Set-up of Alcatel Speedtouch 510 DSL Modem for use on Windows XP Network

[Chris C]

Hello All,

Firstly, let me just say I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to
setting up dsl, routers and small networks etc. so please bear with me
if some of my naming conventions I choose are quite correct.


I have an Alcatel Speedtouch 510 DSL modem that I need to connect to a
Windows XP PC which is part of a three-PC Windows XP Network Wizard
created ethernet network. All the PC's share files between each other
and two client PCs use the host PC (The one where the Network Wizard
was ran) to print to and to connect to the internet There is a 5 port
X-Net Ethernet switch in place, connecting the three PC's. The modem
has four ethernet ports.

The main problems I have, or the ones I know of are:

1) The XP PC running the network, can't detect the modem. I'm pretty
sure this is because the PC has the standard static IP address given
to it by XP's Network Wizard of 192.168.0.1, and the modem requires
the Ethernet card it is connected to, to have an Automatically
assigned address. Is there anyway around this?

2) If I remove this static IP address, I'm guessing the network will
stop working, although the modem will now be detected. How can I get
around this? Would installing another ethernet card solve this?


Basically I need all three PC's to be able to share files with each
other, and for all the PCs to share the internet connection and
printer on an XP machine.

Could any one offer any suggestions as what road to take, put forward
any better ways of getting what I want or let me know any other places
to look for help?


Thanks in Advance

Chris

 

[Jim]

Hello All,

Firstly, let me just say I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to
setting up dsl, routers and small networks etc. so please bear with me
if some of my naming conventions I choose are quite correct.


I have an Alcatel Speedtouch 510 DSL modem that I need to connect to a
Windows XP PC which is part of a three-PC Windows XP Network Wizard
created ethernet network. All the PC's share files between each other
and two client PCs use the host PC (The one where the Network Wizard
was ran) to print to and to connect to the internet There is a 5 port
X-Net Ethernet switch in place, connecting the three PC's. The modem
has four ethernet ports.

The main problems I have, or the ones I know of are:

1) The XP PC running the network, can't detect the modem. I'm pretty
sure this is because the PC has the standard static IP address given
to it by XP's Network Wizard of 192.168.0.1, and the modem requires
the Ethernet card it is connected to, to have an Automatically
assigned address. Is there anyway around this?

You don't need the network wizard to setup this type of network! By
default, TCP/IP is configured to use DHCP to gets its IP address from the
DHCP server of the adsl router. So having used the network wizard to setup
static IP addresses is pointless. Just switch the TCP/IP config back to use
DHCP.

2) If I remove this static IP address, I'm guessing the network will
stop working, although the modem will now be detected. How can I get
around this? Would installing another ethernet card solve this?

The modem is part of the adsl router, it's self-contained, there's nothing
about any PC needing to "detect" the modem. You plug in each PC to the LAN
ports of the router. You then plug in the DSL connection to the router.
When the router is powered up, it automatically makes a DHCP request over
the phone line to your ISP and assigns itself an *external* IP. Likewise,
each client PC should be configured to use DHCP, so that each gets an
*internal* IP address (typically in the 192.168.0.x range) from the router.
The router then maps internal IP assignments to the external IP to give each
PC Internet access.

The problem here is that your making this waaaaay more complicated than it
really is. The configuration is VERY simple. You're thinking to hard
Again, just configure all clients to use DHCP, patch 'em all to LAN ports on
the router, plug the phone line into the router, and power it up. That's
all there really is to it! Most routers are designed to connect up pretty
easily if you don't muck w/ the default configuration, it's most just
plugging in cables! Once connectivity is established, *then* you can use
the adsl router's configuration interface to fine tune it.

HTH

Jim

 

[Chris C]

Hey Jim, thanks for this. You were dead right, I was thinking far too
hard and looking too deeply into the problem. To be honest, my initial
thought was to do what you said but I chickened out and looked for
help first!

Cheers for your response.

Chris