EdgeRouter Lite - i need help, or another router recommendation

[L&LD]

I agree. No rush in getting this done.

End of day one. ERL3 still running smooth. No issues. I did notice these entries in the log. All 3 are IP's that i have configured as a static mapping. Not sure what to do with that as all seems to be running as it should.

View attachment 16686

Does a reboot help? Are these static mapped outside of the DHCP scope?

 

[coxhaus]

You may have to exclude the static IPs from the DHCP scope or set reservations.

 

[ddaenen1]

Does a reboot help? Are these static mapped outside of the DHCP scope?

No, these are mapped within the DHCP range. These were DHCP entries that i configured as static mapping afterwards. Just hit the static mapping and changed the IP to what i wanted it to be, e.g. for example the Samsung TV (64:1C:...) was listed as 192.168.1.117 when it was added by the DHCP and then i mapped it as static using the IP i wanted it to have and after that, switched the TV off and on to take the new IP from the router.

I haven't done a reboot yet. Just want to see what's happening in the next days and collect all analytics before doing anything.

 

[L&LD]

No, these are mapped within the DHCP range. These were DHCP entries that i configured as static mapping afterwards. Just hit the static mapping and changed the IP to what i wanted it to be, e.g. for example the Samsung TV (64:1C:...) was listed as 192.168.1.117 when it was added by the DHCP and then i mapped it as static using the IP i wanted it to have and after that, switched the TV off and on to take the new IP from the router.

I haven't done a reboot yet. Just want to see what's happening in the next days and collect all analytics before doing anything.

I am probably wrong (don't use your hardware), but you normally want any static IP addresses to be outside the DHCP scope.

A reboot is the first thing I do to make sure the configuration actually makes sense. Pre-reboot 'working' doesn't mean much. There could be any number of conditions that need specific services to be restarted (and in a certain order) to work properly. A reboot makes sure that what has been entered, can be understood and properly used (by the firmware).

 

[coxhaus]

The lease may not have expired on the original DHCP IP. Kill the lease on the old IP.

 

[ddaenen1]

You may have to exclude the static IPs from the DHCP scope or set reservations.

So here is where i need some guidance then: if i configure a static mapping in the ERL3 using the "static mapping" button in the list of DHCP leases, is it a real static mapping or is it a reservation? In the case it is a real static mapping, i learned it should be outside the DHCP range. In that case, would it suffice if i just reduce the range of the DHCP? To give an example, all my static mappings are starting from x.x.x.20 to x.x.x.80 with a 10 increase between them (7 static mappings in total). My DHCP range is current set from 20 to 200. If i would reconfigure my DHCP range to 100-230, all current static leases would be outside. Would that fix it? Every DHCP lease that is below 100 would get a new lease within the range after the lease expires, i would think, right?

 

[coxhaus]

I tend to arrange my DHCP range (scope) so it does not conflict with other IPs.

More than likely if you redefine your DHCP scope then all leases will be killed. So I think it should be fixed.

 

[ddaenen1]

I tend to arrange my DHCP range (scope) so it does not conflict with other IPs.

More than likely if you redefine your DHCP scope then all leases will be killed. So I think it should be fixed.

I am still confused on this one. Almost all sources i have read in the past hour state that the "static mapping" function on the ERL3 is a IP reservation so it should remain in the DHCP range. I will look at the log again tomorrow. As i configured all static maps yesterday, by tomorrow any old leases should have expired. Maybe after all leases have expired, the problem is gone. If not, i will do a reboot and see what happens then. In any case, all devices are configured to obtain the IP via DHCP so there aren't any real static IP configurations in my network.

 

[coxhaus]

Reservations are DHCP static mapping. If you go outside the scope with a static mapping then DHCP does not know anything about the static mapping. You just can't assign a MAC to 2 IP addresses which was your original problem.

I use DHCP reservations and static mappings for different things.

PS
Try to think of static mappings as hard coded IP addresses that you enter by hand. If you use DHCP to assign the same IP address with no lease then it is a reservation.

PSS
The 2 get confused a lot. It is hard to know when someone states static mappings what they mean.

 

[roadwrenchtech]

It doesn't have to be complicated. Your dhcp range could be 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.254. Set all clients to obtain address from dhcp server (router). Anything you want to always be the same address, even if it is turned off for longer than standard lease time just go in services, dhcp, and assign static from the menu next to each ip. It will be that address till the sun goes supernova or you factory reset the router. It hurts nothing for static addresses to reside within the dhcp range provided they are handed out by the router. If you are assigning addresses at the client level in the client admin panel itself (ie, an access point's admin server), then those addresses should not be within your routers dhcp range and you'll need to adjust your dhcp range so they have a spot on the subnet that is not double addressed by dhcp. For simplicity sake, the only dhcp server on my network (the erx) hands out all addresses, and then I make them all static in the erx menus. At least that's how I see it and do it in practice. Not the only way, just the way I do it. And yes dhcp reservations and static ip's get transposed especially with the language in some router menus.

 

[coxhaus]

I like to leave either the bottom IP numbers free or the top numbers free of a network, management VLAN so I can use them for network equipment so I start my DHCP scopes high or not assign the top numbers. You hate to have all your network equipment go off line because your DHCP server was reset. I tend to use static mapping for local network equipment. This covers my a** when sh**t hits the fan and you need to access certain pieces of network equipment and the network is down. So I do not use DHCP reservations for network equipment. Printers, AppleTV, servers, and etc. are OK for DHCP for reservations but not infrastructure, wireless APs, switches, routers and etc.

 

[roadwrenchtech]

I like to leave either the bottom IP numbers free or the top numbers free of a network, management VLAN so I can use them for network equipment so I start my DHCP scopes high or not assign the top numbers. You hate to have all your network equipment go off line because your DHCP server was reset. I tend to use static mapping for local network equipment. This covers my a** when sh**t hits the fan and you need to access certain pieces of network equipment and the network is down. So I do not use DHCP reservations for network equipment. Printers, AppleTV, servers, and etc. are OK for DHCP for reservations but not infrastructure, wireless APs, switches, routers and etc.

You make valid points I hadn't considered.

 

[ddaenen1]

Thanks for all the insights. As it is now, all my static mappings are reservations, e.g. the devices are configured as DHCP and the mapping has been done in the DHCP server. This morning i checked the log again and there were again multiple entries similar to what i posted earlier. So what i did this morning is reboot the ERL3 to see if these notifications stop. If not, i will follow the recommendation of moving the static mappings of all infrastructure outside of the DHCP range which will be as simple as shrinking the DHCP range from 20-220 to 90-220 which will still allow more than enough leases for all DHCP configured non-infrastructure equipment. I did notice though that the log entries were from only a couple of devices that had static mappings: my Samsung TV, my Asus AP and my Linksys XAC1900 AP. In any case, if i notice tonight that i still have duplicate IP log entries, i am planning to move all of my static mappings (basically all devices that are connected to the switch via UTP) outside of the DHCP range.

I do have 2 additional questions:

1. I read yesterday about the ERL3 having 2 options for DHCP server: dnsmasq or ISC DHCP. By default, the ERL3 is configured with ISC DHCP. Does it make sense to reconfigure to dnsmasq instead?

2. checking the reboot log this morning, i noticed that the upnp2 of the ERL3 is enabled. I can recall enabling upnp2 via CLI as one of the attempts to try to get devices to get internet via the router which was one of the first issues that i encountered but i forgot i did that. Should i leave as is or can i disable it again?

 

[coxhaus]

My networking knowledge is from using Cisco PRO gear so when it gets to the ERL3 I have no real experience. I avoid UPNP and just open ports as needed. Hopefully they have made UPNP2 safe. These are particulars to the ERL3 which I have not used. I would look to the forum for the ERL3 support.

 

[roadwrenchtech]

Upnp should be avoided always. If any of your clients need to answer unrequested wan traffic then set up port forwarding for it provided it is a secure and trusted client. The big problem with upnp is allowing the firmware in your clients to cut holes in your firewall that can let malicious traffic in. You want to be in full control of what you allow to make contact from wan to lan, and only manual configuration does that.

 

[ddaenen1]

The reboot didn't help. I am still getting the same log entries.

 

[ddaenen1]

The reboot didn't help. I am still getting the same log entries.

Well, the Ubiquiti community mentions this as a bug when you map a static lease. https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeR...ient-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-is/m-p/1574048#M111941

I have tried a proposed solution on one specific IP from the expired leases. I will monitor once again for a couple of days if this ip pops up again as it has several times in the past days. If this ip doesn't pop up anymore in the log, i will also apply for the other ones.

 

[ddaenen1]

Well, the Ubiquiti community mentions this as a bug when you map a static lease. https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeR...ient-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-is/m-p/1574048#M111941

I have tried a proposed solution on one specific IP from the expired leases. I will monitor once again for a couple of days if this ip pops up again as it has several times in the past days. If this ip doesn't pop up anymore in the log, i will also apply for the other ones.

Last night i deleted all the other entries in the expired leases and since then, the problem has vanished so the problem seems to have been resolved. I do notice a couple of other small things that i want to figure out. Every morning when i switch on the TV, it gives me a notification that the network cable was disconnected and reconnected. I never had this with the Asus router. I wonder if this has anything to do with the static mapping or with the AP. I am going to reboot the Samsung control unit to start with and see what happenens. Maybe should consider rebooting the ERL3 also after i deleted the expired static leases. Didn't do that.

 

[ddaenen1]

If IPv6 is slowing you down skip it and wait for later. Just make sure it is off. IPv4 is still where the meat of the internet is.

I had a shot at IPv6 yesterday but not very lucky with the first shot. CPU load goes sky high, and the WAN (Eth0) gets a IPv6 IP but LAN does not. I think i am going to clean things up tomorrow. Factory reset and configure from scratch w/o IPv6

 

[ddaenen1]

Just wanted to provide an update. My network is pretty much cleaned up now. I would have liked to connect the TV's directly and in one case i might in the future but the other case that is not possible anymore. But it does look much better now and everything seems to be running quite stable.

I still haven't figured out IPv6 on the ERL3 but it is not a priority right now. Currently i am wondering what else i can do to optimize my network. Here the options considered:

1. Activate jumbo-frames: don't know if it is going to do anything in terms of performance as i read different things. Happy to hear insights from the forum.

2. As i don't see any other use for Eth2 on the ERL3, i thought about bonding Eth1 and Eth2 to have a dual 1Gb connection to the switch. Don't know that will do anything but i figure if you can have 2 Gbps going into the switch, why not although i only have a 200mbps connection so i have no clue if it would make any difference?

3. Add a small rack -NAS to host my Plex collection. Currently, my Plex collection is hosted by both my ReadyNAS and my Plex Server but i would like to have all of them in one place. Secondly, i also use the Plex server to run a virtualbox with Ubuntu 18.04LTS on which i have installed UNMS. Works like a charm but as i said, i would rather have these things seperate.

Any thoughts?