Dynamically Assigned Internet Addresses - Rabbit RabbitCore RCM3000 Getting Started Manual

4.5 Dynamically Assigned Internet Addresses

In many instances, there are no fixed IP addresses. This is the case when, for example, you
are assigned an IP address dynamically by your dial-up Internet service provider (ISP) or
when you have a device that provides your IP addresses using the Dynamic Host Configu-
ration Protocol (DHCP). The RCM3000 RabbitCore modules can use such IP addresses to
send and receive packets on the Internet, but you must take into account that this IP
address may only be valid for the duration of the call or for a period of time, and could be
a private IP address that is not directly accessible to others on the Internet. These private
address can be used to perform some Internet tasks such as sending e-mail or browsing the
Web, but usually cannot be used to participate in conversations that originate elsewhere on
the Internet. If you want to find out this dynamically assigned IP address, under Windows
98 you can run the program while you are connected and look at the interface
winipcfg
used to connect to the Internet.
Many networks use private IP addresses that are assigned using DHCP. When your com-
puter comes up, and periodically after that, it requests its networking information from a
DHCP server. The DHCP server may try to give you the same address each time, but a
fixed IP address is usually not guaranteed.
If you are not concerned about accessing the RCM3000 from the Internet, you can place
the RCM3000 on the internal network using a private address assigned either statically or
through DHCP.
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