Generic DHCP question

[Paul Costanza]

What does it mean when it's said, set your IP addresses as reserved (fixed) IP addresses outside of the routers DHCP address pool?
I have an Asus RT-AC87U and have set up a few devices for static IP's but I'm not sure which addresses would be considered outside of the DHCP address pool.
Thanks!

 

[CooCooCaChoo]

What it means is to reserve an address that is outside of the DHCP pool of addresses, which should be 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254 if you didn't modify the range.

This way, DHCP doesn't give out an address that you statically assigned as two devices cannot have the same IP address.

What you should do is change the range of DHCP addresses to a smaller range (192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.200) that way you also have a range of address (192.168.1.201 - 192.168.1.254) that you can statically assign.

 

[Paul Costanza]

Great, I know the router can use 1-254 but the way it was stated to me I thought it would need to be over 254 which is not possible.
Appreciate the quick and helpful reply!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Have a look at LAN > DHCP Server > IP Pool Starting Address and IP Pool Ending Address. This shows you start and end addresses of your DHCP pool (the addresses that are given out to DHCP clients).

By default they are set to 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.254 which is all available addresses (192.168.1.1 is the router and 192.168.1.255 is the broadcast address).

If you want a device to always have the same address you have 2 choices.

1) You can reduce the range of the DHCP (for example to 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.199) and then set a static (i.e. fixed) address on the device itself (for example 192.168.1.210).

2) Alternatively, you can setup the device to be a DHCP client, just like any other device. BUT, you use the router to reserve one of the DHCP pool addresses for its exclusive use. This is done at LAN > DHCP Server: "Enable Manual Assignment" = Yes and creating an entry in "Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list"

Note: Don't be confused by the word around in "Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list". It is a translation mistake. The reserved address has to be within the pool's address range, not outside it.

UPDATE: CooCooCaChoo beat me to it.

 

[Paul Costanza]

1) You can reduce the range of the DHCP (for example to 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.199) and then set a static (i.e. fixed) address on the device itself (for example 192.168.1.210).

2) Alternatively, you can setup the device to be a DHCP client, just like any other device. BUT, you use the router to reserve one of the DHCP pool addresses for its exclusive use. This is done at LAN > DHCP Server: "Enable Manual Assignment" = Yes and creating an entry in "Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list"

I've already done #2 and it seems to work well but here's the reason I've asked this question. I have 2 cablecard tuners (Silicon Prime) which can record up to 3 tv shows each at the same time. However, whenever it records 2 or more shows at the same time, one of the 2 computers loses ethernet connection. Silicon had suggested static IP's just like mentioned in #2 but I'm still having that problem with 1 computer losing ethernet. Oddly, I can turn on that computer's wifi and I'm good but in order to get connected again via ethernet, I have to reboot the modem and router.

In the meantime, I've ordered some Cat6 cables even though I have 5e and they should work fine. I may be doing all the static assigning for nothing.

 

[john9527]

I have 2 cablecard tuners (Silicon Prime) which can record up to 3 tv shows each at the same time. However, whenever it records 2 or more shows at the same time, one of the 2 computers loses ethernet connection.

Connect all your local lan in an unmanaged switch then connect the switch to the router. I only have a single SD Prime, but can have all three tuners active without any problems with this configuration.

 

[Paul Costanza]

Connect all your local lan in an unmanaged switch then connect the switch to the router. I only have a single SD Prime, but can have all three tuners active without any problems with this configuration.

Well, I should have mentioned more of my setup but I was trying too hard to simplify it.
Because I have too many connections, I do have a switch (gigabit). But, when both Primes were connected to either the router and switch, both to the switch or both to the router, only 1 would work. So, I got a second switch.
Things were working well for a bit but then suddenly the problem started.
I really think I just need to tweak things a bit and the good news (or the odd news) is that, no matter what happens to the connection, the shows do get recorded so that's livable for now.

 

[john9527]

But, when both Primes were connected to either the router and switch, both to the switch or both to the router, only 1 would work.

I assume you are also running 'TunerSalad' to increase the number of tuners for WMC from it's default of 4 max? I've also read that this setting is pretty easily lost, so you may want to try re-installing the 'Salad'.

 

[Paul Costanza]

No, it's not needed because it's only 6 tuners but, I'm not use WMC, I'm beta testing SiliconDust's new DVR service.

 

[john9527]

Ahhh....more info. Also a possibility it's the HDHomeRun DVR beta that's killing the Prime. Not sure how much testing they would have done at this point with multiple Primes.

BTW, have they enabled DRM channels yet?

 

[Paul Costanza]

No, not yet and they are waaaaaay behind in where they were supposed to be. A lot of angry and impatient folks there.

I'm not thinking it's the beta because it was working up until a few days ago. I've not done any updating which is why is more strangeness.