Why Do I Need a Static IP Address ?

[ignatz22]

And what are some of the consequences of not having one ?

[wgscott]

Unless you are running a website server or something similar, there is no need. The reason to have one is so that people in the outside world would have a permanent address for your computer. Unless you have such a need, there is no negative consequence of not having one.

[firedog]

Unless you are running a website server or something similar, there is no need. The reason to have one is so that people in the outside world would have a permanent address for your computer. Unless you have such a need, there is no negative consequence of not having one.

 

Well, it depends what he is actually referring to. Outside world or on his home network?

I've found that many devices and software on my home network work better - fewer connection problems, dropouts, etc., of they are assigned a static IP on my home network (the internal network IP, not the external one).

[4est]

As usual, you are correct. If a device is asleep, the network may assign that address to another device concurrently. I had nothing but issues using NAS until I assigned static IP addresses.

Well, it depends what he is actually referring to. Outside world or on his home network?

I've found that many devices and software on my home network work better - fewer connection problems, dropouts, etc., of they are assigned a static IP on my home network (the internal network IP, not the external one).

[EuroChamp]

Static address on the WAN / internet side is perfecty explained by wgscott.

 

In our LAN:

In the past, we had fewer devices and a, maybe not very stable network (token ring, ...). Now switches and cables are very reliable. And DHCP is implemented very well on all devices. DHCP makes live easier!

Bad critics about DHCP are definitely from yesterday (15 years ago and longer). Nowadays in home-networks it makes live hard for some users, because they have never ever heard of DHCP reservations.

 

But - on audiophile computers, where we always try to reduce running services, static config of an ip address lets us stop the DHCP client, it is not needed anymore. A static address lowers the load.

[wgscott]

Well, it depends what he is actually referring to. Outside world or on his home network?

I've found that many devices and software on my home network work better - fewer connection problems, dropouts, etc., of they are assigned a static IP on my home network (the internal network IP, not the external one).

 

Good point. I give most things I care about being able to connect to flawlessly a local static IP address within my lan, like wemo light switches, Hue light controller, Apple TVs, computers, etc. It might be overkill, but it seems to prevent a lot of minor irritations (and some major ones).

 

In the earlier versions of 10.10, Apple used a DNS discovery protocol that basically didn't work properly, and were eventually forced to return to the original, better one.

[firedog]

Just as an example, when I used a SB Duet, it had a hard time finding the server until I assigned static home IPs. The SB Touch is much better in this regard, but it also only became totally stable when I assigned static IPs to all the devices on my home network.

[Paul R]

As other people have said, you do not have to, but it can help a lot if you are having odd, random, or other weird behavior on your network.

 

One thing you can look into - if your DHCP server allows you to make reservations, you can simply reserve a specific IP address in the server via that method. It uses the MAC address, which the DHCP device is pretty certain to know as well.

 

It's sometimes easier to do that than to root through some oddball hunk of network gear and assign it a static IP address.

[wgscott]

As other people have said, you do not have to, but it can help a lot if you are having odd, random, or other weird behavior on your network.

 

One thing you can look into - if your DHCP server allows you to make reservations, you can simply reserve a specific IP address in the server via that method. It uses the MAC address, which the DHCP device is pretty certain to know as well.

 

It's sometimes easier to do that than to root through some oddball hunk of network gear and assign it a static IP address.

 

That is what I do. I wrongly thought that was assigning a static IP address.

[mjb]

And what are some of the consequences of not having one ?

You would use static addressing if the network doesn't support names (either via dns or zeroconf) as it will stop your network shares disappearing when their ip address lease expires! A halfway solution is to use reserved addressing which can coexist with dns. Home networks pretty much never support a local dns, and zeroconf may be flakey if you're mixing Linux/OS X, and Windows devices.

[ignatz22]

Thanks to all.

Now I'm really confused, as I've never been network conversant.

I'm running Vista, Synology 1515+, and SSR, Lumin app, and I'm only concerned with my home network.

The only issue I have is that the Lumin app will suddenly close on my Ipad.

Will having a static IP help, and if not, can I "undo" the static IP ?

[wgscott]

Yes you can undo it, and it is unlikely to harm anything, so it is worth a try. It might not be the source of the problem, but it is a free and easy fix if it does work.

[ignatz22]

Thanks again.

[EuroChamp]

As other people have said, you do not have to, but it can help a lot if you are having odd, random, or other weird behavior on your network.

 

One thing you can look into - if your DHCP server allows you to make reservations, you can simply reserve a specific IP address in the server via that method. It uses the MAC address, which the DHCP device is pretty certain to know as well.

 

It's sometimes easier to do that than to root through some oddball hunk of network gear and assign it a static IP address.

 

+1