How to get around managed number of clients (25) on router

[morber]

DIR-890L is a great tri-band router, but D-Link is stuck back in the 90's. The MAX number of clients you can see/manage is 25. In addition, there is not anyway to see a list of what is assigned (kind of a work around but device has to be on-line).

In today's connected house, it's easy to have 50 or more devices on the network. Personally, I want to know what each device is that is on my network - not the first 25 the router finds. Using a sniffer tool - I'm showing 36 devices (wired and wireless) on my network but I can't manage them due to the 25 limit.

What I want to do is simple - fast router that can handle my needs. My 8 year old router at least had a limit of 50 clients AND one could see all the assigned ones, etc. New fancy pretty fast router got dumbed down sadly.

I want all the devices to access to the network, so running a second router with it's own dhcp is not an option - neither is lan-wan (which is what that basically is). Using a second router in a lan-lan config is basically using the second one as a bridge/repeater - the main router will still handle all the connections.

So, suggestions on how I can have a network setup where I can manage ALL my devices and they can fully access all the other devices on the home network?

short list of devices:
computers - 6
laptops - 4
tablets - 5
media players - 3
range extenders - 4
game consoles - 2
nas devices - 7
servers - 2
phones - 3
airwave - 1
cameras - 3
security devices - 5
a/v receiver - 2
ups - 3
printers - 3
missing a few - and a few are high due to transition from old unit to new one not yet complete.

 

[bill001g]

What are you referring to. Where do you see a limitation of 25.

 

[boosted1g]

Is your 25 client limit with automatic DHCP or statically assigned IP addresses?

That router is highly low end on features in the firmware. I would highly advise to upgrade it DD-WRT firmware which will unlock a lot of customization.

 

[morber]

The limit is in the firmware - and you are being kind by saying "highly low end on features"
They know their QoS is busted and supposedly are working on it.
But if you can't see a device, how can you manage it?
Been considering DD-WRT but that leaves some questions for me as to support for it, revisions/updates and the worse issue - pulling it off line to change over to DD-WRT and set it up. Kinda need to keep network working.

Was hoping a very smart user would post a suggestion about using 255.255.254.0 subnet and on the second router limit the range for dhcp to the top 254 ipaddrs and use the 1.1 as it's addr and point to 0.1 for main router. Then can manually assign ipaddr's that each router can handle and can be seen to manage in a round-about way. Would that work?

 

[boosted1g]

You can always statically set the non-mobile devices IP addresses if it is a DHCP limitation.

Frankly I would just get a different router from netgear or asus, get it all set up and then swap your devices to it to limit downtime, then return that d-link junk.
The router seems very thrown together with more emphasis on making it pretty then functionality for the enthusiast market (that is the only market buying tri-band routers).
If you go ASUS the merlin firmware is very simple to setup and pretty good.

 

[morber]

Been seeing pros and cons for for the netgear and asus tri-band routers. Looking for performance - wired for GB and to get around stucco wire mesh issues for wireless, have access points setup to extend range.
Which would be your top two choices and why?

As to the d-link "junk" - ebay (but not sure I could live with myself) or it's a pretty (expensive) access point.
thanks

 

[boosted1g]

I have not put much research into tri-band routers and have not used them so I will let someone with first-hand experience make recommendations on that.

All I can say is I am very very pleased with my ASUS AC68P.
Granted, I went and wired cat5e throughout my home so the only devices on wifi are phones and laptops for me; thus I do not have enough devices on 5ghz band to need tri band

 

[morber]

Thanks - hope someone else speaks up.
Sadly wireless is becoming the norm these days - both good and bad - so where needed for speed, I'm wired. Tri-band by choice due to number of wireless devices on the horizon. The El Capitan (osx 10.11) for my MacBook Pro has a major flaw in their handing of wired ethernet - picks an ipaddr that isn't one entered. The official answer was "use wireless, it's working". Unreal to say the least.

So - anyone have experience with asus or netgear tri-band routers they would like to share? Really want to know which ones allow you to see all the assigned ipaddr's and more than 25 clients. (ideally more than 50) so they can be managed. Naturally for the bucks need QoS, etc.

Thanks for the help!
btw - thought about using the d-link for a door stop, but it's too big and we'd be tripping over it.

 

[boosted1g]

Sounds par for the course on the MBP.

My asus (which would be pretty much the same firmware as the tri-band models) allows me to see the full client list of DHCP clients, router assigned static clients, and computer assigned static clients.
Now the router assigned static clients are limited to 32.
Now if I had flashed it to tomato (I am running merlin on router now) then there is no limitation.

EDITD: Just wanted to add that the client list is very nicely laid out and informative on Asus/Merlin