subnet mask
 

I know that many of you will scorn me for asking this question, but does an ISP issue a subnet mask or is that something a computer figures out on it's own? If it is the ISP issuing out subnet masks, then I have a thing or two to say to my ISP...

thanks.

:thumbsup:

The same DHCP that gives your computer the IP address will give it a subnet mask, gateway, and dns server address....
what is the problem with the one that they assigned?

Well, if I set my configuration to automatically obtain all these details, it will give me 255.255.240.0 as a subnet mask, but the problem is that my router (I'm behind a router) will only accept subnet masks such as 255.255.255.0, with a few variants on the 0. In the configuration page for my router (linksys BEFSR41), it has a drop-down list for available subnet masks, which very much limits what I can set the subnet mask to. My internet works fine and all that, between all three computer I have hooked up on the router, but I can't access my router's configuration's by going to http://192.168.1.1/ unless I go in and manually specify that my default gateway is 192.168.1.1. When I do this, my internet stops working. I don't want to make this too long, so I'll see if any of this sounds familiar to anyone out there, so maybe they can help me. If you need more details, let me know and I'll post more details.

Subnet masks are assigned by the ISPs routers... is your ISP feeding you shit or something?

Edit: forgot to refresh the page before posting :)

What I think is that my ISP is trying to keep people who have routers from splitting their internet connection. My router can only accept 255.255.255.0 with variants on the 0, but my ISP seems to be assigning 255.255.240.0, which my router doesn't seem to be capable of.

Is that limited subnet mask selection you were talking about in the "Lan IP Address" category?

Here's a Link that might help you out.

Nevermind. Steveincolumbus helped me out. Many thanks :thumbsup:

I appreciate all the responses here, by the way, just that Steveincolumbus decided to help me through AIM. I'll check that link out. Knowledge is power :thumbsup: