NAT and large DHCP pools

I have a large number of WiFi devices that need a onetime set-up and then will be sent out to users. At any given time we have 30 or 40 devices being set-up and sometimes need to set-up several hundred a week.

I'm looking for a router with NAT and DHCP that's happy to see devices only once and either release IP addresses quickly or support a large pool. Any ideas?

We did have a Google WiFi but it's too clever! It tries to remember all the MAC addresses so you can name them and set access profiles. After 255 MAC addresses it seems to sulk.

Get a router that will allow a larger than 255 LAN IP range - which I cannot answer, but have you tried doing that?

Sounds to me your running out of IP addresses because of the IP address lease time value which may not be configurable.

A lot of routers have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (aka CIDR /24) which means you get 255 IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.255), if you can find a router that supports a subnet mask of 255.255.254.0 (aka CIDR /23) you will get 510 IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.0.1-192.168.1.255) or if that's not enough try a router that supports 255.255.252.0 (aka CIDR /22) then you will get 1020 IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.0.1-192.168.3.255). Alternatively try to find a router that supports configurable lease times for the LAN / WLAN and set it to a very short period.

Sorry cannot recommend any products as I'm retired now and not up to date with what's now available.

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Jan-19 16:02:40)

Set a short lease time on the DHCP server. Simples.

If you set the lease time to 60 mins that would give "up to" 24 x 255 devices per day.
Devices auto renew lease if needed so this shouldn't be an issue.

In reply to a post by bsdnazz:

I'm looking for a router with NAT and DHCP that's happy to see devices only once and either release IP addresses quickly or support a large pool. Any ideas?

Many routers let you configure the DHCP parameters. Setting a lease time of 30 minutes would solve your problem.

(Some people incorrectly think this will cut your machines off every 30mins, but that is not how DHCP works).

Does anyone know of a router that does let me set a short DHCP lease time and ideally a bigger than 256 address class C network?

Take a look at the Ubiquiti devices. The Edgerouters and USG's support both those requirements. Some Draytek's do too.

ASUS routers let you configure these DHCP settings:
* IP Pool Starting Address
* IP Pool Ending Address
* Lease time (in seconds)
* Default Gateway
* DNS servers

If you find a router that allows you to up the amount of IP addresses and reduce the lease time period you also need to ensure it supports the number of concurrent connections you require.

Just for the sake of mentioning it - the EE SuperHub I have allows me to set the lease time between 1 hour and 21 days.