Can't allocate fixed IP to connected device

[TimmyBGood]

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@Caramon wrote:

I',m not aware that any device has an influence on whether it gets its IP address from DHCP or not. That's governed by the Router/Modem hub. 

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Switching off the DHCP service (sometimes called Automatic Address or similar) on a client device will almost always give an option to set a fixed IP through its own network configuration settings.  It will not then send DHCPDISCOVER broadcast or respond to address offers from the DHCP server (router)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol 

[Caramon]

Hi, I know this but unfortunately I can't see a way in the UI to show me a list of devices and their current IP addresses. That used to be available in older hubs, and it would make choosing a fixed IP address for a device much easier. As it stands, I have to edit each connected device and make my own list of which IP addresses are currently in use. This UI seems to be a retrograde step compared to how things used to be done.

[Caramon]

I've not seen any options on my WD MyCloud Home device (which is running the Plex Media Server) where I can disable DHCP on the device itself, so I have to conclude that isn't availble to me. If the option to switch to a 'reserved IP' was working on the Sky Max Hub then I wouldn't have to do that.

[Caramon]

When we first took delivery of the hub, I set up port triggering for Plex and the hub did allow me to reserve the IP address on the connected device. When I then tried to set up a port forwarding rule, that's when the hub locked up and in the end (after talking to Sky Broadband technical help on the phone), I had to reset the hub to its default settings and start again. I've not touched Port Triggering since. From what I've been told, port forwarding is like having the specified port open all the time for that one connected device, whilst port triggering only opens the port when traffic to that particular port is detected. I have no idea if triggering is suitable for the Plex media server, or why setting a reserved IP appeared to work when I used triggering rather than forwarding on my first attempt. The recommendation from Plex is to have a fixed IP address on the media server when allowing remote access (which is what I allow), but I am aware that unless something else tries to grab that IP address (unlikely) on my LAN then the 2-day IP address lease from DHCP will just get perputually renewed for the device anyway, so I could just leave it on DHCP. However, the issue I'm concerned about is the Hub ignoring my request to reserve an IP address, when (unless someone can explain why it won't) it should be a simple thing to do.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Caramon wrote:

I've not seen any options on my WD MyCloud Home device (which is running the Plex Media Server) where I can disable DHCP on the device itself, so I have to conclude that isn't availble to me. 

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Unfortunately I think that's correct: it's a somewhat unusual device in that respect because the underlying operating system (almost certainly some flavour of Linux) would always have  locally fixed IP as an option.