A home office or small office local network can be set up using a range of IP addresses.
Question, what range of addresses should I use for a home office or small office network. You can choose addresses that will not appear on the outside network. They will be kept inside your network by your local router using NAT or Network Address Translation.
You can pick your local "inside" IP addresses from the following ranges.
Class A:
10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255
Class B:
172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255
Class C:
192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255
You should subnet your address to only use the right 8 bits of the IP address for the host.
Most of the time, local subnet use 192.168.1.0 as an address range.
This means that the following are true:
192.168.1.0 is the network address.
192.168.1.1 should be used for your router.
192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.254 can be used for any computers, printers, servers or other gear on your home or small office network.
192.168.1.255 is reserved for your broadcast address.
The following is an example of a typical home or small office network. Your network will probably be somewhat different.
IP address Device Type
_____________ _____________________________________________________________________________
192.168.1.1 Wired or wireless firewall router example Linksys WRT-54G Wireless G Router.
192.168.1.2 printer - HP LaserJet 4000N 192.168.1.2
192.168.1.3 printer - Cannon S450 color connected via a Hawking USB print server.
192.168.1.4 Desktop PC # 1
192.168.1.5 Desktop PC # 2
192.168.1.6 Laptop Computer.
192.168.1.7 through 192.168.1.49 reserved for future computers.
192.168.1.50 through 192.168.1.99 Router assigned PCs via DHCP automatic assignment.
192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.254 reserved for future computers.
To set up Static addresses on each computer, follow the following example:
For each computer, ie Desktop PC # 1, with Windows XP, You could do the following:
Press Start
Right click My Network Places, select Properties.
Right click under LAN or High Speed Internet, Local Area Connection and select properties.
Select Internet Protocol, (TCP/IP) and select the properties button.
Select Use the Following IP address
IP address: 192.168.1.3
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
Select Use the following DNS server addresses:
Preferred DNS server: 206.13.28.12
Alternate DNS server: 206.13.31.12
Note: You must obtain the DNS server addresses from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). The above DNS server addresses are examples for SBC in the SF Bay Area.