DHCP Reservations - Netgear Support REALLY?????

DHCP Reservations are outside the DHCP Pool. That way no other PC can get the IP. The routers are the same way.

But the IP adderess can be an IP within the range of the current IP Pool.

E.G. if my Ip Pool starts at 192.168.10 and ends at 192.168.1.254, I can reserve 192.18.1.50 for a specific computer and have the DHCP assign that IP address to the same computer each time. That's the entire purpose of DHCP reservations, otherwise, you would set the computer with a static IP outside of the DHCP pool range.

That should have read "I can reserve 192.168.1.50 for a specific computer"

Let me start this over seen as I completley screwed it up.

E.G. if my Ip Pool starts at 192.168.1.10 and ends at 192.168.1.254, I can reserve 192.168.1.50 for a specific computer and have the DHCP assign that IP address to the same computer each time. That's the entire purpose of DHCP reservations, otherwise, you would have to set a static IP on the computer with an IP address outside the DHCP pool range.

I'm just telling you how it works. Don't shoot the messenger. Change your DHCP pool to start at .51. Setup a reservation for .50. Disconnect the PC. Reboot the router. Reconnect the PC. Check the IP. Tell us what you get.

In the GSM7328 Switch, you can't define a starting and ending DHCP Pool.

You define a DHCP pool for an entire subnet, then exclude ranges of addresses within the subnet.

In our actual configuration, we have 192.168.9.0 as the network address and then exclude 192.168.9.1 - 192.168.9.125. Therefore our DHCP Pool starts at 192.168.9.126 and ends at 192.168.9.254. So if we need to define an IP address "outside" of the DHCP IP Pool, how do we do that? It would seem impossible, yet the switch does allow for DHCP Reservations/Manual Bindings.

Now I had to check wikipedia for the definition of DHCP reservation:

static allocation: The DHCP server allocates an IP address based on a table with MAC address/IP address pairs, which are manually filled in (perhaps by a network administrator). Only clients with a MAC address listed in this table will be allocated an IP address. This feature, which is not supported by all DHCP servers, is variously called Static DHCP Assignment by DD-WRT, fixed-address by the dhcpd documentation, Address Reservation by Netgear, DHCP reservation or Static DHCP by Cisco and Linksys, and IP reservation or MAC/IP binding by various other router manufacturers.

So how can it be called DHCP reservation if the IP address is outside of the DHCP pool. The DHCP Serer should not be able to issue IP addresses outside of it's pool.

I just tried to setup a DHCP reservation for 192.168.9.125 (an IP address which is outside the DHCP range and is not in use by any other device). The swich refused to accept the IP Address and will not save the reservation.

It makes no sense that for DHCP reservation to work, you need to use an IP outside of the DHCP Pool. It completley defeats the naming and priciple of the protocol.

I can confirm that I have setup the DHCP reservation correctly. We purchased a 2nd switch with older firmware and the DHCP reservation works as expected.