Originally posted by: klaatuboradonickto
Well Gunrunner: 12 manufacturing runs of Linksys cable routers and 3 runs of Netgear in the last 2 years have all produced firmware that did indeed send the wrong subnet masks out from the DHCP response. Even though a 192 subnet should have received a 255.255.255.0 mask, they were sending our a Class A mask. Having seen many problems with SOHO class "gateways", not even routers, I can assure you that this happens quite frequently. Netgear is quite quick to respond, but Linksys is not. Even some of Cisco Series 800 "real" routers had a problem last year. Adtran Netvanta's also had a similiar problem early this year. So unfortunately, it is not pretty unusual at all. Also, using DHCP these days for home networks is not recommended, as P2P services do not work so well NAT'ed. Needs to use public LAN servers so that the "router" will re-direct the appropriate port # traffic to a specific machine. Using DHCP could mean a lot of "router" Policy Table changes to keep up. For small networks, do not use DHCP. Causes more problems than it is worth. Klaatu
First off, you seem to suffer from selective reading comprehension. Even though there have been instances of bad firmware, 99.99% of the broadband routers ever shipped issue the correct subnet masks, so this isn't like it's top of the list for things to check.
Add to that the subnet mask wasn't specified in any of the messages, it's certainly not the first thing to check. Oh, and the fact he's able to ping other devices in the network would certainly lead me to believe the subnet mask is correct, another point to consider.
As far as not using DHCP for home networks, that's a total crock IMO! Most home user barely can plug the cables in, and you're asking them to manually configure the TCP/IP properties. FWIW, DHCP and NAT are totally different animals, and even though you disable the DHCP server in your router, I can assure you that the NAT layer is alive and well. Without NAT, you'd cease to have a router, think about it. The majority of people with broadband routers never even get to the point of having to open ports for any service, never mind P2P.
In point of fact, I STRONGLY recommend people use DHCP unless there's a specific reason not to use it. It simplifies network installation to the point of almost plug-n-play. I've installed networks from two machines to several hundred, and I've yet to run across a reason not to use DHCP in any of them. FYI, most modern SOHO routers will allow you to lock a MAC address to the IP address, in case you insist on using P2P software to infect your machine.