Wireless Home Networking - Index of

216
Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
Getting an IP address
For the most part, if you’ve set up your router to provide IP addresses within
your network using DHCP (as we discuss in Chapters 5 and 6), your gaming
PC or gaming console automatically connects to the router when the device
is turned on and sends a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request
to the router, asking for an IP address. If you’ve configured your gaming PC, as
we discuss in Chapters 7 and 8, your computer should get its IP address and
be online automatically. Or, as we like to say about this kind of neat stuff,
automagically. You may need to go into a program to select an access point
and enter your WEP password, but otherwise it should just work without any
intervention.
If you have a game console with a wireless Ethernet bridge, the process should
be almost as smooth. The first time you use the bridge, you may need to use
a Web browser interface on one of your PCs to set up WEP keys or WPA
passphrases; otherwise, your router should automatically assign an IP
address to your console.
Before you get all wrapped around the axle trying to get your game console
connected to your router, check out the Web site of your console maker and
your router manufacturer. We have no doubt that you can find lots of information
about how to make this connection. In many cases, if you’re having
trouble getting your router to assign an IP address to your console, you need
to download a firmware upgrade for your router. Firmware is the software
that lives inside your router and tells your router how to behave. Most router
vendors have released updated firmware to help their older router models
work with gaming consoles.
Some older router models simply don’t work with gaming consoles. If online
gaming is an important part of your plans, check the Web sites we mention
earlier in this chapter before you choose a router.
In most cases, if your console doesn’t get assigned an IP address automatically,
you need to go into your router’s setup program — most use a Web
browser on a networked PC to adjust the configuration — and manually
assign a fixed IP address to the console. Unlike DHCP-assigned IP addresses
(which can change every time a computer logs on to the network), this fixed
IP address is always assigned to your console.
Every router has a slightly different system for doing this, but typically you
simply select an IP address that isn’t in the range of DHCP addresses that
your router automatically assigns to devices connected to your network.