Way to make file server not take IP addy?

[Patriot]

My roommate and I are running a network for network gaming and we share a cable modem through a 10/100 hub (cable co is nice enough to give to IPs free ). My roommate uses my printer and just prints over the network, but when he does that my machine (running Win2k) slows down signifigantly while the document is in the print queue. I have this older system sitting around that was going to be an ICS server before I realized we didn't need it (b/c of the 2 free IPs) that has Win2k installed and a couple of other things. My question is this: is there a way to plug this unused system into the network as a file/print server but make sure it doesn't take one of the IP addresses from teh cable company? Right now, we have the cable modem plugged into the uplink port on the hub and the other boxes into the other ports on the hub. any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Adul]

asssign it is own IP address in the 192.0.0.x range,

 

[Warrenton]

yes. Assign all of your machines an addition IP address in the 192.x.x.x range with a 255.255.255.248 (use the smallest subnet that fits the number of machines you will ever have on the local net, this increases efficiency), then all local communications go on that. Don't specify a gateway or DNS for that stack. Then leave the current real IP's alone. That way whenever you do anything local it uses one set of IP's and if you go to the net it uses the other. This also means that all your local traffic is invisible to the internet, i mean completely invisible. Only if the IP that something is destined for is not on the local network will it go on the other IP stack and the internet.

Also if you desire you can set up RRAS on that one machine and do NAT to route all out, but this is slower probably and will limit you in some aspects. NAT is much better than ICS (It needs no client software)

 

[ktwebb]

You dont want to use IP here. Put NetBEUI on the file server and add NetBeui to your client machines. If you do want to got the dual IP route, your best bet is to add another NIC to each machine, but you will likely have resolution issues that way. Bind NetBEUI to file and printer sharing and uncheck TCP/IP if checked on the clients. NetBEUI is the easiest and cleanest route here.