Having to port forward the apex every week again
 

Hey guys is anyone having to reconfigure their port forwarding on your apex?
This has happened 2 times already. The address for the apex used to be 192.168.1.4 then it changed to 192.168.1.14. Now today I had to use the browsing utility and saw it changed to 192.168.1.8. The port has been 80 at all times and I'm just wondering if this is normal. I thought that once you port forward it, the address of the apex should not change. Also, I am using the WNCE 2001 wireless adapter instead of having it wired. Not sure if it is a faulty adapter or if this is normal. I'd really appreciate some help here as it gets annoying having to do this.

Your Apex is set to DHCP. Best bet is to go into network settings. Write down all the network info (IP, Subnet etc) and change it to static IP. I'd also sugget setting the wireless adapter to static as well but most critical is the Apex. I set all permanent devices in my house to static. Static IP Devices in my home include Apex, Sat TV receivers, Home Automation controller, Surround processor, Bluray Players etc. I also try to make a point of insuring all static IP address's are outside the DHCP IP range. As such, you could go into your router, verify the DHCP IP address range and change to Apex IP address to one that is outside the DHCP range. Once it set to static, you will no longer have the port forward issue that you are dealing with now. My guess is the reason it is happening is because either your router, wireless adapter or Apex is restarting. You might consider updating your Apex firmware just to insure your Apex is up to date.

+1. Disable DHCP in the Apex. Since your router hands out IP addresses with have a low 4th number, make that last part of the Apex IP address a higher one, like 192.168.1.100.

Don't change any other network setting - just disable DHCP, and edit the IP address.

Turning off DHCP will solve the problem you're having. But you should leave it on in the apex and instead go to your router and setup a DHCP reservation for your apex. Otherwise you run the risk of setting something else the same ip address and then will have conflicts.

Letting the router set the ip for everything is the best choice for long term.

If you want to use static assignment you should also setup the DHCP server in the router to limit the address ranges to 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.100 and then you can setup all your static addresses to 192.168.1.101 or above. The address ranges should be set to whatever works for you system the above are just examples.

Great advice.. I will make a couple comments though. While what you say is true about the risk of another device being added which can cause an IP conflict, that is why you set your static IP address outside the range of the reserved DHCP IP addresses as you eluded to. DHCP IP's are often issued out within a certain range and that range doesn't always need to be defined manually on the router. As you already know, if the static IP is outside that IP range then there is never a risk of DHCP initiated conflict. More over, even if the Apex is set to static IP and the IP is within the DHCP range, the router won't issue out a conflicting address as routers track IP addresses that are in active. Now if the Apex is off for some reason or not connected to a network, that IP address can be issued out to another device, if and only if the Apex's static IP is within the DHCP IP range.

Having said that, reserving an IP address via the router for a device like an Apex is a great idea but it does add complexity that many people will have a hard time figuring out. You obviously need to be able to navigate the router settings to do that. Granted you can always contact the DSL provider or router mfg for assistance there but for many, that is a tough one. Still a great suggestion. Especially if the user has the wherewithal.

The ip address ranges for most if not all residential routers use the whole scope of addresses. At least on every router I have touched. So to set up as static you would have to change the subnet of the DHCP or reduce the amount of addresses the DHCP server has access to.

Either way you would have to do some advanced configuration.