Music-PC not retaining IP Address

[manniraj]

I have built a HTPC as well as a Music-PC and connect them using ethernet ports of my Netgear Wifi router. Initially I had set the IP addresses for all my LAN/wifi clients in the LAN IP setup. Then realized that I have only 2 wired PC's and the rest of the them are wifi clients. Hence removed the wifi clients from the LAN IP setup and configured them for the IP setup under the Wireless setup menu.

Now the question is my router is on 24/7 and is rarely switched off. But I use both the wired PC's once in a day. So sometimes my HTPC retains the IP address setup in the router and my Music-PC retains its own IP. But off time now-a-days this IP is not being retained by both of the PC's. They invariably pick some random IP address within the range of 2 to 51 as set in the router.

Both of these PC's run on Win 7 Ultimate 64bit with gigabit LAN. This is creating a problem as I have the Andriod tablet running XBMC remote and Foobar remote. I cannot use them as the PC's are not retaining the IP addresses. Also it takes lot of effort in looking at the IP address of my Music-PC as it is headless run the HTTP control with the correct IP. Looked at various solutions over the net but none solves my problem.

Somebody can guide me in resolving this problem..
Thanks in advance..

 

[baijuxavior]

Check the ip settings of your network adapter under > Properties > Networking> Internet Ptotocol version 4 > Properties. Use the option 'Use the following IP address' instead of 'Obtain an IP address automatically'.

 

[manniraj]

Check the ip settings of your network adapter under > Properties > Networking> Internet Ptotocol version 4 > Properties. Use the option 'Use the following IP address' instead of 'Obtain an IP address automatically'.

Ok I did not do these settings as all along I was in the impression that I need to set the desired IP address in the router LAN IP setup and when the PC is started with the MAC address already assigned to the specific IP in the router will pick-up the IP address. Let me try this option as well as suggested by you. Will post my findings.

Thanks

 

[EthenHunt]

Disable DHCP server from router.

 

[manniraj]

Disable DHCP server from router.

As per this site which is the same settings that I have got on my router, If I disable the DHCP how do I get the IP address. Then I think the router will assign any dynamic IP rather than a fixed/desired IP correct?

 

[ontherocks]

You need to set up static IP in LAN configuration of both the computers.

Make sure they are in the same subnet.

 

[manniraj]

You need to set up static IP in LAN configuration of both the computers.

Make sure they are in the same subnet.

Can you please re-post the picture, it is not visible? I believe you are referring to the same as baiju posted it earlier in the thread.

thanks

 

[baijuxavior]

I can see the image. Yes it is what I posted above.

 

[sam9s]

@Manniraj

Dont switch off DHCP...
Keep windows settings to "Automatically obtain an IP"
Open your router config page by 192.168.x.y (for linksys its 192.168.0.1)
You need to find a setting called DHCP reservation. Something like below.

With DHCP reservation you can tell you router to assign the same IP everytime you machine reboots, or even if your router reboots ......

add the ips in to the table and you are done .....

 

[manniraj]

@Manniraj

Dont switch off DHCP...
Keep windows settings to "Automatically obtain an IP"
Open your router config page by 192.168.x.y (for linksys its 192.168.0.1)
You need to find a setting called DHCP reservation. Something like below.

With DHCP reservation you can tell you router to assign the same IP everytime you machine reboots, or even if your router reboots ......

add the ips in to the table and you are done .....

Yes Sam I did as you said but whenever I restart my PC's they obtain a diff IP address even though under the "Address Reservation" I can see that I have set my desired IP still being retained. So I am going to try out what Baiju said to set the IP address manually for each PC under the TCP/IP properties. When I faced this issue I looked at the net the solutions what everybody has put is the same which I was actually following but not working so was not sure whether I am missing something.

Thanks

 

[sam9s]

^^ Thats is absolutely strange, with DHCP reservation the IP would always be same. Very rarely DHCP reservation looses. It happens some times, and then a new ip is assigned, but its rare. All I do it to reserve it again and its good for months .....

Well then if this persists, you can follow what ethen said, switch off DHCP and try to assign manually, but I am still sure the problem is something else .....

 

[ukjeyaraj]

DHCP reservation is used by me for getting same IP for all the components(both wired and wireless) I use at home. It works well. I have never got different IPs. I am using D-Link Router

 

[saikatbiswas82]

I believe your HTPC is connected via Wi-Fi.

A few possible ways you can try:

1. Switch off the router and connect your HTPC with the conventional LAN cable. So that only the HTPC is now connected with internet. Now restart the system few times and check whether the IP is getting changed frequently.
- If this fixes the problem, then I think someone is hacking into your wi-fi network. change the wi-fi password.

2. If the problem persists, try to scan your system with updated antivirus.

3. Otherwise, try to reinstall the OS.

 

[manniraj]

I believe your HTPC is connected via Wi-Fi.

A few possible ways you can try:

1. Switch off the router and connect your HTPC with the conventional LAN cable. So that only the HTPC is now connected with internet. Now restart the system few times and check whether the IP is getting changed frequently.
- If this fixes the problem, then I think someone is hacking into your wi-fi network. change the wi-fi password.

2. If the problem persists, try to scan your system with updated antivirus.

3. Otherwise, try to reinstall the OS.

Both the PC's which I listed are connected over hard wired LAN to the Netgear wifi router. So the option 1 is ruled out. I frequently change my wifi password so this option is also ruled out. I think my router is the problem as I brought this from US way back in 2007 and use a small converter to connect the power adaptor. As it is running 24/7 sometimes gets restarted and I loose my internet connection as well.
Will try as what baiju/ethenhunt suggested to set it manually in each of the PC's and see what happens.

Thanks

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Many routers will allow you to reserve a particular IP for use by a particular MAC address only* --- but why bother with all that! Wherever possible, just use static IP addresses. It means you have to take the responsibility to make sure that you never use the same one more than once, but that is really not so hard to do.

Do not switch off DHCP: it comes in very handy for newly attached devices, new Ubuntu installs, devices that can't have a fixed IP, etc, etc... but make sure that you have only one DHCP on your network. With an ISP-provided modem, and a wifi router (or two) it can be very easy to have more than one.


*Like this:

 

[musicbee]

Did you change any settings recently? Did it work previously?

 

[manniraj]

Did you change any settings recently? Did it work previously?

It used to work without any issues earlier when I used to have only the HTPC. But after I built the music-pc I have 2 wired PC's in the network and now both of them behave correctly once in a while and most of the times they both get different IP addresses. I checked whether I setup my music-pc something differently but not sure as I just installed the win7 OS the same one as my HTPC with almost the same settings.

Thanks

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

But after I built the music-pc I have 2 wired PC's in the network and now both of them behave correctly once in a while and most of the times they both get different IP addresses.

They are not behaving in-correctly! In fact, they are not "behaving" at all: if configured to get an IP address from a DHCP server, all they can do is ask for one: what they get is what they get. If this was not the desired behaviour, then fixed addresses would have been used.

There is nothing actually wrong with what your router is doing. There is no reaosn for it to give the same IP to the same machine each time unless it is told to. I've mentioned how to tell it to in my previous post.

Notice that, in my pic, there is also a field called "lease." This is another way of ensuring that a machine's IP does not change too often. If you use the PCs daily, setting it to 24 (or more) hours should ensure that the same address is given, although which address will not be under your control. Just put a big number in there!

"Lease" says, "having issued this IP to that particular machine, I will reserve it for that PC, even when it is not on the net, for this much time"

 

[manniraj]

Here is the settings that I have done where I do not see the option of "Lease" which I saw in the above posts.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Hmmm... ok... In this case it is silly question time...

1. Did you save your router DHCP config,

2. Have you rebooted your router since that (please do).

3. Are you sure that this router is where the DHCP settings are coming from?

re point 3: Is your router a modem/router, or do you have a seperate modem? If you have a seperate modem, does it have DHCP enabled? If so then disable it!

Been there, suffered from that... nothing like tryng to fix a problem in the wrong place