NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

OldMainframeGuy's avatar
OldMainframeGuy
Tutor
Sep 30, 2021
Solved

Interpreting [DHCP:ID] entry in router log

My router log is e-mailed to me daily and it contains dozens of entries like this (IP & MAC addresses obscured):


[DHCP IP: (x.x.x.x)] to MAC address xx.xx.xx.xx, Wednesday, Sep 29,2021 21:18:47


The IP and MAC address is for my iPhone. When this message is logged, what is actually happening? I assume the phone is requesting an IP address be assigned to it but I can't figure out why it happens so often; it's as if the lease on the IP address only lasts for a few minutes. I don't think it's causing a probmem; just curious.


Thanks.


Rob

 

  • schumaku's avatar
    schumaku
    Sep 30, 2021

    Depending on the WiFi usage, modern mobile OS can take down WiFi if not used for a longer time, just returning for a short period to get push notifications, chat et all updated, and then go to sleep or low power mode again. 

     

    PS. We can imagine on how RFC1918 private IP look, and the MAC address - especially of using random MAC addresses. The only thing to hide is the second half of the real hardware MAC.

2 Replies

  • schumaku's avatar
    schumaku
    Guru
    Sep 30, 2021

    Depending on the WiFi usage, modern mobile OS can take down WiFi if not used for a longer time, just returning for a short period to get push notifications, chat et all updated, and then go to sleep or low power mode again. 

     

    PS. We can imagine on how RFC1918 private IP look, and the MAC address - especially of using random MAC addresses. The only thing to hide is the second half of the real hardware MAC.