Forming a small network at home (PART III)

In this part of the article we will discuss how the computers in your network need to be configured if your DSL router is acting as a DHCP server.

Your DSL router acting as a DHCP server
Some of you might be using internet through a DSL service at your local area. For the most of you, the DSL connection might be configured for a single computer at your home. In such a case your computer is most probably configured with manual settings for internet and would not cater to any more computers if you wished to add any.

If your DSL router was configured as a DHCP server, then your network will become much more scalable. You can add as many computers to your network as your network switch allows, without the hassle of configuring the new computer each time it is added. For example, whenever I want to bring my work notebook on my home network all I have to do is plug-in the LAN cable into my notebook, and the DSL router automatically assigns the network configuration to my notebook. This way, I do not have the hassle of entering the configuration into my notebook everytime I need to connect it to my home network.

As every DSL router/modem has a different interface for configuration, we won't go into the detail of configuring the DSL routers/modems. You can, however, request your Internet Service Provider to make this configuration for you.

Setup your computer as a DHCP client
For your computer to accept the network configuration automatically from the DHCP server, you need to make it a DHCP client. A DHCP client is simply a computer that accepts network configuration from a DHCP server. To make your computer a DHCP client, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Network Connections,




2. Right-click 'Local Area Network' and click on 'Properties',




3. In the dialog window that opens, double-click 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)', as shown below:
   
   
   
   
   
4. Now, in the dialog window select 'Obtain an IP address automatically' and 'Obtain DNS server address automatically' radio buttons, as shown below:
   
   
   
   
5. Click OK on all open dialog windows.

These steps essentially set your computer to accept settings automatically from a DHCP server. Now, no matter which network you plug-in your computer, if it has a DHCP server on it, your computer will be automatically assigned network configuration to communicate over that network.

Using the Ping command

The ping command lets you verify whether another network node is reachable. It can also be used to determine the quality of the link between the computers. Let's see how to work with this command.

Running the Ping command
On a computer which is connected to a network, do the following:

1. Start > Run...,
2. Type in cmd and click OK,
3. On the command prompt, enter the command ping 192.168.0.2 and press Enter OR,
4. Enter the command ping computerName and press Enter, where computerName is the name of the remote computer.
   NOTE: Here, it is important to understand that in the ping command you should use the IP or computer name of the remote computer.

Identifying typical output behaviors of the Ping command
If the output of the ping command is something like:

Pinging 192.168.0.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.2: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.2: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=128
...

then it means that the remote computer with the given IP is alive as it is replying to our ping command.

If the output of the ping command looks something like:

Pinging 192.168.0.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.2: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

then there is a problem connecting to the remote computer with the given IP. This could occur for several bunch of reasons:

• one of the network cables could be unplugged,
• the remote computer might not be powered up,
• the remote computer may have a firewall that could be preventing communication,
• one of the network cables could be faulty or damaged,
• the remote computer may not have the IP configuration compatible with your computer,
• etc.

For guidance in setting up your network, refer to the article Forming a small network at home (Part II).

There are several other options you can use with the ping command. To list more optionsfor the ping command, enter ping /? at the command prompt.