Dear friends out there, i hope u'll have enough time to read this problem of mine and try to help me solve it. well, i've been a long time user of microsoft products and happened to come across FreeBSD when one fellow referred me to it saying that it was a wonderful OS which one could use for web server to start a SOHO business. i managed to purchase two FreeBSD 6.2 CDs from London which a friend brought me here in Cairo, Egypt. i also managed to download the same copy which i burned just in case. now given the fact that this SOHO business i want to start requires a static IP address (81.10.46.150) which i acquired, however, whenever i configure my 4-port ZyXEL router and connect my two computers to it (one computer running on windows) i get conflicting message. does my problem have a solution? i do have the FreeBSD handbook but there's no place to turn to...no BSD schools here in Cairo, Egypt nor technicians. i'd like to deploy it as a server and not desktop.
thanks for reading and analysing my plea as i wait for your response.
YAHYA

You need to give more information.

- what model of router is this?
- what is the 'error' message you get?

And I find it hard to believe there is no one else in Cairo that knows this OS. Anyone from Cairo on this board?

RTM,
thanks for reading and responding to my quizz. well, as i said in my previous mail, it's a 4-port router (model P-660H-T1). out of the four ports i've connected one cable to one PC running on windows XP (on my left) and from another port i've linked it to the Server (on my right) on to which i want to install FreeBSD. now since, i'm not yet familiar with FreeBSD, i've been using this other PC on my left to configure the static IP address (81.10.46.150) given to me by my ISP. after configuration, when i power on the server, i get a message that there's another machine using the same address, which leaves me perplexed...yes, and to add on this as i said there are hardly any BSD technicians here in Cairo. i registered with egypt linux users group hoping i'd get assistance to learn linux OS but nobody bothered to listen to my plea. i also walked around the city searching for learning centers, but the disgusting thing is that i'd be turned away by being told to go and find a considerable number of people with whom i'd be able to start taking the lessons...meaning NO lessons for individuals. i'm a foreigner here and how would i go around trying to convince less interested fellows to come along with me for something they care less about?!!! it's been a lengthy time since last August 2007 but my will is still there intact. i want to learn FreeBSD and use it.
thanks all for your concern.

I'm wondering what this has to do with FreeBSD, I think it is more an IP problem.
How are you connected to the Internet? I asume that your router is connected to the Internet and that you have both the systems (XP left and BSD right) connected to the router. If that is the case, why did you assign your external IP address to you XP system?

I think your ISP assigns your external address to the router (that is connected to ADSL) and your router should assign a private address (something like 192.168.1.x) to the connected hosts (XP, FreeBSD or whatever), this is probably done by DHCP.

What I think you should do (or try), connect the ADSL router to your ADSL link. Configure the windows box to use dhcp and connect it to the ADSL router. Your box should get an IP address from the router, figure out if everything is working properly (check Internet etc.) if it isn't working correct you can try to look in te configuration of the ADSL router (browser to 192.168.1.1, default admin password 1234).
When everything is working correct, you should be able to start the FreeBSD box and the box will start correctly (that is what I assume).

Again I don't think it is an FreeBSD issue but a network configuration issue.