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I have a small network at home with a router, a printer, a NAS and 4 PCs. My router allows full DHCP management and I have set my router, NAS and printer to have static IP addresses (reserved fixed leasings) and the PCs to get a dynamically assigned IP address from the DHCP service on the router.

In a small network like this, are there any benefits to have dynamic addresses?

JannieT
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2 Answers2

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There is no real benefit to statics, except if you need to do NAT through your firewall to a static host, but no real problems either since your network is so small, it is easy to keep track of just a few static addresses (this was THE main pain in the butt for large organizations with static addressing in the distant past).

I would keep a DHCP server so if you have friends visit, you can accomodate them.

Fo anyone setting up static IP's, I would recommend a scheme. Here is the one I use for my corporate networks:

x.x.x.1-x.x.x..20       Hardware devices like routers and switches
x.x.x.21-x.x.x.40       Hardware Servers
x.x.x.41-x.x.x.60       Printers
x.x.x.61-x.x.x.100      Miscellaneous like VMs
x.x.x.101-x.x.x.254     DHCP
KCotreau
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There isn't any benefit and to be honest, it will most likely be slightly slower during resume from standby and initial connecting to the network as it will have to get a lease.

In this situation and what I do on my network is that I have static IPs that are all set and planned by me and have DHCP leases/reservations for the same IPs. This has the benefit of having the same IP if I rebuild/reset and the benefits of static the rest of the time.

The real benefit of DHCP is simply for other devices. Ipad, Iphone, other Mobile Phones, Games Consoles and other network connected devices that may only be connected a few times. You do not always want to be messing around with static IPs.

William Hilsum
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