IP Registration

When you connect a new device to the Internet, you need to register the device with the connection to assign it an IP address to get online. There are simple definitions for IP, MAC, and NAT at the bottom of this page.

Registration Methods

Automatic Registration

When an unregistered device is connected to the MCSnet network, it is assigned a temporary private IP (10.200.x.x) which will redirect a (non HTTPS) webpage request to the registration page:

Typical Steps to Get a New Router Online

• Connect the cabling to the router up, including connecting the flat black cable for the Internet into the WAN (sometimes labelled as Internet or Modem) port, the power to the device.
• Connect your computer to the router, this can be with a cable (preferred) or through wifi.
• Try and pull up a webpage, we suggest trying to mcsnet.ca, and after a short delay, the page should redirect to the registration page as pictured above. Some mobile phone browsers are less reliable for displaying this page, so it’s better to use a computer for this.
• Enter an email and password that is setup as an administrator for your MCSnet account
• Reboot the new device to encourage it to re-grab the new IP that was just assigned to it

Manual Regisration

Sometimes the automatic registration is not appropriate if you are on a business package with static IP addresses, or your associated administrative email administrates more than 1 account, or you want to perform the registration before connecting the device up. The MAC address can be changed through the ‘my account’ section of this website, or through selecting ‘No’ on the registration page. The MAC address of your device will likely be labelled on a sticker on the device, usually near the serial number.

After editing the MAC address in the ‘my account’ page, remember to renew the IP (reboot the device) if your device is set to automatically obtain the IP address.

Some Related Definitions

IP Address

Internet Protocol address. This is simply the address of your device on the Internet or on your network, in the form of x.x.x.x, where x can be a number from 0 to 255, eg. 10.10.10.10, 55.10.55.10, 200.64.186.230 (this is for the current version 4 protocol, which will change with the transition to version 6)

MAC Address

Media Access Control Address. This is a unique address assigned to to the hardware of any network connected device, it is like a serial number for devices that connect to the Internet, in the form of xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx, where x can be 0-9 or a-f, eg. 01:01:01:01:01:01, ff:a5:2b:13:cf:99. Your router, computer, smart phone all have their own completely unique MAC address.

NAT – Network Address Translation

Where the IP address from the Internet (public address) is translated into an IP address for the local network (private IP). NAT is used for several reasons, but it is needed primarily to allow the sharing of a single public IP for multiple devices in a network. The sharing is necessary because there are only so many public addresses (~4 billion) to share with all Internet connected devices.

Eg. Internet connected to a router, which 3 devices are connected to, Internet IP is 66.100.45.82 (public IP), and the router has automatically assigned addresses for the 3 connected devices to 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3, and 192.168.1.4 (private IPs). The NAT on the router allows each device to have its own IP address while communicating using the public IP to also communicate to the Internet.