How do I forward to another DHCP Server?

[JHanks64]

I have been using DD-WRT on Asus RT-N16 routers for a few years happily.
Now I have some clients with 300MB Comcast Business server and the RT-N16 won't go that fast it seems.
So, after research, I found the RT-AC66U_B1 routers. My first attempt to install DD-WRT bricked it, so I keep looking around and found Asuswrt-Merlin. So far, I'm very happy with it.

One thing I frequently did with DD-WRT is forward the DHCP to the company server and not use the router DHCP. I can't find where to do that in Asuswrt-Merlin.

Thanks for any help - searching for DHCP Forward resulted in pages of threads which didn't appear to be what I was looking for.

 

[eibgrad]

DHCP forwarding to where? Out the WAN? Or to another DHCP server on the same LAN? Because if it's the latter, forwarding is unnecessary. If it's the former, I don't see the option either.

Also, as an aside, I've never actually seen an ASUS router that was literally bricked. Seen a few that *appeared* to be bricked, but always recoverable w/ enough persistence, thanks to restore mode. In fact, just the other day, for the first time, I had to open an old ASUS WL-500gP v2 router and short pin 9 on the flash to fix what appeared to be a bricked router. Good as new. I find these ASUS routers are very hard to brick.

 

[JHanks64]

Yes, DHCP to the local server running DHCP and DNS servers. It does seem to work, but I have always did it that way with DD-WRT and couldn't find the same setting in Merlin.

As for the first Asus RT-AC66U that I bricked, I read on how to load DD-WRT and followed the directions, but it would never boot up after that. I tried about 20 times to get it into recovery mode and finally gave up. Even when it appeared to be in recovery mode, the Asus recovery utility would always fail when trying to load the factory firmware.

 

[eibgrad]

The forwarding option is usually intended for business/complex situations, where you have many downstream routers from your "master" DHCP server for centralized control and configuration. The forwarding option allows you to *route* your local DHCP requests over the WAN and up to that master DHCP server. ASUS routers being primarily consumer oriented, is probably the reason this option is not available.

But when you're dealing w/ a single network and simply wish to use a different local DHCP server, you just disable the other DHCP server(s) and all DHCP broadcasts by clients will eventually reach the one and only DHCP server available. Forwarding is superfluous.

As far as the bricked router, some of them can be mighty stubborn. I've had my share of routers that took a couple hours to recover. ASUS has also made it more difficult in recent years to install third party firmware. You sometimes have to hold not just the restore button, but also the WPS button, reset button, power, etc., all at the same time! And once the firmware is installed, you may have to mess w/ the same buttons to get it to factory reset. And the complexity seems to vary from model to model (older devices are usually simpler). But as I said, I can't think of a single instance in which I didn't *eventually* get it working. So don't throw it out.