[ale] Static DHCP Addresses? Any reason to Avoid?

[Steve Litt]

Neal Rhodes via Ale said on Fri, 11 Jun 2021 20:37:56 -0500

>Working with a local non-profit.
>
>They have a bunch of dumb devices on wifi, eg 3D printers.
>
>Supposedly one accesses them via mDNS, eg "Ender3.local".
>
>Which works less than 50% of the time on Windows or Linux boxes.
>More often it doesn't find it.
>
>My instinct is to assign those MAC Addresses a permanent IP address in 
>the DHCP on the main router.
>
>I've gotten some pushback eg "It works on my MAC", or "If windows
>wasn't so screwed up this would be fine".
>
>Which isn't too productive.
>
>ARE THERE any reasons not to make this problem go away by assigning a 
>fixed IP?  Then mDNS would still work where it does now, and the rest
>of us can find the little buggers without playing hunt the wumpus.

I can think of exactly one reason: Everybody takes up an IP address,
whether they're currently on or not.

Big deal. If you have a private address in 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x or
the other one which I forgot, you have plenty of IP addresses available.

Meanwhile, think of the benefits. I think you can set it so the only
way somebody gets a dhcp share is to have a MAC address on record on
your DHCP server. This locks out the average rando parked in front of
your house or in the house next door or whatever. The fact that you
know who has what address makes troubleshooting easier.

Make some sort of shellscript to make it a 1 minute deal to integrate a
new person with a new computer into the nextwork.

As far as the MAC guys, tell them you don't like having to send your
computer back to the manufacturer for 6 weeks when its battery goes
bad. :-)

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques