>On our network here the machines have fixed IP's and I was looking for some
>feedback on how some of you guys keep of all the different IP's and be able
>to know which ones were available, I was going to do a speadsheet  with
>excel, but I am sure there is a better way we are using 10.10.x.x, thanks
>
>
>     ...James

James,
this is one of the major headaches in managing IP addresses.  I would
not recommend trying to keep track yourself unless you have less than
about 30 machines, and not many adds/moves/changes.

You need to get yourself a product that runs DHCP (Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol).  NT Server can do it, I think, or networking
companies like Cisco have specialised products - look on a web site like
Data Comms http://www.data.com.

You tell the DHCP server what range of addresses it can allocate from.
10.10.x.x is fine.  Just keep some fixed addresses for servers, routers,
firewalls, some printers which don't support DHCP, etc.  Then configure
the clients to use DHCP instead of allocating them specific addresses
(on Win95 Network properties this would be in the configuration tab - IP
Address - "Obtain an IP address automatically").

Now for any new user PC, or a network move, or a re-installation, you
don't need to give it an IP address ... DHCP does it for you.

Joe