My IP's are messed up, please help

[Coheebuzz]

Hello, i was wondering if anyone can help me. I am a complete noob when it comes to networking stuff and am feeling a bit paranoid here.

I have a B-Focus 352+ wireless router that was crippled by the ISP to work only as a modem, thus allowing only 1 computer to be connected on the net. I have used the instructions found in this page Link to access the configuration page and re-anable all features on the router, except from the wireless part though, which requires a firmware flash.

I also have an Airport Express connected on the router so that i can connect my laptops wirelessly and i have my G5 wired on the modem.

Now, after messing with the settings of the modem and after an IP release from the ISP everything works fine, but the IP numbers i get are different than before. My ISP's router address (gateway address) was 10.160.0.1 before i did any changes and my G5's and AE's IP was normally 10.160.58.xx.

Also, the G5's and AE's IP numbers have become 192.168.xx.xx, which was previously my routers address. And i can access the configuration page of the router by typing that number in the address field without changing any DHCP settings as i did before. The ISP support insisted that i should be getting a 10.160.58.xx as my computer IP - of course i haven't told them that i messed with their modem. Furthermore, there is a light on the router that says 'Internet Link' which used to light up, but now it doesn't.

Is what happened normal? Or did i mess something up? As i said, everything works fine now and all of my computers are online at the same time, but i am a bit puzzled.

I hope i made it clear enough, if i didn't i'll be happy to explain the situation again.

Thanks.

 

[mklos]

Here's what may of happened:

With most, if not all routers, you can set it to distribute any IP address range you want it ito. So for example, if you want it to distribute 205.x.x.x to all your computers, you can do that. Most routers by default will distribute a 192.x.x.x IP address so when you did the firmware update it probably reset all of the defaults back as well that may of included setting the default IP range back to 192.x.x.x. So this is probably why you're now getting 192.x.x.x IP Addresses instead of 10.x.x.x IP addresses. The ISP probably configures the modem in a certain way so they know how its configured if they need to troubleshoot something with you. I'm guess thats probably what happened. Somewhere in the router you can probably set it to go back to distributing 10.x.x.x IP addresses. Different routers have different ways of doing it, so I can't tell you exactly how to do it, or where to go.

I hope this explains it a little better. I know networking can be confusing sometimes.

 

[Coheebuzz]

Thanks for replying mklos. I remember there is a similar option in the Airport Express configuration, which lets you distribute 160.xx.xx.xx or 192., but i dont remember seeing anything similar in the routers settings. I'll have a look again though, i just want to avoid contacting the ISP again to release my IP because they might get sucpisious.

So now as long as it's working fine even without an ISP approved IP address, should i leave it as it is or am i messing things up with them?

 

[mklos]

If it works, I wouldn't worry about it.