On 01/21/2015 01:23 PM, John Andersen wrote:

To me the question is why on earth in this day and age are you still running static at home?

I run static IPv4 addresses on computers that are always connected to my LAN. Others use DHCP with IP addresses tied to MAC address. Of course, the IPv6 addresses are always static, based on the MAC addresses, though some devices can also have a random address. However, I agree there's no point on using a static address for portable devices. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/21/2015 11:14 AM, Anton Aylward wrote:

Sometimes static makes sense because it is simple.

Clearly this isn't one of those times, hence Stanislav's predicament.

As James says, statically connected LAN devices are ... Static.

N y home system has a firewall/switch/router that CAN do DHCP but why? All the things connected to it are permanently on,

Permanently is relative for things electric. But even if it was, so what? Renewing an IP presents no disruption, no load on your network, and, if you are doing it even halfway right will result in the SAME IP every time. Mac Address Reservations.....

More to the point, I access them all from my desktop, which apart from my phone an tablet are the only 'screens. Everything else is 'headless', the router, the printer, the wifi router the voip.

So on my desktop I have a /etc/hosts file with all those permanent addresses.

That is not simple as best I can tell. (I mean its fine if its JUST you that has to reference some device by name/IP but when there are 5 computers in the house plus 12 portable devices, it becomes unworkable). IP reservations do this in the DHCP server. Once connected, you can tell it to reserve an IP for a specific mac address. Sometimes this is as easy as a check box, other times its another entry on another screen in the router's interface. I tried Statics. Its a total mess, especially with coming and going devices in the house like tablets laptops and cell phones. True, any competent DHCP server can work around "usurped" static IPs, but this can cause all manor of problems depending on boot-up order. If you have to have a static, put them all together in a range, and tell the DHCP server not to use that range. But in the 15 years since I abandoned Statics, I've seen only one convincing case for use of a static, and that is for the internal IP of my main server which is also my gateway. -- After all is said and done, more is said than done. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/21/2015 03:38 PM, John Andersen wrote:

Permanently is relative for things electric.

Indeed. The address has outlived a couple of machines :-)

But even if it was, so what? Renewing an IP presents no disruption, no load on your network, and, if you are doing it even halfway right will result in the SAME IP every time. Mac Address Reservations.....

And having permanent addresses represents even less of a load ... (Now lets see who can piss higher up the wall....)

That is not simple as best I can tell. (I mean its fine if its JUST you that has to reference some device by name/IP

Yes, I said that. Just me. Home system. I also qualified that with saying that there were many situations where DHCP makes sense. I'm saying that in my case for my BACKBONE it doesn’t. Please note all the qualifications I've mentioned. You seem to be ignoring them.

but when there are 5 computers in the house plus 12 portable devices, it becomes unworkable).

Of course its unworkable! Yes there are five static devices on the BACKBONE switch. Two of them are secondary routers, both LinkedSys. As I said. A voip/ANA and Wifi. As I said, both of those hhave DHCP downstream. But LinkedSys is not friendly, this is not all some single Linux box running dnsmasq with integrated DNS naming and DHCP.

I tried Statics. Its a total mess, especially with coming and going devices in the house like tablets laptops and cell phones.

I've run household, office and ISP/Service and know where DHCP is applicable. And not. It is rarely applicable for BACKBONES. Key example: my gateway is statically assigned, always .1. Ditto other key items. Yes, they could be MAC linked on the DHCP, but when things go wrong and you need to do some network debugging, having fixed addresses for key components like the Router, the SAN, other Gateways is so incredibly convenient. Whatever device is the DHCP server, it could have failed. Setting up permanent addresses for BACKBONE devices is not difficult.

True, any competent DHCP server can work around "usurped" static IPs, but this can cause all manor of problems depending on boot-up order.

In something like 30+ years of networking I've never had a problem with that. Usually because I do SOMETHING LIKE reserve the first 15 or so addresses of a "class C' sub-net and don't even begin the DHCP pool until .32. As far as I can tell its a matter of discipline. I set up a discipline for doing this after considering the complications and possible errors and failures modes and have stck with it and as a result hav't had problems.

If you have to have a static, put them all together in a range, and tell the DHCP server not to use that range. But in the 15 years since I abandoned Statics, I've seen only one convincing case for use of a static, and that is for the internal IP of my main server which is also my gateway.

As I say, I've been doing that, PLUS, for a long while. The PLUS is to simplify debugging when things fail. As they sometimes do. Call me a "belt and braces" type of old fogie ... Again: do read my earlier post. I run a multi level network. I do use DHCP. Just not on the BACKBONE. -- /"\ \ / ASCII Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML Mail / \ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/22/2015 02:30 AM, Per Jessen wrote:

Anton Aylward wrote:

...

There are many situations where DHCP makes sense. An office with transient or 'hotelling' connections, an ISP, many others.

Running DHCP makes sense almost anywhere. It's obviously not required, but it makes life a lot easier. Just think a friend with an Android wanting to use your WiFi.

Contrariwise, there are many situations where static addresses make more sense such as DNS servers. I would generalize that to Infrastructure backbone components such as routers. DHCP is about DYNAMIC components. "Hotelling", workers coming and going; ISPs with clients that may or may not be there; freidnds with phones or tablets passing through. All good illustrations of TRANSIENTS. One idiom of the 'Net is "Cool URLs Don't Change". Yes that relies on DNS name mapping, but it also relies on the sites not changing their internal structure. The same can be said of "cool" addressees such as 8.8.8.8. Finally I'd like to make the observation that there are many security protocols that reply on IP addresses being constant. At a very basic level, even the SSH you use has that. If the IP address of the destination changes from one session to the next that comes up as warning since, in many cases, your record for that host in known_hosts might not match what DNS right now says. Then there's SSL/TSL. Surely, when browsing you’ve had a popup telling you that a site's certificate is invalid. Perhaps its out of date, but it may also be that certificate IP/name doesn't match. "Stolen certificate'? No. IP mismatch. Check with your ISP. There are going to be some services that they will only sell you if you have or make use of a static IP address. -- /"\ \ / ASCII Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML Mail / \ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org