How to maintain a static connection?

I have a westell 9100 router with fios. For most devices I use the DHCP server and all works fine. But I have a few devices I want to assign static ip address. The task is simple, go to advance, ip address distribution, connection list. I then define a "new static connection". 75% of thi time, this doesn't work. When I power on the device it recieves a "static" ip address from the DHCP pool!. 20% of the time it will receive the desired IP address, but it will not show on the connection list and on the my network list the device shows as a dhcp with a lease. Attempts to manually add to the list with "new static connection" results in a 3 way error that the name, ip and mac already exists, but it doesn't! The remaing 5% is nothing works right!

In ALL cases after a few days the device static or not ends up with a new ip address from the dhcp. I go to use my fax server and the software can't find the device. I have to go looking for the device then reconfigure all the software on every PC. It's annoying, time consuming and fustrating. Verizon support is no help.

I have tried rebooting and resetting the router back to factory defaults. Nothing corrects it. Is it true what verizon says? They REALLY do not support static ip addresses on the local/home/office network connections?

Another failed effort I have tried has been to disable the dhcp server on the verizon router and enable it on my wireless AP. This works perfectly. But over time, weeks or months, the verizon router table gets cluttered with every device being a static connections and never properly cleans up. After about 20-30 of these entries the router fails. Again verizon's support accesses the router, sees all the entries and says my problem is they do not support more then 10 to 12 devices max!! Either they reset my router or I have to do it manually delete one at a time from the connections list to remove all the dead static connections. Even a reboot does not clear them!

Is this crazy or what? Any suggestions?

Accepted answers

jnmarshall

@Anti-Phish wrote:
A DHCP reservation works just like a regular DHCP request, except the the preassigned IP address is issued (if not in use).
It's up to the client device to renew the DHCP lease as necessary. The RFC states the client "should" renew the lease at 1/2 the DHCP lease interval, in this case after 12 hours. If the client doesn't renew the DHCP lease within the 1440 minutes, the DHCP lease expires.

Looks like something else verizon and westell can't get right. I have confirmed yesterday as the active "reservation" expires. Upon turning the device off and back on, the reservation is removed and the device gets it's new IP from the pool. To the westell a reservation is only good for one use! Doesn't look like their is any other option to change this. What a piece of %$#@!

All comments

Hubrisnxs

You have to shrink the dhcp pool to x amount of dhcp ip's and then assign a static private address that is out of that range. You also want to be careful, because the cable boxes for file tv use the .100 range for video on demand and the program guide etc...

I'm pretty sure your doing this under my network and then network connections and then
home/network.

jumpin68ny

The Actiontec router assisgns IP addresses beginning at .2 and goes up from there.

As the previous poster indicated the STB's begin at 100.

I assign some of my devices a static IP address begining at .50 or .200

Unless you are running a large local area network adjusting the DHCP range is a mute point because you will never give out addresses over .20 I have a lot of devices between laptops, IPhones, Itouches, Wii, etc. and the highest I have given out was .15.

Before you do static addressing take note of your current DHCP IP configuration by going to

start

run

ipconfig /all

The DNS entry when you do ipconfig /all has two entries, the router and another DNS server.

When you configure static addressing you want all the settings to be the same as DHCP except the IP address where you will define 192.168.1.x and x=50 or 200

I hope this helps you. I have no problems with static addressing and have been doing it for years on this router.

Jim

jnmarshall

On the Westell routers IP-STB with vendor id's 60 are automatically hardcoded DHCP for 192.168.1.100-150. I changed the default user DHCP pool to be 192.168.1.151-199. For my static IPs they are 192.168.1.200 and above OR 192.168.1.99 and below.

The DHCP and static addresses can not be configured thur my network on the westell. You can only view the currently mapped devices as online or offline. The settings are clearly documented under Advanced, ip distribution. I have found a few other ways to get to the same setup panel thru network connections. But it all displays and results with the same problem.

WHEN it works I get a "static" ip of 192.168.1.210. A few days later I will be searching for the device and find that it is now "dynamic" as 192.168.1.161. Another symptom has been noticed that when they are listed on the network connection as "Static" they still have an expiration of the default 1440 minutes!? Maybe that's why they never remain static? Why would a static address expire? I've never seen a router allow a configuration like this.

jnmarshall

@jumpin68ny wrote:
Unless you are running a large local area network adjusting the DHCP range is a mute point because you will never give out addresses over .20 I have a lot of devices between laptops, IPhones, Itouches, Wii, etc. and the highest I have given out was .15.

My network is surprisingly larger, even Verizon claims it exceeds their limits on the westell. I have the 35mbps service and a total betweek 23-30 devices. If it wasn't for their TV restrictions I'd ditch the westell, it is real JUNK! And I'm being nice. I tried the bridge solution, but it requries additional cabling to get to my wireless APs. At verizon's suggestion I have wireless disabled on the Westell as it doesn't work. period end of story.

Anti-Phish1

@jnmarshall wrote:
The DHCP and static addresses can not be configured thur my network on the westell. You can only view the currently mapped devices as online or offline. The settings are clearly documented under Advanced, ip distribution. I have found a few other ways to get to the same setup panel thru network connections. But it all displays and results with the same problem.
WHEN it works I get a "static" ip of 192.168.1.210. A few days later I will be searching for the device and find that it is now "dynamic" as 192.168.1.161. Another symptom has been noticed that when they are listed on the network connection as "Static" they still have an expiration of the default 1440 minutes!? Maybe that's why they never remain static? Why would a static address expire? I've never seen a router allow a configuration like this.
What you are referring to is more properly called a "DHCP reservation" which is a predetermined paring of MAC address with IP address. With a DHCP reservation, the client still has to make a DHCP request to the server. If the client allows the DHCP lease to expire (1440 minutes) it will no longer have a valid DHCP lease and will show as "expired" in the connection list.
A true static IP address is set at the device and does not interact with a DHCP server.

jnmarshall

@Anti-Phish wrote:
What you are referring to is more properly called a "DHCP reservation" which is a predetermined paring of MAC address with IP address. With a DHCP reservation, the client still has to make a DHCP request to the server. If the client allows the DHCP lease to expire (1440 minutes) it will no longer have a valid DHCP lease and will show as "expired" in the connection list.
A true static IP address is set at the device and does not interact with a DHCP server.
So if the westell is doing a "reservation" instead of "static" is it a one time use only? Once the device makes the requests, get's the IP address, then expires 1440 minutes later, the reservation is over? The next time that device makes a request it now gets assigned one from the pool? This sounds exactly like the behavior I am seeing.

lasagna

OK, so assuming the Westell is close to the ActionTEC in terms of the DHCP setup since what you describe in your initial post sounds a lot like what I've seen on the ActionTEC ... here's what I do (I have numerous DHCP reservations setup).

First, if it's a Windows machine, do an "ipconfig /release" in a command window to release the current IP assignment from the PC and then shut down the PC. This seems important because I've had issues with systems that have a current DHCP reservation not wanting to pick a new address but instead telling the router they want their specific old address back.

Next, from another machine, on the Westell shrink the DHCP address pool (I use 50-150 on my home network which leaves 1-49 and 151-254 available for static/reservations but still keeps the STB's ranges of 100-110 in scope).

Now go into the IP Distribution section you mentioned and find the PC you want to give a reservation and DELETE it's definition from the page and apply.

Next, click on the "New Static Connection" at the bottom of the IP address distribution page and define the machine you want to give a static reservation. Pay close attention to get the MAC address correct and be certain to choose an IP address outside of the DHCP scope (so for example, I use 200-254 for my DHCP reservations).

Save the definition and then don't forget to Apply the definition on the main ip distribution definition page.

Now, you should be able to power up the PC and get the desired address.

If not, try repeating the process and doing a reboot of the router in between the last apply and the power up (totally unnecssary but I did have one IP phone that kept insisting on picking up a different address until I finally recycled the router).

If you're still not getting the right address, make absolution certain that you don't have any other DHCP servers on the segment. In a command window on a Windows box, do an "ipconfig /all" and look at the section where the IP address has been assigned and look for the line labelled "DHCP Server" and make sure it's the Westell's address.

Anti-Phish1

@jnmarshall wrote:
So if the westell is doing a "reservation" instead of "static" is it a one time use only? Once the device makes the requests, get's the IP address, then expires 1440 minutes later, the reservation is over? The next time that device makes a request it now gets assigned one from the pool? This sounds exactly like the behavior I am seeing.
A DHCP reservation works just like a regular DHCP request, except the the preassigned IP address is issued (if not in use).
It's up to the client device to renew the DHCP lease as necessary. The RFC states the client "should" renew the lease at 1/2 the DHCP lease interval, in this case after 12 hours. If the client doesn't renew the DHCP lease within the 1440 minutes, the DHCP lease expires.