I have an old Draytek router here that will via DHCP offer any address in the DHCP range that is currently free. It does not honour any reserved but unused assignable addresses. It does however seem to check IP’s are currently free and so ironically avoids static IP’s . That is why I say don’t do it. It maybe that router is not to spec of course and I don’t use it anymore. Allocating outside the DHCP range avoids such problems. This particular router only supported about 16 reserved address anyway.
On the other hand a modern router could and would warn if you reserved an address in the DHCP range if it couldn’t handle it so I do presume it works OK.
Static is always a don’t do (within DHCP range) and I personally discourage people from using static addresses anyway. You retire a piece of equipment and then discover it in the attic… ripe for eBay but it’s now a pita to configure / reset
I’m a little bit muddled between the two distinctions here as I thought dhcp addresses were all usually dynamically assigned.
In any case, for want of not really having anything to lose, if I encounter a problem again, I will take action to ensure that all addressed used by my 2.4 GHz enabled IOT devices are taken out of the DHCP pool.
Now it’s working. But that last router reboot did take 20 minutes or so before everything settle down and was connected again. You would think if there was a problem, these addresses would be choked/unusable permanently. So I’m not sure why it just seemed to take an unusually long time for everything to connect again.
It will take a while to settle down as some devices on your network may have an older DHCP allocated address - hopefully it should settle and remain happy.
If they are static addresses I.e. hard configured on the device itself then this is essential.
Yes because, among other things, restarting the dhcp server (ie the router) will not immediately change devices to their pre-allocated ip addresses, they will only change once their lease expires and they seek renewal.
not too sure how to quote a post, but, the reply that says about dhcp renewing once their lease expires, will be one of the major issues for your problem.
what you need to do is power down EVERYTHING
reboot your router, then one by one, restart every device thats connected, wait for them to boot, and connect, then move onto the next one
fault finding by elimination takes a long time, but, its worth it in the end
Well if you are changing settings all the time, a 30 minute lease time would mean that, on average, each device would renew within 15 minutes of a config change and guaranteed within 30.
Against that is more network traffic, and an increased chance of something failing if you’re rebooting your router when something wants a lease renewal.
I used to use proprietary routers, both ISP supplied and own purchased, but have ditched them in favour of a old PC running OPNSense and a separate wifi access point. It has brilliant support and a fantastic users’ forum.
OPNSense is open source router software that runs rock solidly and is updated monthly. It also has an anti-virus plugin. Being non-proprietary, if anything breaks, I buy another, install it again and upload the config file and everything continues seamlessly.
OPNSense can handle a large number of connections as long as the hardware is up to it. As I said above, never again for a proprietary router.
I am on my way to opnsense. In the meantime I have divorced my dhcp from my ISP router and use a pi with pihole. This stops many ads and is also a dhcp and dns server.
I have often felt that Ubiquti are the Cisco of our age. If I was to buy a single Ubiquiti solution (router/ADSL modem), what is the consensus on which one I should buy? My instinct is always to ditch complexity and simplify my network wherever possible.
It’s not a fixed IP, it’s a permanent DHCP lease. It never expires and when the router sees the MAC address associated with a permanent lease, it assigns the IP that that MAC address used before.
I have some 60-65 IP devices on my LAN, most on 2.4GHz WiFi, including my TV in the family room where we stream movies over WiFi with no problem.
DO NOT confuse “Fixed IP” with permanent DHCP leases. Fixed IP, or Static IP is set in the device and never asks the router for an IP from the DHCP pool. The latter is managed by the router.
I only set fixed/static IP on my server devices. Never for the multitude of lights, switches and sensors on my LAN.