Hi Dixon,

> However, a couple of questions.
> I let the router assign the database machine a dynamic IP address.
> Should I give the database machine a static IP address?

For servers is very common to have static IP addresses. You don't need to,
but you should. :-)

The difference will be the time it takes to find out the server using a DNS
server. If you have a static address, you can put it on hosts file, and it
will be very fast for your machine to translate the name to IP. If you
don't, you must always query the dns server for the ip.

Another problem that you may have with dynamic IP's is related to changes.
If you get an IP adress that stays the same as long as the server is up
(should be like this in in-house networks) your server will have always the
same IP address. It it is a timed IP address, your server can change IP in
the middle of something, and in that case you will be in trouble. Client
applications always query the ip address just once (in the beginning of the
connection), and they will not be aware of this changes. That's the main
reason that servers usually have a static ip address.

> Also, in the LinkSys documentation, it says "do not set the gateway
> ip on the client network settings" I had left that blank but have
> just now set it to the routers IP address. It will take a little
> time to tell if that will help, but again, I'm all ears to any
> suggestion that might help

No need to take time here. This is something that 'it works or not', but
this will not help you in your slow connection problem.

Artur