Assigning IP Addresses

[dosborne]

, I don't have even a single one using a manually set static IP.

While I understand that it hasn't been an issue for you so far, I strongly recommend that you consider doing as I have done, and set manual static IP addresses *and* DHCP reservations for critical infrastructure equipment.

Scenario: your router fails. All your reservations are lost and something as simple as printing or accessing a file becomes instantly a pain in the butt.

Scenario: you have to reset your NAS (or insert device here) and it defaults to DHCP so is not assigned its usual IP (I know this is what you are already covering in your setup - this is mentioned more for others who don't do both).

The effort required to do both is miniscule and can be done one device at a time, when convenient, but *potentially* save a buttload of aggregation should something happen and leaves you scrambling to figure things out with the wife and kids screaming their internet is down

Obviously everyone makes their own decisions about what works best, but having been there trying to figure out what happened at 4am.....

 

[Wade Coxon]

While I understand that it hasn't been an issue for you so far, I strongly recommend that you consider doing as I have done, and set manual static IP addresses *and* DHCP reservations for critical infrastructure equipment.

Scenario: your router fails. All your reservations are lost and something as simple as printing or accessing a file becomes instantly a pain in the butt.

Scenario: you have to reset your NAS (or insert device here) and it defaults to DHCP so is not assigned its usual IP (I know this is what you are already covering in your setup - this is mentioned more for others who don't do both).

The effort required to do both is miniscule and can be done one device at a time, when convenient, but *potentially* save a buttload of aggregation should something happen and leaves you scrambling to figure things out with the wife and kids screaming their internet is down

Obviously everyone makes their own decisions about what works best, but having been there trying to figure out what happened at 4am.....

If you do it this way, do the statically assigned clients register themselves properly with the Router's DNS server? I wouldn't have thought so. The biggest benefit of a DHCP assigned address is the router's ability to send that IP/name association to its DNS server.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If you do it this way, do the statically assigned clients register themselves properly with the Router's DNS server? I wouldn't have thought so. The biggest benefit of a DHCP assigned address is the router's ability to send that IP/name association to its DNS server.

This is why you would set it up like @dosborne says. A huge advantage of Merlin's firmware over stock IMHO is the ability to set a host name on the DHCP page. This effectively allows you to create DNS entries.

So say you had a server that has it's NIC manually configured, because it's not using DHCP it won't register its name in the router's DNS server. So you create an entry for it in DHCP (which you would have done anyway) where you can also specify its DNS name. You're not really interested in the DHCP part at all because the server doesn't use it, all you want is to create a DNS entry. In fact you don't even need to use the server's real MAC address, you could use "00:00:00:00:00:00".

TBH my main use of the DHCP page is to set or override DNS names. I have a lot of devices that have hard-coded names like android-aabbccddeeff making them difficult to identify and address by name. Being able to assign them a name like kindle or lounge-tv is huge benefit.

 

[thecheapseats]

trying to figure out what happened at 4am.....

EXACTLY!... since forever, I've been using dhcp reservations to duplicate static-IP assignments on these plastic routers (to cover my butt when they get loopy) simply because re-entering 30-40 mac addrs/hostnames via the damn gui increases downtime... excellent advice...

 

[thecheapseats]

"In fact you don't even need to use the server's real MAC address, you could use "00:00:00:00:00:00". (just the hostname <<- my add)

Thank you very much for that bit of information, Colin... thank you thank you, thank you... I didn't know that...

 

[Svenskmat]

Just a follow up on this - semantics ASUS style

In this picture
DHCP is DHCP
Manual are the clients that I have set up an assignment rule for
Static are the clients who I set on the client directly an IP address.

This lines up with this post I found

IP Static Route vs Manual assignment

just curious what the difference between these settings are given that the network map gives some machines the category manual and others static, even though all were assigned manually. When would one use static route instead of manual (or vice versa)? Thanks!

www.snbforums.com

 

[Wade Coxon]

A huge advantage of Merlin's firmware over stock IMHO is the ability to set a host name on the DHCP page. This effectively allows you to create DNS entries.

Hah! That's a feature I had completely overlooked. I hadn't realised those fields overrode the DNS updates. Good info thanks! (sucks to be on stock firmware even more then!)