Apologies for the silly mistake. This seems to have solved the issue. I can now successfully ping my console, and I was able to boot up a game using the SMB share. Thank you!
I turned on the PS2, opened the command prompt (as an admin if that matters), and put in "ping 192.168.1.255" (the static IP address I have set in OPL's settings). The result:
Pinging 192.168.1.255 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed...
1) What OPL version are you using? OPL v1.1.0
2) Where did you download this OPL version?
github dot com
/ps2homebrew/Open-PS2-Loader/releases
3) Is your PS2 console soft modded (FMCB/FHDB) or using a Modchip or combined? Softmod, FMCB v1.966
4) What model is your PS2 console (exact model...