Windows 7 wont allow correct static IP

I think I understand.

-Leaving it at .254 would let anything above .15 be randomly assigned

-Ending at .20 would not let any more be randomly assigned above .20 but the potential statics above that from .21 to .254 could only be used if I set it myself because I only allowed the randoms from .15 - .20

So I see 3 sections now:
1 - Static Assigned IP
2 - DHCP assigned
3 - POTENTIAL static IP.

If I wanted to eliminate the "potential" section, that is when I would want to put the Ending IP back to 254 to allow random assignments of all.

My hope was to not allow anything on above 1.20 to connect (security-network congestion reasons) but it sounds like thats not how things work and since I dont think I will ever have more than 15 static devices I'm going to leave the Ending IP at .254 as I don't need to "leave room" for over 200 more potential devices that will never connect here let alone need to statically.

Its hard for someone not in networking to put in words but I think I understand what you are trying to explain.


I've also now removed all the manual setting in Network and sharing centers IPv4 settings and put it back to automatically obtain and all devices seem to be working as they should.

There is always a way of doing something but it is not going to be easy to explain and it is not going to achieve much more than what you have set up and by all accounts is currently working for you so better off leaving it as is to be honest. As the old saying goes "if it ain't broke then don't fix it".

From a security standpoint - make sure that you have a decent strong password on your router and you will probably be OK - if someone really wants to connect to your router then they will find a way to do so but make it difficult and they will probably go elsewhere.

SomeUserName said:

I think I understand.

-Leaving it at .254 would let anything above .15 be randomly assigned

-Ending at .20 would not let any more be randomly assigned above .20 but the potential statics above that from .21 to .254 could only be used if I set it myself because I only allowed the randoms from .15 - .20

You got the gist of it.

My hope was to not allow anything on above 1.20 to connect (security-network congestion reasons) but it sounds like thats not how things work and since I dont think I will ever have more than 15 static devices I'm going to leave the Ending IP at .254 as I don't need to "leave room" for over 200 more potential devices that will never connect here let alone need to statically.

You can certainly have only 14 available IPs on your network. All you have to do is subnet it, i.e. change the subnet mask to 255.255.255.240 that will break your network into 16 subnets and you'll have 14 hosts on each. The first subnet will be from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.14 and with the exception of your default gateway at 192.168.1.1 - you can assign the rest of them to other devices. Once all remaining 13 IPs are assigned - there is no more room for any other to connect.