[OpenWrt-Devel] Use DHCP by default on single port devices

[Lech Perczak]

Hi,

W dniu 2018-08-28 o 22:29, Michael Heimpold pisze:
> Hi,
>
>> "DHCP Client", even with an alternative static IP address, might not
>> work for some home users.
> to make this work better, some companies are choosing the static fallback
> IP address in the AutoIP range 169.254.x.x/16. At least Windows will fallback
> to this range if it does not find a DHCP server on this link; so it should at
> least possible to browse to the web gui and/or open a SSH connection...
> without reconfiguring your Windows system.
>
> I don't know whether this works out-of-the-box on Mac or usual Linux distros,
> too.

At least on my Debian boxen, using NetworkManager, it does not. I have 
to select this type of autoconfiguration manually first.

>
> Regards,
> Michael
>
>
>
>
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>
To me, adding of 2 separate mechanisms (mDNS, UPnP) on top of fixed IP 
address or APIPA sounds like a horrendous feature creep, just to replace 
one mechanism that works (DHCP). On my machines, I use none of the 
mechanisms. I don't like the idea of installing Avahi on Linux boxen, or 
enabling UPnP on Windows ones, just to get to my 
router/bridge/AP/whatever-runs-OpenWrt for initial configuration.

When configuring the Ubiquiti bridges (for example Nanobridge M5) for 
the first time, while sitting on rooftop with my laptop only, DHCP works 
quite well - it is not a big effort to just disable it at the end of 
configuration.

When doing testing on the ground, I usually have a router with DHCP 
server already available, so using it to assign IP to newly configured 
device might be useful, but it usually is not a big problem to 
temporarily connect Ethernet to the newly configured device, still 
having Wi-Fi connectivity.

Also, there is another class of devices, beside "bridges". Travel 
routers, such as TP-Link WR703N.
Having only one USB port it is clearly a router, having USB port 
dedicated for mobile broadband modem. Yet this is the most typical 
scenario. One might use it as an access point, or as weather station as 
well. Those configurations suit different types of address assignment 
method.

Do we really need to make the distinction between them?

Actually, when writing the above, one idea struck me.
When starting, dnsmasq checks if there are no other DHCP servers present 
on the network, and if they are, it bails out. Maybe it would be 
possible to use IP assigned by authoritative DHCP server, if one is 
already present, otherwise startup DHCP as before. Still, this would be 
quite unusual behaviour, and this might have flaws I have yet to think of

-- 
With kind regards,
Lech


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