Static IP for Tablo Connect Purposes

I have yet to figure this out but currently Tablo allows only dynamic IP addresses.  So when you set up Tablo Connect it works, but then your router resets and Tablo Connect no longer works.  Allowing Tablo to set an IP address would help so the settings work in your router all the time.

You can set a DHCP reservation on your Router to keep the IP static based on it’s mac address.  It’s your ISPs ip (WAN) that would be the tricky one if your IP is not static through them.

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I cannot set a MAC address reservation via my DHCP server. VERY annoying that manual config of Tablo IP address is not provided.

I consider the Tablo device to be infrastructure, not retail appliance. So I want to control its network interface so as to be sure of how it fits into the rest on my infrastructure.

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Most routers these days have UPnP, if you leave that enabled on your router then it does not matter whether the IP address is assigned dynamically or is static.

I do recommend having a static IP though.  Otherwise, while UPnP does work well, you end up with lots of ports open for the Tablo.  My router doesn’t clean up UPnP unless you delete everything manually and start again.


@greymont, what router do you have?  There may be a way to make it static.

Anything that truly advertises itself to be DHCP will always preserve IP unless the pool is exhausted (or lease tables are cleared).  If not, then it’s really not DCHP.  Not saying there aren’t some bad DHCP implementations out there though.



fortunately, i am able to set dhcp reservations with the mac address of the tablo on my router.


but the ability to set static ips would still be helpfull.

The one caveat I would say about those who want to be able to set the IP on the Tablo directly…you’d have to either disable DHCP entirely on your router or reserve/block the ip in the DHCP table or pick one outside of your DHCP range.

Otherwise you run the risk of having another device on your network picking up that same IP address.

Most routers are smart enough to not assign a DHCP address that matches a static address.

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I’d like to add my request for Tablo settings to allow user to enter a specific IP address.

just set a static ip on the router side using the mac address of the tablo.  done

@PiX64

Low-end routers do not have this capability for DHCP reservation.

I am sure they are out there but I have seen quite a few, and every single one I have touched (clearly i haven’t touched them all) have the ability to at very least set a static ip for a device connecting to the DHCP server side via mac address.


Im actually suprised that these types of routers even exist nowadays… MAYBE i could see it on a ISP provided router (to qhich i would say, don’t use their crap :smiley:  )

pfsense all the way.

If you directly access the Tablo NIC interface and set a static address inside of Tablo, and then you change routers because YOUR router died and the new one uses a slightly different IP scheme, say 192.168.1.0/24 instead of 192.168.0.0/24 which happens now and then, then what? You can’t get to the Tablo because the IP is stuck on a network range that your new router isn’t configured for and you have to change your new router before you get to the Tablo.


I see zero issues with a reserved IP in the router. It’s pretty easy in quality routers, even fairly cheap ones these days and ensures that no matter what happens on the rest of the network, Tablo can be found or seen or accessed. 

Most routers are smart enough to not assign a DHCP address that matches a static address.

Maybe of those you’ve seen, but I’ve seen quite a few higher end systems still assign an address if the device doesn’t respond instantly when queried. I still see occasional “IP address conflict” messages on systems I work with. 


IMO, address reservation is the best for most home networks, even some business cases (networking is what I do all day for a government agency)
It avoids hassles connected with other network device changes.
Even some of our LAN-to-LAN connections are based on reserved addresses as the ISP was for a while constantly building out their plant and addresses kept changing but we couldn’t go pure DHCP as our base router allowed connections only if the outside IP addresses of the remote routers matched our profiles here.
We do STATIC for most servers, switches, many printers and routers as those need to be entered into DNS as static for multiple reasons beyond the scope of this forum. Our workstations or PCs we use in IT are on reserved addresses, not static. 

@snowcat I have a Cisco ASA5505 running older software that cannot be upgraded due to lack of support plan with Cisco.

@greymont

That is a very expensive piece of hardware. Is it actually lacking such a basic function of DHCP reservation?

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I cannot figure out how. Others have tried:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=134984

I consider the Tablo to be a network infrastructure device like a switch, file server, domain controller, or other device that must be known to the network at a given location to function correctly. All other devices I have seen that are similar network infrastructure allow for statc IP assignment. Including all network printers. Seems really wierd to not have it as an option, even if a hidden one that can only be activated by the subset of users who really need it.

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Roku doesn’t allow you to assign a static IP either. I think it is becoming more and more the standard as networking becomes more and more necessary for the average Joe.

If Tablo just worked, like Roku, I would not have a problem with it using DHCP. But it doesn’t.

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@greymont

What does not work because you cannot set a static IP for the Tablo? The only thing I can think of is Tablo Connect.