Selecting Network Addresses

Use the reserved range of Class C network addresses if you want to set up a small private network for demonstration purposes. (The reserved private Class C network addresses are in the range 192.168.0 through 192.168.255, and are often used for broadcast messages.) If you therefore select network number 192.168.1, for example, you can then assign all IP addresses for your host in the range 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1.254.

Ensure that the first three parts of this address are the same for all interfaces connected to the same LAN segment, and set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0.

Choose a reserved private Class C IP address when one or more of the workstations also needs to connect to the Internet by using an Internet Service Provider (ISP). If you use these reserved addresses, they should not conflict with any valid Network Interface Controller (NIC)-assigned Internet addresses. Avoid using random numbers for IP addresses, as this usually fails.

When you have configured your network and IP addresses, check that workstations can see each other using the IP protocol. A simple test is to use ping from a command prompt, by entering one or both of the following command prompts from any workstation:

ping computer-name

ping remote-IP-address

If this does not provide a response, you will not be able to use the specified workstation name as the server node name in the ServerNodeSpecifications argument of the [JadeClient] section of your JADE initialization file.

If the IP is functioning correctly and the ping remote-IP-address command prompt provides a positive response, setting the ServerNode parameter to the server node IP address value in the ServerNodeSpecifications parameter in the [JadeClient] section of your JADE initialization file should work. Setting this ServerNode parameter to the workstation name of the server node may not always work even if the ping server-node-computer-name command prompt gives a valid response, as this alias to standard TCP/IP cannot always be relied on to work.

If you do not have Windows Internet Naming Services (WINS) or a Domain Name Server (DNS) server, you should set up a hosts file with IP address-to-name mappings and then use the names from there. If you have a small single-segment LAN and you do not know what Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)/DNS or WINS are, do not use them for your local networking. Only an experienced network administrator should set these up. (If you have Internet access, you will almost certainly have DNS configured.)