HOWTO: Setting up multiple static IP's on NON BT Hardware.

[gRoberts]

Hey everyone,

Well... After I'd say 3 months of battling with BT, I finally managed to get them to pull their finger out (Thank you Fiona for her help) and support an issue caused by them.

I've been looking ALL over the internet for help on setting up an ADSL Modem/Router with multiple static IP's and I never found any.

What's even more annoying is, the solution is SO simple.

First of all, You need to make sure you have an ADSL modem that is capable of disabling NAT.

I tried everything and couldn't get anywhere and the nice people at ITSM resolved the problem within minutes.

BT gave me the following information:

Gateway IP: 81.xxx.xx.222

Range: 217-221

Netmask: 255.255.255.248

So first of all, I logged into the ADSL Modem, put in my login credentials and disabled NAT.

After that, you need to change the IP Address of the ADSL modem and it's internal DHCP range (or disable DHCP) to reflect your details above.

Set the IP Address to 81.xxx.xx.222 and set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.248.

Then, if you have DHCP enabled, set the starting IP as 81.xxx.xx.217 and the end 81.xxx.xx.221.

Now all you need to do is either plug in your devices and let the DHCP assign the addresses, or you can set the IP manually on the device.

When setting it manually, make sure you set the Gateway IP and DNS as 81.xxx.xx.222. For the secondary DNS server, I use OpenDNS's servers.

Then, go to http://www.myipaddress.com to confirm it all...

If anyone has any problems, post here and I will "try" to help, or hopefully it will encourage others to help out.

Fingers crossed, BT won't delete this.

Cheers

Gavin

[Fiona · Accepted solution]

Hi GRoberts,

Thanks for posting the solution up. We wont be taking this post down as it will be a big help for other people on the forum.

Thanks again,

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

[gRoberts]

Thank you Fiona, it wouldn't of happened without your help!

You can understand why I'd think BT would want to delete it though.

If anyone see's any flaws in my post, please do let me know and I will update it accordingly.

Cheers

[gabi_cavaller]

This should certainly not be deleted.

I have been trying to set this up in one of our offices and failed, 4 attempts in the last 6 months and still no luck.

Spoken to numerous techies and none able to help with this scenario.

As soon as you mention you are using a none BT router, you're asked if you want to speak to the additional support team at a cost. (why should I pay, when I am already paying for extra IP's and also, it's their own line - regardless of the device you use, the settings are all the same.*)

I will be trying this out shortly and seeing if I can get this up and running.

Many thanks, this thread has been ever so helpful,

Regards,

Gabi.

[gabi_cavaller]

Sadly, didn't work.

I will have more of a play later.

What LAN IP with you give your router?

My config was as follows.

Gatway : 217.xxx.xxx.254

Range: 249-253

Network Mask 255.255.255.248

ROUTER > FIREWALL > PCS's (via a switch)

ROUTER:

WAN 217.xxx.xxx.254

NAT off

DCHP off

LAN IP: 192.168.1.1

FIREWALL:

WAN 217.xxx.xxx.249

LAN 192.168.1.10

................................................

Thanks,

[spank]

Hi there,

You can't assign a WAN IP, this must be set to obtain automatically.  Set the router LAN to one of your static IP's or enable DHCP and set the range as gRoberts suggests.

Bear in mind this will only work for a limited number of PC's, once you run out of static IP's you cannot add any more without additional hardware unless your router is capable of dealing with two subnets like a Vigor 2xxx.

Thanks

[alastair]

Dude (gabi), this has been covered a hundred times in these forums.

First off BT don't support 3rd party routers because they did not supply them and any service provider will do the same. They will support the equipment they supply and have a next level of tech support or people who know what they are doing and this service will be chargeable. BT do it. Virgin do it and i'm sure others will do it too. it would only make sense. Why would you get equipment you clearly don't know how to set up yourself and then expect someone else to help you with it for free?

Anyhoo i digress, one more time for your benefit.

This works on most routers. some routers are slightly different.

First log into the router GUI. (graphical user interface)

leave the WAN (wide area network) ip to obtain automatically. you specify this and it wont work.

go to LAN (local area network) setup and change the LAN range from your default e.g. 192.168.0.1 (i love netgears) to the multi static gateway address. you can have DHCP on if you want for the 5 ips but sensible people turn it off to avoid duplicate assignment of ips.

apply those settings and you will lose access to the GUI. you now specify one of the 5 static ips as the pc ip address and put the routers new gateway address as the default gateway.

this is just to give access to the gui again.

you now find the tick box for NAT (network address translation) and untick it or select disable. save the settings and then reboot the router. when it comes back on you should get internet access on the pc. (remember to specify DNS in the TCP/IP settings or it also wont work) if it does then its all good and your firewall is ready to go on.

Hopefully this is not too complicated and you will manage to set this up.

If not BT have their ITSM desk that can talk you through this but it is chargeable remember.

PS - Spank - no, thats wrong. the network of PCs will go behind the hardware firewall that will have a WAN ip of 1 of the 5 static ips and a normal private network that will host all the pcs.

[spank]

You can't assign a WAN IP to the BT router...you just said that yourself too.  And how do you expect the static IP's and the 'normal' network as you say to communicate without additional hardware.  There needs to be hardware that is capable of bridging the 2 subnets, a firewall or most routers won't do this.

Multiple statics may be confusing the issue, why do you need multiples?

[alastair]

Perhaps you mis-read

Yes. you cannot assign a static ip to the WAN of the router.

You can assign a static ip (the 5 static ips not the gateway ip) to the WAN of the device behind the router, in this case the hardware firewall. it was this devices WAN i was referring to.

The static ips and normal network are seperate as the network should be

Router > Hardware Firewall >PCs

not

Router > Hardware Firewall + PCs   (this is the physical setup you are confusing this with, which yes this is wrong for multi statics and will cause issues in regards to networking and if you have a single ip you can do this but it makes the Hardware Firewall pointless.)

so lets go with an example of how a network should be physically set up for multi-statics.

lets say i have 5 ips

1.2.3.4 - 1.2.3.8

gateway is 1.2.3.9

we have: Router (WAN - Auto LAN IP - 1.2.3.9) > Hardware firewall (WAN IP 1.2.3.4/5/6/7 or 8  LAN 192.168.1.X (or whatever you want as the private range)) > PCs (obtain DHCP from Hardware Firewall)

this is the common setup for multi static ips at a basic level.

Hopefully this clears up confusion

[a-hill]

I'm inclined to agree with alastair, the LAN side of the firewall will be handling the private network while the WAN side sits with one of the static IP's in the range. It would defeat the point of the firewall if the PC's were sitting along side it and not going through it.