Chapter 10 Home Networking
NBG7510 User’s Guide
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10.8 Technical Reference
This section provides some technical background information about the topics covered in this chapter.
LANs, WANs and the Zyxel Device
The actual physical connection determines whether the Zyxel Device ports are LAN or WAN ports. There
are two separate IP networks, one inside the LAN network and the other outside the WAN network as
shown next.
Figure 77
LAN and WAN IP Addresses
10.8.1 DHCP Setup
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, RFC 2131 and RFC 2132) allows individual clients to obtain
TCP/IP configuration at start-up from a server. You can configure the Zyxel Device as a DHCP server or
disable it. When configured as a server, the Zyxel Device provides the TCP/IP configuration for the
clients. If you turn DHCP service off, you must have another DHCP server on your LAN, or else the
computer must be manually configured.
IP Pool Setup
The Zyxel Device is pre-configured with a pool of IP addresses for the DHCP clients (DHCP Pool). See the
product specifications in the appendices. Do not assign static IP addresses from the DHCP pool to your
LAN computers.
10.8.2 DNS Server Addresses
DNS (Domain Name System) maps a domain name to its corresponding IP address and vice versa. The
DNS server is extremely important because without it, you must know the IP address of a computer
before you can access it. The DNS server addresses you enter when you set up DHCP are passed to the
client machines along with the assigned IP address and subnet mask.
There are two ways that an ISP disseminates the DNS server addresses.
• The ISP tells you the DNS server addresses, usually in the form of an information sheet, when you sign
up. If your ISP gives you DNS server addresses, enter them in the
DNS Server
fields in the
DHCP Setup
screen.
