I'm assuming you're only getting one real IP from your ISP, so by "static IP" you just mean static internal IPs? Like, your laptop will always be 192.168.1.11 on the internal network, even though your external, "real" IP for your network is 10.1.11.178 or whatever?

What if you turn on internet connection sharing on your main Mac, then use the "DHCP with manual address" option on your secondary computers, making sure to specify a valid IP in the subnet that internet connection sharing uses? That is, if using DHCP on your secondary computer gives you the IP 192.168.1.12 or whatever, you could probably put on DHCP with manual address using the IP 192.168.1.100 if you want, and it would probably work. From then on, that computer would be 192.168.1.100. I'm not sure if a similar option is available on PCs, unfortunately - I haven't used one in years.

If you were using a router instead of a master Mac, you could just tell it to run a DHCP server but always assign certain IPs to certain MAC addresses. I'm not sure if such a thing is possible using the Mac instead, but the above solution might work.

Finally! Hard drive-based camcorders are here.

As technophiles sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, one thing they can be grateful for is the passing of the magnetic-tape era. The days of storing computer data, music collections and Hollywood movies on spools of tape will soon be completely gone.

[link]

I'm assuming you're only getting one real IP from your ISP, so by "static IP" you just mean static internal IPs? Like, your laptop will always be 192.168.1.11 on the internal network, even though your external, "real" IP for your network is 10.1.11.178 or whatever?

Right

What if you turn on internet connection sharing on your main Mac, then use the "DHCP with manual address" option on your secondary computers, making sure to specify a valid IP in the subnet that internet connection sharing uses? That is, if using DHCP on your secondary computer gives you the IP 192.168.1.12 or whatever, you could probably put on DHCP with manual address using the IP 192.168.1.100 if you want, and it would probably work. From then on, that computer would be 192.168.1.100. I'm not sure if a similar option is available on PCs, unfortunately - I haven't used one in years.

My computers are set up for 192.168.15.2 through 192.168.15.255 as possibles right now. I have a mix of machines I can put online to troubleshoot friend's computers. Currently I have a Windows XP, two Windows 98 machines and two old OS9 macs.

If you were using a router instead of a master Mac, you could just tell it to run a DHCP server but always assign certain IPs to certain MAC addresses.

If wishes were fishes... I can't afford anything right now.

I'm not sure if such a thing is possible using the Mac instead, but the above solution might work.

Actually I have all the information you've written here, but the problem seems to be that on the OSX machine I'm simply not finding where I can tell it the range to use for the DHCP internal to the home network.

The main crux of the problem is that I have something that works in OS9, and I want to transition into OSX and back with a simple reboot without having to change every machine I have working or idle...

If wishes were fishes... I can't afford anything right now.

I think I have a spare Linksys router sitting around here. I'll toss it in the box with the Mac stuff?

Sure, I might as well.

I'll have to think about how I'll re-do the wiring.

I have 5 machines on My 32 port 10/100 switch. Kind of overkill, I know, but I was hoping to have my whole house hardwired by now. A port or two in every room.

Luckily I don't have them all on at once. Well, not very often.

I'll still keep working on this, because that's how I learn things. Sheer effort sometimes.

NAT or "Network Address translation" seems to be a better keyword than "IP Sharing" or "Iinternet connection sharing" when I'm looking at this problem. I wish I could set my own span of addresses for the DHCP in ICS.

Hmm. After doing a fair amount of research, messing around with NetInfo manager, et cetera, I'm forced to come to the conclusion that the subnet "192.168.2.*" is hardwired into OS X's internet sharing, and only IPs in that subnet will work. There are much more difficult ways to enable different subnets: see the mac os x hint here, if you are really desperate to use only the 192.168.15.* subnet, but I can't find that such a capability is available without doing it manually as in that hint.

My detective work: turning on InternetSharing starts three process, apparently: bootpd, natd, and named. I figured out that bootpd was the DHCP server, read its manpage, and figured out which NetInfo things it read, including what subnet it offers to the world. Opened up Netinfo manager (with Internet Sharing off) and saw that those NetInfo keys were blank. Turned Internet Sharing on and suddenly they weren't blank anymore, there was a 192.168.2.* subnet configured, and it said com.apple.nat started it up.

Unfortunately, com.apple.nat.plist contains no information about the IP range, being simply a list of on-off prefs that mean sharing is turned on.

A recursive grep for "192.168.2" in /usr, /etc, /Library, and /var failed to turn up anything useful, which means that this almost certainly isn't something you can easily set in a preference somewhere, unfortunately.

Sorry, Daniel. I don't think this is doable. I think the "192.168.2" subnet is compiled into the binary that sets up the internet sharing.

Why is the use of 192.168.15.* so important to you, just out of curiosity? Why not just move them all to 192.168.2.*? They'll still be static, just a slightly different static...

Why is the use of 192.168.15.* so important to you, just out of curiosity? Why not just move them all to 192.168.2.*? They'll still be static, just a slightly different static...

Part of it is sheer incredulity and stubbornness as a techie.

The utility I use to share under OS9 had troiuble with DHCP. My machines, including the ones I don't turn on much and the hard drive I use for ghosting, have a static IP, which I've carefully labeled.

I also have friends whose computers I have set up so if they have problems, I can plug their laptops into my LAN and select the confiuration.

When I couldn't set up my OSX sharing to conform to an existing LAN, I started wondering "WTF?" What if I was setting the same up elsewhere, etc.

After a while it became an exercise in denial. It baffles me that Apple made that decision.

However, even my stubborn geekiness must give way when it is proven I'm not crazy, and it is actually not an easily available setting...

Until such time as a hardwarwe solution is available to me, I shall change to 192,168,2,x to make my foray into OSX and forget about this conundrum.

phew. Thanks again for everyone's help/

Goodnight!

random question that no one may be able to answer. when i tape things on my VCR and then watch the tape in a VCR that is not my own, the sound is crappy. you have to turn the tv up really loud and it's all static-y. any guesses why this is happening? it plays fine on my VCR though. it's really frustrating.

I had that problem too, with an old VCR. I don't know the technically specific reason, but I chalked it up to selfishness on part of the VCR. It didn't want its tapes going into anyone's slots but its own.