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Forum Discussion
Edit/Add new IP reservations
I have an RBR50v2 Orbi router and 2 satellites with FW ver 2.7.5.6. I have entered 15, or so, reserved internal IP addresses using "Advanced > Security > Access Control". All works well. The is...
Use router as DHCP server means that when any device on the network broadcasts a DHCP request, the router will answer it. If the feature is off, then the router ignores DHCP requests. (Some users deliberately set up another device to manage IP addresses on the network and disable their WiFi router DHCP to prevent conflicts.)
When the router receives a DHCP request, it goes through a process to determine how to respond. My analysis is that it does this:
- Looks in the router ARP table to see if a device with that MAC address is already on the network. If so, the router says "Use this IP address I found in my ARP table."
(this is the part that we humans find annoying and wish the router would not do this.) - If not, the router looks in the LAN Setup table for that MAC address. If an entry is found, it responds, "Use this IP address I found in my LAN Setup table"
- If the MAC address is not in the LAN Setup table, the router looks for an open entry in the DHCP "pool" and says, "Use this IP address that appears to be available from the pool."
(I do not know if the router starts by looking from the bottom of the table or if it starts from the last IP address that was handed out. Would be something to experiment with (if I cared).
I certainly appreciate all the great help you all have given me. Please let me know if I am "over asking" my welcome. One more question.
When I goto "Advanced > Security > Access Control ", I see a list of attached devices with a status, for each device, listed as "Allowed" or "Blocked". If I scroll down just below this list, I see another list entitled "View list of allowed devices not currently connected to the network". In that quite long list, there are many device MAC addresses that are unknown to me. Can I delete all the devices that I think are not needed any more? I presume these devices are "not needed" old devices that I no longer own or devices from guests that I do not need any more. Many/Most of these entries are named "WATCH". REALLY unsure what that device entry was/is. Is this, basically, the ARP table for devices that are turned off?
If I happen to delete an address, from this list, that IS relevant, will it not reappear the next time the device is turned on and back off again?
To remove devices do I merely check the box next to the device and click "Remove from the List" button?
When I goto "Advanced > Security > Access Control ", I see a list of attached devices with a status, for each device, listed as "Allowed" or "Blocked". If I scroll down just below this list, I see another list entitled "View list of allowed devices not currently connected to the network". In that quite long list, there are many device MAC addresses that are unknown to me. Can I delete all the devices that I think are not needed any more? I presume these devices are "not needed" old devices that I no longer own or devices from guests that I do not need any more. Many/Most of these entries are named "WATCH". REALLY unsure what that device entry was/is. Is this, basically, the ARP table for devices that are turned off?
The list is just what it says - devices that are allowed to join the network, but which are off-line at the moment.
Personally I just leave that control off. The security benefits are minimal, since anyone who can crack your wifi password also has the skills to spoof a MAC address. Plus I discovered earlier this week that this feature wasn't working correctly on my 870. (No idea if the issue I found also applies to the rbr50 or not)/
If you allow new devices to join the network, then it is certainly safe to delete old items on the "not connected to the network" list.
If you do not allow new devices to join then network, then there is some risk that you might remove a device that is still on your network. In that were to happen, you could always add it.
You do want to be careful with phones and tablets, since both Android and Apple phones/tablets have a feature that randomizes their MAC address. So if you use MAC access controls, you need to make sure that those phones/tablets are configured properly. In the case of Apple, you'd want the "private wi-fi address" setting for your network to be set to either "Fixed" or "Off" "Rotating" will not work.
