternatively the N2200 can be set to use a fixed IP address, I have not tried this but it should be possible. You may need to resort to linux commands to configure this.

[tiredbadger]

Misha

Thanks for the response. I have looked at the router set up and it is evident from this that you are correct that it is a router issue, although the new IP address isn't provided on expiry of the lease (as they are set to never expire), but rather when resolving network connectivity issues.

Although I now understand what is happening, I don't know how to stop it.

As I understand it the router, via the DHCP Client, sets the IP & MAC address. I have then mapped drives to coincide with the IP address assigned to the N2200. The problems occurs when the router resets them (when resolving network connectivity issues) e.g. 192.168.2.2 becomes 192.168.2.3, which then means I can't log-in to the N2200.

My limited IT logic tells me that there must be a way to fix the N2200 IP address, or to alter the computer's IP address settings to coincide with the N2200's newly assigned IP address (without having to renew each of the network connections)?

Any help will be gratefully received.

Many thanks

[misha]

A dirty hack you can use on the PC is to add entries into windows hosts (your location may vary):
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

You can assign any number to any name, example entry:

# assign an address to crumpet
192.168.0.6       crumpet

Then your mapped drives can be set to \\crumpet instead of the IP address.

You can get a similar effect by having your own DNS server.


Regarding setting a fixed IP in the NAS, I did find the following:
/etc/cfg/rc calls /app/cfg/cfg_nic0
which has the following: /sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 down
sleep 4
/sbin/udhcpc -t 5 -n -h `hostname` -i eth0 > /dev/null 2>&1
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 up

Presumably we could add a parameter to the /sbin/udhcpc command to request a fixed IP address.

Good luck!

[tugman]

A little late to solve the OP's problem, but most routers will simply let you assign the same IP address to a specific device using the mac address to identify it - this seems like the easiest solution. Just log in to your routers admin page and follow instructions fro your router - google is your friend.