Since I am limited in the amount of static leases I can reserve with the Almond+ (for absolutely NO good reason, and with absolutely NO confidence that Securifi will solve this issue in a timely manner despite the standard canned answers of "maybe in a future update"), as some have pointed out here, I can assign static IP addresses at the client side. While that may seem easily done for those with a lot of IT and networking experience, for the rest of us "Humans" for whom these routers are supposed to be the primary target market, this is not so cut and dried.
In the interest of both ceasing my b÷%_=ing and moaning and taking a proactive step that hopefully will give me some basic networking understanding to broaden my knowledge a bit, here are my questions/procedure in order set static IPs within my home network:
OK. So until the static lease limit on the Almond+ gets unhobbled at this arbitrary, unecessarily foolish, inadequate and shortsighted amount of 20-ish IP addresses, I am mulling over the idea of shortening the IP range of leases it hands out with DHCP, leaving the others free to be statically assigned at the client end.
Q1- Is this do-able?
Q2- How?
My assumptions: the current DHCP range is:
10.10.10.1 to 10.10.10.250
Q3 - If I change the End IP setting in the webUI to 150, that should give me addresses 151 to 250 that I can set at the client side on any devices I want static, correct?
Q4 -Within the shortened DHCP range of 10.10.10.1 to 10.10.10.150, I can still statically lease 20 clients where setting the IP is problematic (devices where trying to statically assign an IP is a PainInTheAss, ie Nest Protects, Chromecasts), and other devices, tablets, phones etc, will request their adhoc IP leases as normal from DHCP, correct.
Q5 - I have an Almond2015 I use in repeater mode that usually grabs 10.10.10.199 (if I remember correctly - it's not in use right now). How should I adjust my DHCP end setting to accommodate this?
Eg instead of 10.10.10.1 to 10.10.10.150, should I set the end point to .200 so that it can grab it's usual spot when I power it? That will leave me with addresses .201 to .250 free to assign statically, which should be enough.
Q6 - Set up procedure?
1-delete any static leases I currently have set up.
2-power down all clients except pc to access webui. Unplug my ethernet switch.
3-set DHCP endpoint in Web Ui
4-reboot Almond+
5-let everything reconnect to the Almond+ and get assigned IP from new shortened DHCP range.
6-begin assigning static IPs on the select clients from the outside the DHCP range 10.10.10.201 to 250. I am not sure how to do this, though. On client, turn off DHCP, punch in static IP, reboot machine?
Q7. If the basic range in the UI is .1 to .250, and the Almond+ is 10.10.10.254, what are 10.10.10.251 to 253 used for?
I know this is all probably basic networking questions...but "routers for human", remember? The point of this router is to NOT have to know this stuff.