Just a couple more questions about home wireless network setup:

I finally figured out how to get my laptop to talk with the printer connected to my pc.

Then yesterday I had connection problems again. It turned out that the router had changed the laptop's IP address to one that I hadn't entered into the "safe" list on the pc's firewall program.

To prevent this from happening again, I have two choices (I think), but I'm not sure which is better from the standpoint of convenience and security.

1. Should I change the router settings so that the laptop's IP address never changes?

2. Should I change the "safe" list on the pc's firewall program so that it includes the entire range of IP addresses that the router can assign?

I had changed the router settings so that it would not broadcast a signal. Could that be why it changed the laptop's IP address or are the two things unrelated?