How to manage your router – Part II

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NETWORKING By Lance Whitney Your router holds the keys to your local network. Here’s how to use some of its advanced settings. In Part I of this two-p
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SueW, GreatAndPowerfulTech, woody

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[jackpet]

I have found it particularly useful to reserve the IP addresses of the devices on my home network.  This stops DHCP from changing them.  I then go and create direct shortcuts to these devices.  It’s faster and more foolproof than using the Windows network way to access these devices.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by jackpet.

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Lance Whitney:

“To change DNS settings in the router, sign in with your administrator credentials and then look for a menu section labeled something akin to “Internet Setup” or “WAN settings” (often in an advanced-settings section). Next, look for a feature called “DNS address” or “DNS type” or something similar. If the address for the DNS server is tied to your ISP or is set to “Dynamic,” enter the address for the DNS service of your choice.”

He does not explain why one would change the default DNS setting in the router. My Netgear router has “Use dynamic DNS Service” unchecked. What does that mean in Whitney’s terms?

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Dynamic DNS is a method to allow you to find your router on the internet via DNS. This is only for people who know how to tie their networks down very tight and will never be needed by 99% of people.

The suggestion was to set a non-default DNS, which may be useful if you want to try to limit access to malicious sites, or your ISP has very flakey DNS servers. Again, 99% of consumers routers will use the ISP DNS – I do.

cheers, Paul

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cmar6

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Also remember, if you are using a router or “gateway” which was supplied by your ISP, you will not be able to change any of these settings. Comcast doesn’t even support changing your Administrator User Name on their gateways.

-- rc primak

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One of the reasons I have my own router connected to the ISP supplied unit. All my gear is on my router and the ISP supplied stuff is on theirs.
It also allows me to have a “guest” network for IoT devices and people who drop in.

cheers, Paul

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rc primak

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Good point about IoT Things. They do need their own network or subnet. Most don’t provide enough of their own security.

The main reason I use my ISP’s gateway is that their television services need their gateway to enable some features.

-- rc primak

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