ORBI not properly associating static IP

[6old3nra1n]

Hello!

I've been trying to use the Address Reservation feature under Advanced -> Setup -> LAN Setup. I have a PC that is hardwired (Ethernet, not wireless) to the RBS50 satellite (not the base RBR50 router). So I put in an entry into the Address Reservation in an attempt to have the system associate a static IP to my PC. However, a day or so later, the IP of my PC changes (it was originally set up to obtain a reserved IP of 192.168.1.25) to something other than what the reservation was set up with. I have not rebooted my PC (it's always on as a file server) after setting up the Address Reservation.

I can't figure out why this is happening. This is a fairly basic feature (despite it being located in Advanced) and I'm surprised it is not working properly. 

Any ideas? Thank you.

[mengle77 · Accepted solution]

I know this is an old thread but I was having the same problem with reserved addresses not getting assigned.  I tried the "trick" of changing the DHCP addresses from x.x.x.21 to x.x.x.254 TO x.x.x.21 to x.x.x.100.

Restarted the devices that were not getting the addresses I wanted and it all worked.  I had tried restarting the devices prior to changing the auto assigned addresses range and it did not work at that time.  Only after changing the range of the auto addresses.

I know enough to know that should not change the addresses I wanted reserved.  Nothing was assigned in the >100 range in the first place.  All I know is it solved my problem.

[Mstrbig]

Set that same IP address as static on the PC itself.

[6old3nra1n]

Why would setting a static IP on the PC itself be necessary? Should the IP assignment that's router-based be enough? As in, the assignment comes from the router only, no other place. So when the IP changes to a different IP, that's based on what the router did, not any other device or source. The PC certainly didn't change the IP itself.

I don't think this feature is working properly on the router. I've had dozens of routers beforehand and all of them handled static IP assignments correctly WITHOUT having to assign a static IP on the computer/laptop itself.

[6old3nra1n]

And just for added info -- I rebooted a few times today and each time the ROUTER assigns a different IP. I haven't had the same IP assigned today despite the address reservation. Therefore, this is really a confirmation that the feature is not working as intended.

[Mstrbig]

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@6old3nra1n wrote:

Why would setting a static IP on the PC itself be necessary? Should the IP assignment that's router-based be enough? As in, the assignment comes from the router only, no other place. So when the IP changes to a different IP, that's based on what the router did, not any other device or source. The PC certainly didn't change the IP itself.

I don't think this feature is working properly on the router. I've had dozens of routers beforehand and all of them handled static IP assignments correctly WITHOUT having to assign a static IP on the computer/laptop itself.

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I did not say it was necessary. I just offered 1 solution. Sometimes I find it better to try a solution rather than dwell on a problem.

A Windows system will assign an automatic  private IP in the 169.x.x.x range because it cannot find the DHCP server. Many things can cause this. Most of the time the only way to correct it is to flush DNS, turn off and restart the PC and more. One fix is to input a static IP address for that PC and reserve it in the router. Problem solved. I mention this because sometimes DHCP servers have issues too.

[Mstrbig]

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@6old3nra1n wrote:

And just for added info -- I rebooted a few times today and each time the ROUTER assigns a different IP. I haven't had the same IP assigned today despite the address reservation. Therefore, this is really a confirmation that the feature is not working as intended.

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I probably should have asked, is your Orbi Router in Router or AP mode?

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[6old3nra1n]

I see what you're saying. RBR50/RBS50 is in router mode. The only thing I can "guess" is that perhaps the assignment is not working correctly because the Address Reservation appears to only work for devices connected to the main router (as opposed to the satellite).

I even accessed the configuration page of the satellite itself but there are no options to configure it beyond some things like firmware update.

[Mstrbig]

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@6old3nra1n wrote:

I see what you're saying. RBR50/RBS50 is in router mode. The only thing I can "guess" is that perhaps the assignment is not working correctly because the Address Reservation appears to only work for devices connected to the main router (as opposed to the satellite).

I even accessed the configuration page of the satellite itself but there are no options to configure it beyond some things like firmware update.

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I tested it here with RBR50 and 2 RBS50 satellites. It is working properly here. Have you rebooted  the computer, or accessed its IP configuration and forced a DHCP release and renew. 

1. Right-click on the Windows key then select Command Prompt or
2. Right-click on the Windows key then select run, the type cmd.
3. In the Command Prompt, enter “ipconfig /flushdns
4. In the Command Prompt, enter “ipconfig /release” then press [Enter] to release your computer's current IP Address.
5. Enter “ipconfig /renew” then press [Enter] to renew your computer's IP Address.

[CrimpOn]

I agree with @Mstrbig that one "sure fire" method is to (a) assign a static IP in the PC control panel (with the correct subnet mask, gateway, DNS server, etc.) and (b) make sure that this IP is NOT in the range of IP's that the Orbi DHCP server is giving out.

There are some definite issues with the way Orbi handles DHCP.  For example, it appears to allow devices to renew an existing IP that is not the IP in the reservation table.  Seems like "you already have it, so you can keep it." takes precedence over, "Hey Buddy.  That IP does not belong to YOU."  There have been other posts about errors in Orbi DHCP management.

That said, my Orbi correctly handles all of the devices that have assigned IP's.  All of the devices use DHCP and once I got them on the correct IP they have stayed for months.  Being attached to the router or satellite has never made a difference.

There have been issues come up when it turned out there was a second DHCP server in the network.  This computer that is a "server", for example, is not doing DHCP is it?  There are some odd-ball devices that do DHCP.

[6old3nra1n]

I just did these steps and still no go. Basically the system is iterating the IP address by 1 each time. So just now my IP was 192.168.1.31, and after performing your steps it went to 192.168.1.32... then I did it again and it went to 192.168.1.33... you get the picture.

I even tried reserving a far off IP like 192.168.1.100 (which is still part of the range of IPs that the Router can assign) but after performing your steps it came back with 192.168.1.34.

Could this be firmware related? I am using a fairly old one (since my Vista computer was off for the last 3 years) -- version 2.3.5.30

By the way, I don't have anything else on my network that is acting like a DHCP server.

[6old3nra1n]

As you can see, every time I refresh my IP, it's not even sticking with the previous IP... While it is not using the reserved IP for my PC, I find it interesting that it is ALSO not using the previous IP either.

[CrimpOn]

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@6old3nra1n wrote:

I just did these steps and still no go. Basically the system is iterating the IP address by 1 each time. So just now my IP was 192.168.1.31, and after performing your steps it went to 192.168.1.32... then I did it again and it went to 192.168.1.33... you get the picture.

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I tend to get confused by the "asynchronous" nature of forums where a response is not to the post immediately above it.

"These steps" refers to....?

I had a similar experience with WiFi adapters in some of Linux machines when they got set to "Randomize MAC address" every time they booted.  (Of course, I had no memory of installing software to do that and it took hours to root it out.)  The symptom was every boot it got a new IP address, higher by one.  I had thought that this happens only to WiFi, but came across a post saying it happened to a wired ethernet connection: https://community.fing.com/discussion/3106/windows-10-v1909-mac-randomization-on-boot 

So, is the MAC address exactly the same in the Attached Devices display every time?

[6old3nra1n]

Appreciate the ongoing help here! 🙂

So my MAC address stays the same every time the IP changes:

00-1F-D0-81-9B-07

This is the same MAC address that is always displayed under address reservation in the router's configuration page. Even without address reservation, I've never seen IP addresses change daily or upon every reboot. And to change by +1 each time leads me to believe there is some service or software doing it.

How effing annoying...

[CrimpOn]

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@6old3nra1n wrote:

How effing annoying...

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There could be some strange mismatch between the PC's DHCP request and the Orbi.

I know what we want to happen.  The PC does a DHCP request, the Orbi first looks at the LAN reservation table, finds the IP, checks that it is not in use already, and then offers it to the PC.

This appears not to be what actually happens.  I have verified situations where a device *somehow* got an IP that I did not want it to have, and no matter how many times I restarted the device, the Orbi would say, "you already have this one, so keep it."  My (tedious) workaround was to turn off the device, configure my laptop with a static IP that matches the bad one, and then when I powered up the device, the Orbi said, "You are asking for an IP that is already in use.  Oh, look, the LAN reservation table says I should give you this one that is not in use."

This new wrinkle that seems to be happening to you is the device asks for an IP and the Orbi says, "that one is already taken, but the next one in the DHCP pool is available.  Here."

The only way I can see to investigate this is to capture the Orbi LAN traffic (an option on the debug screen) and use Wireshark to look at the DHCP conversations.

I LOVE doing this kind of stuff, and I don't have any work that needs to get done or people hassling me about "Why isn't the internet working."

I would take the easy way out.

• Give the device a static IP (on the device)
• Create a LAN reservation on the Orbi that is outside the DHCP pool
• After this works for a couple of days, experiment with changing the PC back to DHCP

[CrimpOn]

The other alternative is to put the Orbi in AP mode and have the ISP device handle IP assignments.  It probably has the same basic structure for assigning IP's to be given out with DHCP.  Maybe the PC will "play nice" with the ISP router.

[6old3nra1n]

So you guys won't believe this -- I decided to change the range of the DHCP-assigned LAN IP addresses from [192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254] to [192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.100].

In my previous address reservation attempts, I set the reserved IP to 192.168.1.25 ...26, 27, etc. Then I set it to something really far out within the IP range, namely 192.168.1.100. Still within the original range, and still within the new range.

So technically nothing should change, right? But wait, there's more! When I changed the range, clearly the router did "something" and reset all connections. I noticed that even my router page was no longer accessible (for the time being). So when I simply typed "ipconfig" (without releasing or renewing anything) into my PC, it showed 192.168.1.100!

It's almost as if changing the DHCP-assigned IP range caused the system to start from scratch (perhaps the DHCP table itself got rebuilt) and therefore assigned my PC the correct reserved IP address of 192.168.1.100.

The question now is -- if I change the address reservation to another IP or if I reserve another IP for another device, will it work? Or will I have to "reset" the DHCP by changing the IP range again... I'm scared to try.. haha..

[Mstrbig]

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@6old3nra1n wrote:

So you guys won't believe this -- I decided to change the range of the DHCP-assigned LAN IP addresses from [192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254] to [192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.100].

In my previous address reservation attempts, I set the reserved IP to 192.168.1.25 ...26, 27, etc. Then I set it to something really far out within the IP range, namely 192.168.1.100. Still within the original range, and still within the new range.

So technically nothing should change, right? But wait, there's more! When I changed the range, clearly the router did "something" and reset all connections. I noticed that even my router page was no longer accessible (for the time being). So when I simply typed "ipconfig" (without releasing or renewing anything) into my PC, it showed 192.168.1.100!

It's almost as if changing the DHCP-assigned IP range caused the system to start from scratch (perhaps the DHCP table itself got rebuilt) and therefore assigned my PC the correct reserved IP address of 192.168.1.100.

The question now is -- if I change the address reservation to another IP or if I reserve another IP for another device, will it work? Or will I have to "reset" the DHCP by changing the IP range again... I'm scared to try.. haha..

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That really didn't do anything but reassign any IP addresses over 100 to 100 or below. Then it refreshed the IP table which could have corrected some issue. If it is working properly, changing a statically assigned IP address won't cause an issue, as the DHCP server will reserve the IP address and change the IP address of another device that previously had the reserved IP assigned to it.

[6old3nra1n]

This was my thought as well. Since I didn't have any devices using IPs greater than 100, then nothing really changed about them. I think the refresh of the DHCP table is what did the trick and allowed the address reservation to properly be applied. Thanks again for your help!

[dunciad]

This DHCP is rubbish.

The IP address reservations do not work. There is no stability (ie if a device had an IP address, and it was not resused elsewhere, then the device might not get the same IP address). If you edit the list of reservations you see that the list of existing reservations in the edit window differs from the list you see when you just click on the information page. What a complete p.o.s.

[FURRYe38]

Then find something else that works for you or install a different router and use the Orbi in AP mode. 

Haven't seen any DHCP issues when in router mode on mine. v16. 

[dunciad]

Sure I could find something else that works. But I paid for something that should already work. If Netgear will refund my purchase then I'll gladly return their hw/sw.

It works for you. Bravo. It doesn't work for me. Nor for many others according to this post.

[FURRYe38]

If your unit is newly bought, then return it. 

It not, maybe post more details about your system and maybe we can help figure yoru problem out. 

[ShannonC]

I am having the same issue. I have about 50 IOT devices, mostly WEMO light switches, dimmers, and plugs. They need to have static IP addresses to work with my home automation hub (Hubitat). I have tried to add them to the Reserved IP listing, but some are not changing their IP addresses when added. I changed the IP address as I added them to the reserve list. Many have changed to the correct IP, but several have not and will not so far.

This does not make sense. I have tried updating and rebooting the router, but to no avail. 

Shannon

[CrimpOn]

One strategy for IoT devices is to create the reservation in the LAN setup table after the device has been assigned an IP by the Orbi DHCP process.  This has the disadvantage of "lacking order."  Being somewhat OCD, I want all my smart plugs to have IP's that are grouped together.  (All the security cameras grouped, etc.)  Functionally it makes no difference, but I like what I like.

Another strategy is.to make the reservation in the LAN Setup table before configuring the device. For devices that do not have the hardware MAC address printed on the device, the device has to be configured and join the Orbi network to discover the MAC address. Then, create the reservation, reset the device, and configure it again.

I, also, find the Orbi DHCP system to be disappointing. When a device gets "fixated" on an IP that I do not want it to have, I follow this procedure:

• Power off the IoT device.
• Set some device with a Static IP that the IoT has "stuck to".
  The network now has a device with that IP active on the network.
• When the IoT device is powered on again, Orbi does an ARP request and says, "sorry, that IP is in use.  Oh look, here's a nice IP address in the LAN setup table for you."

[william1104]

I also have the same problem.....
It seems to the feature of ‘address reservation’ is a joke.....