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Q: How to change built-in DHCP server mask address?

Hello,

 

My Mac Pro is connected to a DHCP router, from Ethernet 1. On Ethernet 2, I've plugged a Windows computer and I enable Internet Sharing on the Mac Pro. Now, in the main DHCP router, I have another Mac (all of them are wired). So, the two Macs have an IP of 192.168.1.x and the Windows computer has an IP in the range of 192.168.2.x. Since some masks (including the Mac Pro's built-in DHCP server) are 255.255.255.0, the second Mac and the Windows computer can't talk to each other, and I need to allow sharing files between them (well, I can use the Mac Pro to mount one volume from the other Mac and one volume from the Windows computer and copy files between these two mounts (I haven't tried, but I guess it would work); anyway, I'd like it to work “easily”).

 

One option would be to have the masks being 255.255.255.0 everywhere. However, I don't fully understand how the Mac's built-in DHCP server works (I'm not an expert in networking either). For instance, when Internet Sharing is enabled, Ethernet 2 shows an IP of 169.254 (in system preferences' Network) where I would expect it to show the server's IP (192.168.2.1); what's the point of showing an unusable address of 169.254 while the connection works?

Seeing this, I bet setting the mask manually to “255.255.0.0” will have no effect (since the IP is already not reflecting the truth), so I have no idea where I would tell the Mac's built-in DHCP server to use a mask of 255.255.0.0.

 

Or perhaps there's an easier way? Someone with a good experience of either DHCP or the Mac's build-in Internet Sharing may help me?

 

P.S.: I tried to find an appropriate category, but the only one relevant was the one of my Mac Pro's main OS.

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Jan 6, 2015 10:51 AM