Hey guys, I’m currently looking into setting up HA for my parents. The problem is that i would set it up in my appartement and then install it where they live when i go back for the summer! I would just download the Home assistant image to the Pi and not put any sensor on it, but the IP address and everything would be different once i get there.
I was wondering if that is possible? Or should i just wait and set it up once I’m there? I have some free time after my exams so i was hoping to start setting everything up.
[EDIT] I just stumbled upon this question: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/changing-router-for-home-assistant. This suggest that i could change the router address instead, but that implies to changes everything on my parents network. I would rather not have to do that and change the address of HA if possible.
What do you mean by “setting up”? Without any devices, there isn’t much to do, isn’t it? Where do you even set the IP during installation? It’s quite a time since I did my last install…
Anyway, you could try to setup a guest-wifi or something similar on your apartment router with the IP address range from your parents. Then do the setup.
Not sure if this helps, but if your installation includes Supervisor, you have the possibility to change IP address and hostname in Supervisor anytime after the installation (Supervisor->System-Host).
So in theory you have just one device (the HA machine) that you have to configure in your home?
Then I’d take the above mentioned router approach. Setup a guest wifi with the IP range from your parents and do the setup with the correct IP for your parents home. Should work just by powering it up at your parents home and start adding other devices.
There still is. It doesn’t matter over which network you get your IP. @septillion is totally right, ethernet is possible as well.
I just said guest-wifi, because most routers have this feature, not all share a LAN port in the guest-ip-range (eg. FritzBox does). The thing is, you have to bring the new HA server in a different network, where you can use the same IP range like in your parents home. That’s all, no matter over which connection your router provides access.
But in your parents home I’d def. use an ethernet connection, as it is way more reliable for the use of HA. But for the setup in your home it doesn’t really matter, as long as it isn’t disturbing your own network.
Alright alright i think i understand !! Thanks a lot for your time @paddy0174 , Its really appreciated !! I’m relieved that this community is as supportive as this!!
If you enable DHCP there is no need to set the IP anywhere in HA for HA alone. The address only becomes “a thing” when you really deploy it and you want to access it and things like MQTT devices like to access it, without the risk of the router DHCP giving it a different IP over time. But for that, just set a fix IP in the router where you deploy it. In my opinion is setting fixed IPs in the router the best solution because you have all fixed IP managed centralized which takes away the risk of IP conflicts.
It’s quite a time since I did my last install… 
!! I’m relieved that this community is as supportive as this!!