Configuring the starting IP address for DHCP - Do numbers matter from the viewpoint of data security or something else?

[kissela]

Hello, I'm trying to avoid mistakes in configuring a home network. The router has a setting for "Starting IP address" under DHCP settings. I remember having read from some forum (where someone was giving advice to a newbie like me) that one should not use numbers from the lower end fo the range. Theoretical options for the last digit are from 2 to 253. Does it really make any difference what I put in as the starting IP address? Should it be 100 or more for some security reason and why? I don't have too many things to connect to the network.

 

[rabidrabbit]

no it doesnt. to scan all IPs for hosts in a range of XXX.XXX.XXX.1 - 254 it takes like 10 second or something so no that does not matter. if someone has already penetrated your network and is scanning your LAN for local hosts then its kinda already too late. using DHCP or static IPs on the higher ranges doesn't matter.

if youre a newbie to this then stick with DHCP it will make day to day life easier. secondly what people mean and what i think you are confused with are the port numbers on your router. certin services use certin ports to connect to your router from the WAN (wide area network) for instance port 22 on the router is for something called SSH. this port is frequently scanned by outside "hackers" for exploit so by changing your port from 22 to something like 43000 then it becomes harder to find, (granted this is a Linux port so it doesn't probably matter for you). router ports range from 1 to like 65000 and the higher end services arent really used or exploited.

to answer your question keep the DHCP pool open and limit it to some range like 2 to 100. if you wanna be even more careful (but more annoying when adding new devices) limit the pool to the number of devices you ahve on the net. if you have 10 devices make the pool 2 to 11 so only that many things can be on at once.

 

[kissela]

Thanks, this is good to hear. If there's really no difference, then probably I've mixed it up with assigning ports.
May I still ask what you mean with "keeping the DHCP pool open"?

 

[rabidrabbit]

i meant dont run the whole network with static IP addresses. allow hosts to negotiate DHCP leases with the router. that way your DHCP pool can accept new hosts to the network without you having to worry about configuring them. it also helps handle any devices that fight over the same IP address

 

[kissela]

Got it now, thank you very much!