Question Why do some wifi devices keep losing connection if I do not set an IP reservation for them?

[thosecars82]

Why do some wifi devices keep losing connection if I do not set an IP reservation for them?
I have seen this happen with some Tuya/MOES/Smartlife WIFI smart devices I tried, but not with all of them. Why does this happen?

Thanks

 

[COLGeek]

I would start troubleshooting this by looking at two things: signal strength and lease time.

 

[thosecars82]

I would start troubleshooting this by looking at two things: signal strength and lease time.

Now, the least time in the DHCP settings of my router is 60 seconds. What should it be?

 

[bill001g]

You need to be more clear about what you mean by "disconnect".

Very technically the wifi can be connected and active with no IP addresses.

If the wifi disconnects though it doesn't matter what you have the DHCP lease time set to.

Generally DHCP lease time is used to prevent running out of IP addresses. For most home users they never have anywhere close to 253 end device connected. Since many wifi devices now use random mac addresses each time they connect you might see a bit more but still nowhere near ever running out.

I would change the lease time to at least 24hr maybe even a few days. BUT this has nothing at all to do with the wifi.

 

[thosecars82]

You need to be more clear about what you mean by "disconnect".

Very technically the wifi can be connected and active with no IP addresses.

If the wifi disconnects though it doesn't matter what you have the DHCP lease time set to.

Generally DHCP lease time is used to prevent running out of IP addresses. For most home users they never have anywhere close to 253 end device connected. Since many wifi devices now use random mac addresses each time they connect you might see a bit more but still nowhere near ever running out.

I would change the lease time to at least 24hr maybe even a few days. BUT this has nothing at all to do with the wifi.

With "disconnect" I meant that some wifi smart devices (smart plugs, light bulbs) will start showing an offline state every two minutes or so.

By the way increasing the lease time to 24 hours made the devices work as expected for the time being, even though I took them out of the DHCP reservations list. I wonder now whether the problem will come back again once the 24-hour lease time is expired.

 

[COLGeek]

How many total devices do you have connected to your home network, by the way? Are all using DHCP?

 

[thosecars82]

How many total devices do you have connected to your home network, by the way? Are all using DHCP?

Number of devices->I see this in the router page:

https://imgur.com/a/F2iXzU4

View: https://imgur.com/a/F2iXzU4
In the section Wlan Client Status of the router admin page I see 10 clients.

Yes, all WIFI devices use DHCP.

 

[lantis3]

You want to keep the IP addresses of devices as steady as possible if not a lot of people using the network, public hotspot for example.

Getting a DHCP IP address requires some negotiation time between dhcp server (your router) and client devices.

Even public hotspot won't set a lease time as low as 60 seconds, which definitely will result constant disconnects, however.

As suggested, for home user and devices that's not going to change most of the time, set a lease time over 24hr is very reasonable.