changing device ip address?

Feb 19, 2014 30 Replies

I'm on a home wifi network that (if I am reading ipconfig /all correctly) has the following settings:



Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:



DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes



IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.3(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1



How do I access a device that is default configured to



192.168.2.2 so I can change its ip and make it connect to my home network? It has an ethernet cable connection I can use to connect to a pc but I obviously do not want to change anything on my connected pcs that would mess up my current home network.

Thank you.


The easiest way that I know, and the way that I typically do it, is to temporarily change my local IP address so that it's on the same subnet as the target device. Then directly connect* the device to your PC, access it, and change its IP to an unused IP on your 10.0.0.x subnet. At this point you'll lose contact with it, so change your local IP back to what it was and you're in business.

*If your PC and the target device both have Gigabit Ethernet ports, either a standard straight-through cable or a crossover cable will work equally well, but if either side is less than Gig-capable then a crossover cable is required. Since most people don't have a crossover lying around, use a networking device to join the two units. A switch is perfect for this.

Holler if you need more detail.

Unfortunately I do need more help. I'm on a Windows 7 PC and need more details.

The device I am trying to get to is a StarTech "1 port 10/100 Mbps Parallel Network Print Server (PM1115P)" which I use to print from a pc to an old laser printer that only has an ancient parallel port.

I had it set up and working correctly as follows: PC ........ My Router ...... This print server connected to the printer's port

Everything worked fine till I changed isp from Cox to Verizon fios. My router automatically adjusted to the new FIOS modem/router ip and the network came up fine. But that made the pc unable to find and print to this printer.

I am assuming the printer is no longer connected to the PC because of the conflict with the new ip.

Can't just add a route?

Change your PC to 192.168.2.10 and you'll be able to see the print server. Log into the print server and change its network settings to DHCP. Set your PC back to DHCP. This should get you going.

Thanks. But where and how do I change my pc to 192.168.2.10 ?

I have never seen a LOCAL network router CHANGE the entire LOCAL network just because the outbound WAN access provider changed - that would be very unusual. Now if the router is just a "pass-thru" and all the IP network info is coming from the ISP, then that makes more sense, and your router is not really acting like a router, but more like a bridge or access modem.

Anyway - I happen to still use a Print Server directly connected to my parallel port HP 4 laser.

For setup - you can also create a temp address on your "10.x.x" network to access the print server, and this is how it is usually done for a quick and easy method.

1 - print server and your PC or whatever must be physically on the same local network 2 - look at the print server, and write down the MAC address.... ie - 00-90-48-.... 3 - assign that MAC to a temp address using the RUN command to get to a DOS prompt 4 - enter these types of commands - with YOUR print server MAC and a temp 10.x.x address 5 - you should then have temp access to your print server at IP 10.0.0.25

rem .. print server ARP setup arp -a arp -s 10.0.0.25 00-13-46-25-f7-93

I don't see how that would help in this case, unless you're suggesting that he add a route to his router rather than to his PC. I'm not sure if his router even supports that. It's faster and easier to temp change his local IP.

Open the Network and Sharing Center On the left side, click on Change Adapter Settings Find your network adapter, right click on it and select Properties Select Internet Protocol Version 4 and click on Properties Select the radio button "Use the following IP address" Enter the new (temp) IP address Enter a netmask of 255.255.255.0 Ignore the DNS section, click OK At the command prompt, type ipconfig to verify the change.

To put everything back like it was when you're done, just select the radio button "Obtain an IP address automatically".

huh ? most home "routers" have a "switch" glued to a 1-port WAN-LAN router, which merely takes the ISP world, and the assigned IP, and translates it - or in this case maybe not - to the local IP network addressing scheme, which implies that ALL devices on the "switch" must use the same IP network. How would you tell the router that both 10.x.x and 192.x.x live on the exact same "switch" port..

I though all routers supported that.

Useful routers will indeed let you have multiple IPs on a single interface [eg Linux and Mikrotik RouterOS will just let you add arbitrary extra IPs to an interface, IOS will let you add a secondary]. However, most domestic- grade routers [even if they are 90% likely to be running linux] don't let you do useful things like that.

For the OP, a temporary change of IP address will probably be much quicker.

You guys have been wonderful but no matter what I do I just can't get the pc to see this device. Network stuff always gets me! Having wasted a lot of time on it I decided to just give up and get a new printer. Wish you guys were next door ;-) Thank you all again.

One of us might be next door. You never know. Anyway, I'm sorry to see you giving up but at some point you have to cut your losses. Good luck and enjoy the new printer.

I never know or depend upon what the IP "might" be in a unknown device. That's why I always use the very simple ARP set of commands on any local PC (without changing anything locally on the PC) to setup temp access into the device, so I can config it to what I need... Of course you have to have the MAC hardware address - which is usually on the label. Works all the time -

What are the ARP commands? How do I use them. I can see the mac address printed on the device.

Good to know. There's nothing you can do to the PC to change the IP address of the Startech print server.

Not a too horrible print server. Click on the Drivers and Downloads tab. Grab the manual at: Skimming the manual, you'll notice that it mumbles something about using the "Admin Utility" to configure the IP address. That utility is neatly buried under the "driver" download at: Download and Unzip the archive. You should find two files: Admin.exe Client.exe I think you can deal with it from there...

you can follow along in my "other" message about ARP, posted above this topic/thread...

Network devices actually talk to each other at the MAC layer/level, and use these unique hardware addresses to communicate. Other "protocols" ride above the MAC layer, and use other "addressing" that makes sense and are easier for people and networking/routing to handle the packets flying around.

ARP = the physical hardware Address Resolution Protocol

ie - 192.168.1.2 .... one device sends out an ARP broadcast looking for this address. all physical devices see the request, but only the config'd device responds, and with the response comes the MAC address. From that point on - each of the devices knows how to send to each other's MAC address.

SO - the ARP commands can create a temp entry on your PC pointing to the MAC addess of the new/unknown device.

1 - the print server and your PC or whatever must be physically on the same network 2 - look at the print server, and write down the MAC address.... ie - 00-90-48-93-2F-7E 3 - assign that MAC to a temp TCP/IP address using the RUN command to get to a DOS prompt and then the ARP command 4 - enter these commands - using YOUR print server MAC and a temp 10.x.x address 5 - you should then have temp access to your print server at IP 10.0.0.25

arp -a arp -s 10.0.0.25 00-90-48-93-2F-7E

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