TCP/IP Connections Introduction User Modes Connect Via... Addressing Subnet Masks Config Router Address DNS Search Paths Hosts File 802.3 Saving Configs Troubleshooting Tools For More Info Glossary updated: 08/11/97

Router Address Depending on how you are configuring your IP address, you may also need to specify the router address. This will be the IP address of the router that is the first stepping stone between your machine on your LAN and the rest of the Internet, as shown in the diagram below. Whenever your machine tries to communicate with a host that is not on the same LAN as you, the packet will be sent to the router, which will send it along its way using routing tables to determine the most efficient route. Because routers by definition have connections to multiple networks, they also have multiple network addresses (one for each network it interconnects). The router address you need to enter is the address for its interface to your LAN. For example, in the diagram below, all devices on network 192.192.1 would need to use router address 192.192.1.1, and devices on network 192.192.2 would use router address 192.192.2.1. In Open Transport, an error dialog will come up if you attempt to enter an address that is not on the same subnetwork as your IP address (your IP address and subnet mask are used to determine this as discussed in the section on subnet masks). In MacTCP (part of Classic Networking), a protocol called RIP (Routing Information Protocol) was used to determine the correct router address if the address entered was incorrect; Open Transport is a bit stricter, it wants the correct address. Note that when you use PPP or MacIP server addressing, you do not need to include router address; this information is provided by the server. [Intro |UserModes |ConnectVia |Addressing |Subnet Masks|Config |Routers ]DNS |Search Paths |Hosts File ]802.3 ]Saving Configs ]Troubleshooting ]Tools ]More Info ]Glossary ]