Better way to ping my router

ESPHome
1

All my ESPHome devices have fixed IP addresses and they all work as expected, however I have an issue with my router that drives my OCD up the wall.

My UCG Ultra sees my ESPHome devices in the client Devices list correctly, but in the IP Tables list (previously "DHCP list") they are shown as disconnected. This is probably something to do with the ESP communicating directly with Home Assistant via noise encryption.

If I add the following config to my devices:

http_request:
  timeout: 5s

interval:
  - interval: 5min
    then:
      - http_request.get:
          url: http://10.1.1.1 # my router's ip address

Then the devices show up in the IP Table as connected.

While this works I was wondering if there was a better way to alert my router to the fact that my devices are connected.

Other things I have tried unsuccessfully:

Disable fast connect.
Set power save to NONE.
Disable fast roaming in the router.

Has anyone tried the external ping component?

3

Been a while since I touched ESPHome, but maybe the api_connected or on_client_(dis)connected would avoid having to use an interval?

4

I think it has to be more often than that. The tables get "flushed" but I'm not sure how often.

5

I don't have problem you are describing. In my opinion this is not esphome issue it is your router problem or some feature.
As I know router should be populating this list based on data in arp table.
But I'm not sure as I'm not network engineer.
I personaly think that issue is within your router settings.

6

Are you using DHCP or static address for your devices?

And are you using the UCG Ultra?

It's not an incorrect setting it's a Unify bug that has been known about for a long time:

https://community.ui.com/questions/Client-devices-show-as-offline-in-list-but-are-actively-communicating-on-the-network/79722091-7fd9-4151-96ea-d7643bba0935

7

I'm using static address in yaml files for each device.
I'm not using unify equipment. I use opnsense as gateway and openwrt with batman-adv for my local network.

8

So your reply is off topic. I'll leave this one rather than flagging it like the previous person's ramblings about the merits of DHCP so as to prevent it happening again.

To be clear: this is a required work around for a Unify bug. Not a router misconfiguration, not a request for the pros and cons of DHCP.

In any case I have found further references that indicate 5 minutes polling is required.