Routers, Static IPs, and DNS

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-09-17 09:34am

What's the easiest way to set up a static IP address for a computer on a network with a NAT router (Linksys)?

Now, I've been using static IPs on the router for a long time for port forwarding. However, I had to find my ISP's DNS servers and tell them to each computer I gave a static IP. Not too difficult, since they're given on the router's Status page.

Last time I was playing around with it, though, I tried putting the router's IP address in as the DNS server and surprisingly enough, it worked! I did this on a Linux and Windows 98 system with no trouble. Power went out a few times, but that's unrelated.

Now here's the odd part. The other day, the power went out in a storm. When the power came back on, everything was fine except both of the static IP systems couldn't resolve any addresses. I put the ISP's DNS servers into the network properties and everything was fine again.

But my question is: what would cause a router to apparently forward DNS requests to the proper servers for a period of time, then suddenly stop? I can't figure out if I had it doing something it shouldn't, or if it's now not doing something it should do....

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-09-17 11:39am

Check your Linksys router to see if their DNS forwarding has been disabled somehow.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-09-17 01:48pm

I don't even see an option for it, which is why I was confused. Router is an old BFSR41. I updated the firmware and the problem appears to be solved, though I haven't exactly done extensive testing. Any idea what happened there?

Also, It seems there's three BFSR41 versions out there... I definitely have thei oldest one, but there's a ver 2 and ver 3 hardware with firmware for those. Any idea if trying that firmware would be safe? I'd assume not, especially since the ver 1 firmware is still being updated.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-09-17 03:41pm

Updating to firmware intended for a newer hardware revision is bad mojo.