Need easy way to switch from DHCP to Static IP

[pwright2]

Our church school has a small wireless network. I try to support it. For some reason, lately it has stopped giving IP addresses to some machines. Wireless, anyhow. Wired still seems to work OK. Most of the teachers have Windows machines and I install a program called NetSetMan which lets them easily switch from DHCP to a static address I have allocated to them. More a workaround than a solution, but it gets them onto the internet. But now some of them are showing up with iPads. I can go to the settings to give them a static IP, but that means it won't work when they go home (most likely). They kind of glaze over when I try to show them the changes to make. Is there an app which would do for them what NetSetMan does for the Windows machines?


-----Paul-----

 

[richsadams]

Our church school has a small wireless network. I try to support it. For some reason, lately it has stopped giving IP addresses to some machines. Wireless, anyhow. Wired still seems to work OK. Most of the teachers have Windows machines and I install a program called NetSetMan which lets them easily switch from DHCP to a static address I have allocated to them. More a workaround than a solution, but it gets them onto the internet. But now some of them are showing up with iPads. I can go to the settings to give them a static IP, but that means it won't work when they go home (most likely). They kind of glaze over when I try to show them the changes to make. Is there an app which would do for them what NetSetMan does for the Windows machines?


-----Paul-----

Hi Paul. The iPad will connect to the last network used unless it's unavailable in which case it will connect to the closest nearby network if it's been set up. (Even if it hasn't been set up all they need to do is tap Settings > Wi-Fi and choose a network, enter their password and the iPad will remember it.)

So when they leave home and go to the church the iPad will connect to the network there (via the static IP) and when they return home it will reconnect to their home network. Again, even if it didn't for some odd reason, they just need to go to Settings > Wi-Fi and choose their network.

Hope that helps!

 

[pwright2]

Hmmm. Doesn't seem to match up with what I am hearing from the teachers. But I will discuss it with them. Thanks.

-----Paul-----

 

[richsadams]

Hmmm. Doesn't seem to match up with what I am hearing from the teachers. But I will discuss it with them. Thanks.

-----Paul-----

Sounds good. Try to get specific details from anyone having problems. Folks here are very good at resolving things.

Cheers!

 

[ipadbraincell]

giving the iPad a fixed ip of say 192.168.000.100 will be fine on one network, but might well cause problems if their home routers are set to say 192.168.001.001 (10 or 254 being the most common router ip's)

the first three sets of numbers have to be identical on the iOad and the router, the last number on a fixed internal IP address (100) must not clash with any other network device that happens to be on the same address. the routers DHCP server only allocates the last address 3 digit number

my suggestion is try move the WiFi channel to say 16, you might be getting local interference from a nearby less than stable WiFi router.

i'd also suggest show by notation how to change settings between static and dynamic, but not bother to explain why, if asked simply state you hapily get on a train - but most have no idea how to drive one .

 

[twerppoet]

Static IP settings are associated with specific networks, and the settings can only be found when you expand the settings for that network. To the best of my knowledge you can not set an overall static IP address on an iOS device.

Heck, I can't do it on the computer's wifi connection. Only the hard wire ports work that way.

It should not matter what you set for the church when the connect to their home network. That said, I've never actually tested this; so I'm willing to be proven wrong. It's also a bit difficult to see, since you can't access and edit setting for networks that you are not currently connected to.

 

[ipadbraincell]

question - how many devices are being connected at the same time?

strikes me while you could have over 200, the normal router will not be be able to stream to all devices at once, so if your streaming words to hymns with animation you might well be trying to pull to much bandwidth at one time and need a more industrial router, or connect extra routers to handle it.

in my early networking days, i installed an emergency 'ad hoc' network for my wife's firm, hung printers off pc's which was fine unless the printer was doing a mail shot run then the host computer slowed right down, and that was a wired network.

have you also considered while your congregation are singing, they may well also be downloading heavy data on their pads as well as other devices? to stop that misuse i'd either use MAC filtering, or easier, remove the adsl plug if not needing internet access during the service.

 

[pwright2]

There are maybe 30 devices on the net at one time. About a third of those are wired. The rest are mostly notebooks (and iPads) checking email. The problems surface during the week. We don't use the network for our Sunday projections (except for the scary moments when the Pastor shows up and says "I want you to play this youtube video as a sermon illustration". I much prefer downloading the video over trying to play it live, but so far it has worked out.

 

[ipadbraincell]

There are maybe 30 devices on the net at one time. About a third of those are wired. The rest are mostly notebooks (and iPads) checking email. The problems surface during the week. We don't use the network for our Sunday projections (except for the scary moments when the Pastor shows up and says "I want you to play this youtube video as a sermon illustration". I much prefer downloading the video over trying to play it live, but so far it has worked out.

i can't say i'm right here, but I suspect although your routers spec likely supports high speed, it will not be able to cope doing so on more than a few ports at the same time at full throttle..

if in the UK, google 'Auriga' they supply simple and very serious network equipment and also offer excellent free tech advice (especially if you bribe them with a promise from the 'big man' of a little bit of heavens real estate ).

i'll be seeing my son this weekend, he is a 'New Frontiers' church leader (i'm a borderline atheist - so you can imagine our festive discussions in our family lol!) but he is also into technology as an ex-school teacher in a very modern school.

he may have more hands in experience in your needs, if so i'll report back.

 

[ipadbraincell]

Right, spoke to my savvy son,

he suggest look at an app called 'proclaim', it runs on android and iOS in cloud, so you can multi work your sermons with whoever is organising say the hymns, best of all is free for a period. cost is based on church member numbers, so small churches are not over burdened.

software is American, so you can get a feel for versatility and of how it will operate, i think it will compress packages to make streaming smoother.

Hope this helps, please let me know

 

[USBill]

Why fix many computers when what is broken is the wifi device?

It may just have exceeded the number of dhcp addresses it is set to give out. I setup my home wifi for to only locate 10 up addresses but in the past year we exceeded that with family members visiting. You might just need change the upper limit.


Posted with TapaTalk for iPhone

 

[ipadbraincell]

Most routers i have used have all 255 available addresses open with exception of the of the router address. if a device is not connected the DHOC server will not continue to reserve that address, so if it is a poor signal the reinitiating of the DHCP server happens each reconnect, thats why giving devices fixed internal ip's helps overcome poor connection issues by taking the DHCP server delay out if the equation..


but they will retain the MAC address of devices when disconnected, this allows for the Admin to restrict/widen certain devices access, without it actually being present on the network at that time.