Configuring a B2 to have a (real) static IP address at boot?

[Mark Fishman]

On the troubleshooting page at brennan.co.uk, I find this line:

"You can assign a 'static ip address' to the B2 to solve this. To do that you need to login to your router and give it the MAC address on the B2 info screen. Details will vary from router to router."

What that suggestion actually does is reserve a dynamically assigned IP address in the router (not the B2) so the router *should* always assign the same address to that particular device. That assumes that the router can be configured to do that.

A true static address is configured in the device, not in the router. Currently the B2 is configured to request and IP address from the router using DHCP -- even if the router honors the user's settings and assigns the same address every time, it's still using a dynamic assignment.

Do you have instructions for configuring the B2 to specify its own address when it boots? That would obviate the need to reserve an address in the router, and definitely ensure that the B2 has the same IP address all the time.

Thanks -- Mark F.

[Daniel Taylor]

I can envision a selection in the WebUI for IP Address, with a drop-down menu for DHCP and Static.  If/when Static is selected, a text box opens up allowing the aa.bb.cc.dd format only.  Would this new B2 static method usually mean that the Router would not have to be touched?

[Mark Fishman]

If you set a static IP address in the device, the router should simply notice that something is on the network when it tries to send traffic. That is completely different from a reserved address that still uses a DHCP handshake with the router. So, yes, you don't touch the router settings.

Since there's no DHCP negotiation, you have to tell the device several other things about the network as well as what address it should have: you have to tell it where to send traffic (gateway, usually the router address), where to find nameservers (usually the ones provided by your ISP, but you can choose others if  you prefer -- and you don't need any if you don't want the device looking up other computers by name), and what the netmask is (for a home network this is usually 255.255.255.0, meaning only the last octet will ever change). This information can be obtained from the DHCP negotiation that was done to get the device on the network the very first time, so it could be filled in automatically by the setup software.

But the user has to pick an address to be used for static addressing that won't ever be assigned to something else by the router, so it does require some knowledge about the user's home network.