Repeated DHCP assignments?

Product Discussion Peplink Balance
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed repeated DHCP assignments in Balance 20x logs. Sometimes within 10-20 minutes even though lease time is 24 hours.

Should I not only see 1 event logged per device per day?

Or is this logging whenever the device goes to sleep and reconnects or roams across multiple APs? ( have 2 other AP AC minis)

2

Does the device LAN IP address change each time?

3

No it doesn’t. Repeated assignments using same IP.

4

Is it a mobile device that puts itself to sleep? i.e. iPhone, android phone, tablet

These things turn the wifi off to save battery life. If they have something running in the background that needs network - you will see it turn the wifi on, grab a DHCP address, then make a web request, then go back to sleep. My iPhone will disassociate/associate with my wifi about 10 times an hour on average. I started using static IPs for these types of devices - no sense causing extra overhead on the router so that the phone can save battery power.

5

It’s a Chromebook. Just bought a new Acer Spin 713. Amazing little device.

Noticed thought after a day it had lost wifi on 5ghz and couldn’t reconnect.

So was poking in the dhcp logs and saw the repeated assignments. It’s a Wifi6 device but none one my APs are wifi 6. This shouldn’t be a problem as I’m sure it’s compatible with Wifi 5 but you never know.

I’ll assign it a static IP anyways since it’s for my daughter and I’ll be setting up some additional rules around it in the router.

6

A real quick google search for that device shows that others are also having some kind of unknown wireless issue – I can’t tell if it is a one-off or a widespread issue.

At any rate – might as well start at the easy parts. Have you disabled the power saving setting that turns the wifi adapter off to save power?

7

Thanks @jmjones This is an Acer Chromebook though, not Windows. Not sure if they have similar setting.

But I’ve changed my radio settings and removed client thresholds and set them all to unlimited on my APs.

I have Fast Roaming enabled but pretty sure I had tried it in the past and clients weren’t switching to stronger AP.

I’ll give it a go for a few days and see if we get better coverage and roaming.

8

Good luck buddy – just a FYI - client association is determined 100% by the client. Some clients are always looking for the best signal, while others only start to look when a signal gets deteriorated. i.e. if the connection is still useable - no need to search for something better.

9

One guess. Does this happen both when the Chromebook is powered by batter and by electricity?
Another guess: Blame the Chromebook rather than the router. I say this because I see this too sometimes, as shown below. But this only happens with one device so I’m sure its the device not the router.

Jun 07 21:08:58 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:08:57 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:08:35 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:08:30 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:08:15 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:08:11 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:41 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:39 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:36 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:35 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:22 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:05 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:04 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:07:03 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:06:59 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:06:58 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
Jun 07 21:06:56 DHCP Server: 192.168.4.5 assigned 192.168.4.50 to 34:f2:9b:4d:a3:5a
10

Since having removed client thresholds in my radio settings I have had no complaints.

I think the client thresholds and kids walking around the house with their open chromebooks was obviously causing disconnects more often than required.

Using fast roaming and no client thresholds seems to have improved things quite a bit.

3 Likes
11

Good to know and glad to hear

1 Like