[RT-AC66R / 380.62] Static IPs, DHCP Pool, Internal DNS Records

[Digital Noise]

So this is probably less a question directly specific to Asuswrt-Merlin, and more about how to implement it using Asuswrt-Merlin.

I'm finally getting around to setting up my virtualization infrastructure at home. While I anticipate that the majority of my guests will simply pull a dynamic IP from the router, I know that I need to configure at least a static IP for the physical host.

Here's the question that I just can't seem to answer: Is it better to set the Static IP on the Lan > DHCP Server - Manually Assigned IP, and leave the host set to dynamic and rely on DHCP to always assign the same IP based on the MAC address, or should the address not be assigned on that page and instead be set in the host's /etc/network/interfaces?

Bonus question: Does the Asuswrt-Merlin firmware rely on the client to tell the router what the hostname should be and Asuswrt-Merlin FW sets the DNS record appropriately?

 

[RMerlin]

It's often a matter of personal preferences. Personally, I prefer to let DHCP handle things, so that way it ensures that the DNS will be populated with the correct hostnames, for network-wide name resolution. Also if there is a problem with your router and you end up having to reset or replace it, your devices will regain network access immediately (following a reboot at worst) in cases where you might be on a subnet that's different from the default one. So for instance, if you had to replace your router and need NAS access to retrieve something on it (like a backup of your router config), having the NAS accessible on the temporary subnet can be handy.

 

[Digital Noise]

It's often a matter of personal preferences. Personally, I prefer to let DHCP handle things, so that way it ensures that the DNS will be populated with the correct hostnames, for network-wide name resolution. Also if there is a problem with your router and you end up having to reset or replace it, your devices will regain network access immediately (following a reboot at worst) in cases where you might be on a subnet that's different from the default one. So for instance, if you had to replace your router and need NAS access to retrieve something on it (like a backup of your router config), having the NAS accessible on the temporary subnet can be handy.

The man himself! I see what you mean - if I leave the clients as DHCP, then they'll be able to connect physically even if the router is replaced or reset.

And perhaps this just shows what I don't know where networking is concerned, probably doesn't bode well for my VMs.

One last question - where does the 'clients list' on the Network Map tab get the client names from? Because I have names showing up there that aren't the hostnames being reported by the clients themselves, but nslookup gives the right answer from the router.

 

[RMerlin]

The man himself! I see what you mean - if I leave the clients as DHCP, then they'll be able to connect physically even if the router is replaced or reset.

And perhaps this just shows what I don't know where networking is concerned, probably doesn't bode well for my VMs.

One last question - where does the 'clients list' on the Network Map tab get the client names from? Because I have names showing up there that aren't the hostnames being reported by the clients themselves, but nslookup gives the right answer from the router.

Networkmap grabs names from various places, using a specific priority order to determine which name to use. In addition to DNS, it also use Netbios for instance to obtain a device's name.