Why does my PINK change it's address?

P!-Ro

Over the past couple months my pink has gone from an address of 192.168.0.1 to -0.3 then to -0.8 just recently. Why is it constantly changing the last number?

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
PG

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

You've probably got it configured for DHCP (dynamic addressing).

-Phil

P!-Ro

Thanks Phil, you're always a great help!

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
PG

soshimo

You can still use DHCP, just set the lease length to infinite. As long as the firmware doesn't get upgraded or the settings don't get wiped you should retain that same IP forever. If you are talking through a router it's really your only choice.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

It really depends on how the rest of your network is set up, and I don't think you can mix static and dynamic allocations. I use a router, but not DHCP, so all the nodes on my network are statically allocated. (Yeah, I have control issues. ) But I had to force it to be set up that way, since almost all network configurations default to DHCP.

-Phil

P!-Ro

Thanks guys. I really don't know the difference between the two types, so my preference is whatever works! I just get tired of having to find PINK tools at parallax.com to find my new address!

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
PG

Chris Savage

Personally on my @home units I use Static IP on my entire internal network. It’s easier to keep track of everything that way and my router pretty much requires it to port-forward.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Chris Savage
Parallax Engineering

Capdiamont

You can have both static and DHCP on the same network. The home routers I have dealt with, seem to do as a default, about 50 DHCP ip addresses. It us then a matter of selecting a static ip address outside your router's DHCP address range.

If you want to view your Pink on the internet, it is best to use static IP address, that way it never gets changed. Then you have to enable port forwarding of port 80 and maybe others from the internet to that static ip address. Some would use another port on the outside that is not normally used, for better security, to port 80 on your device.

Think of it this way for the difference.

Static, is a home owner with a permanent address, the only problem is they are not automatically assigned and you have to keep track of which addresses are used.

DHCP is an Dynamic/changing automatically assigned ip address. It is a renter who must ask permission every time they reboot, or their lease expires for a new ip address, which can be the same one or not.

isp's normally assign ip addresses via DHCP. Normally this is good, provides a bit of security, because attackers must find your new ip address. It is also cheaper than having a sticky, or a static ip address. This does create a problem for accessing your server/Pink from the outside. You need to know your home ip address, or another method to get to that address. Your home ip address will change.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

You can use dyndns.com to give your home network a fixed domain name and to keep it updated with the dynamically-changing IP that your ISP assigns. That way, outside users will have a fixed url with which to access your system, regardless of changes to your IP address.

-Phil

P!-Ro

So is security the only reason to use a dynamic ip adress? Or am I missing something here?

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
PG

Javalin

>So is security the only reason to use a dynamic ip adress?
Not really.

DHCP is really for dynamically giving many network hosts an address without having to keep a spreadsheet of assignments.

Set your PINK to use a static (i.e. Fixed) IP address and problems will go away. Use either an address not in the range of the DHCP scope on your router (i.e. 192.168.1.1 -> 200) - so 201 in that example or exclude the address you want to use from the scope. Depends on what your router can do. The former is the easiest.

>You can have both static and DHCP on the same network.
yup - as long as the two IP ranges don't overlap.

Are you accessing the PINK from outside your home network? If so you'd need to either keep track of your routers public (i.e internet) IP address, or use DynaDNS if your router supports it. I assume if you are using it from outside - you've already configured the port forwarding rules.

James

lenswerks

For security reasons I would limit the number of IP addresses managed by the router to the number of devices you plan to use.

You can leave the PINK configured for DHCP and simply put that assigned IP in the routers Static DHCP client list, then create a virtual server that will allow access to LAN services from the Internet. For example, anything coming to YourIP:5800/indexlock.htm will be directed to the PINK on port 80.

DHCP is very often the only way to get to a new device to configure or install an OS and then "assign" an IP.

The practice of the IPS frequently changing your WAN IP originated to make it harded for home users to set up a WEB server generating a lot of traffic.

I use no-ip.com which is a good managed DNS provider

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

The main reason ISPs use DHCP is to limit the number of distinct IP addresses required from their assigned address pool, which is a limited resource (and about to become exhausted in IPv4 space, apparently). If each customer had his own static IP address, the address requirements would be much higher than if only the active nodes are assigned addresses dynamically.

-Phil

P!-Ro

It sounds like DHCP might be better then. I decided to try no-ip like you stated, lenswerks, but one thing I'm wondering is will it automatically update the IP if it changes?

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
PG