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ghostfrog

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Assignment of Static IP Address to Router for Small Network

Hi,

I just had Comcast Business Internet installed.  I also have 10 Static IP Addresses from Comcast.  I want to assign Static IP addresses to 5 VOIP phones, 2 computers and 1 printer.  I also have 2 laptops that will connect to the network via Wi-Fi.  I have a Linksys wireless router and a 16-port D-Link Switch.

My question is do I need to assign the Linksys router a Static IP address also?  If so, how do I do that?
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Patrick Tallarico
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I have a question first, do you need all of these devices to have publiclyviewable ip addresses?  I would be curious why you would want these devices to be configured this way and to not use the standard NAT subnetting provided with a linksys router. (Even the Comcast router provides private networking capabilities with firewalling capabilities.)

Personally I would strongly recommend against configuring a network that way. By using NAT and creating a private network, you can use the router firewall to better protect your network. You can still use static ip addresses assigned by your private network router(with the current hardware listed, you could use the linksys to create and manage your private network addressing). You can then open up only the specific ports that you may need to be available publicly.  First through the linksys, then, if necessary through the comcast router.  I just feel I have to say this as a caveat to the following solution.

Please feel free to ask about these configuration options if this sounds like what you would really need.

The easiest way to have the devices configured for public addresses would be to manually set up each device with the proper address netmask and gateway and connect them through the d-link switch that would be directly connected to the comcast router.  Then you can use your linksys router directly connected to the comcast device to make a wireless connection available to other devices (ie. the 2 laptops).

Again, I recommend using a private network for all of your devices.  There are many ways to configure these devices to allow access to the devices and services you need without having to fully expose each device publicly to the internet.
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ghostfrog

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Hi Stpm11,

Thank you for answering my question.  The reason I thought that these 5 VOIP phones needed to be configured with Static IP addresses is that my research showed that a Static IP addresses provide "more stability" when using VOIP phones (is that correct?).  And I felt that if I used Static IP's for the phones I might as well use them for the 2 computers and 1 printer (especially for the Printer because it's a Google Cloud Ready printer that employees will be access from home).  No one "really" needs to access the network from the outside (except the Cloud printer) so do you think it will be easier and, just as stable, to use DHCP?  If so, what would be the best way to configure the Linksys router?
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Patrick Tallarico
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