Well its best to assign a static IP outside of the DHCP address range...
WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN???
Well lets say you are using Linksys routers. The things have a default IP address of 192.168.1.1 and a default number of address set to 50. The DHCP starting address is usually 192.168.1.100
What did all that mean???
As new computers plug into the router requesting DHCP IP address, the router will assign them address in order starting from 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.101, 192.168.1.102.
Now as things are added and dropped from the network the IP address will expire. This is usually set somewhere in the router as DHCP lease time... but back to that later.
A simple way to go about it... if you have 3 IP touch pannels its good to go just uner or just above the address range. I.E Pannel 1 = 192.168.1.99 Pannel 2 = 192.168.1.98 Pannel 3 = 192.168.1.97
Why you ask...???
So you can avoid what is known as the dreaded IP address conflict. There is a long technical explination of what that means, but here is the basic.
That IP address is like a name. Each computer has a name. Each computer asks for INfo from the router and can only commmunicate back and forth through the Gateway/router. So if I want to talk to the Remotecentral.com. I (192.168.1.100) send my request to the router Router gets the info from where ever then bings it back and says, "here you go 192.168.1.100". Now where it goes array is if 2 things have the same addy 192.168.1.100. Info doesn't get where it needs to and the domain can flood...
"Crossing the streams would be Bad..."
Anyways here is the important stuff. Assign the pannels address that are not going to get handed out by the router. Log into the router and check the subnet... usually 255.255.255.0 Then Make sure to set the default gateway to the IP of the router... usually 192.168.1.1 Lastly chcek the staus page and locate the DNS. IF YOU DON'T ADD THIS YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO PULL INFORMATION FROM OUTSIDE THE LOCAL NETWORK. (Simpler) THE INTERNET WILL NOT WORK. (BASIC) YOU CAN'T USE THE WEB BROWSER.
Set those things in the config page of TheaterTouch and you are off to the races.
