controlling DHCP

[lconrad at laymusic.org (Laura Conrad)]

I have a router with a dhcp server on my home network.  When I set it
up, I told it to allow the ip address leases to last forever, thinking
that would mean that my desktop computer would always be 192.168.2.2,
and my laptop and printer would also have fixed addresses.  Then I let
some ports through the firewall for apache and mail and such,
specifying the desktop IP address as what to forward them to.  I also
have hosts files on the computers, which let me refer to the other
machines by name instead of number.

Unfortunately, these leases seem to last only until the next power
outage, which has been a fairly short time in this neighborhood
lately.  To compound the confusion, this morning when the router came
up, it gave the former desktop IP to the printer, so when a friend
tried to check some files we were working on, he got the printer
configuration.

Does anyone know how to tell a dhcp server to use specific addresses?
I'd ideally like something like:

    Desktop machine (debian)            192.168.2.2
    Laptop running windows              192.168.2.3
    Laptop running linux (ubuntu)       192.168.2.4
    Printer                             192.168.2.5

At the moment, even when it can remember the addresses it had before,
it gives them out by Mac address, so the laptop is one address when
it's hooked up to an ethernet cable and a different one when it's
running wireless, regardless of operating system.


-- 
Laura (mailto:lconrad at laymusic.org , http://www.laymusic.org/ )
(617) 661-8097	fax: (501) 641-5011
233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139