TLDR; don’t reserve IP’s

We all did back in the 90’s. But this is kinda counter to the idea of dynamic leasing of IP addresses.
The only reason I see for reserving IP’s would be to do some based on cidr ranges (bad practice) or because you need some shitty software that only handle IP’s and not hostnames.

Just liberate yourself and get used to not having control over IP. It will prepare you for ipv6 where dynamic addresses are part of the spec.

Your local dns server should be set up to register devices on ip lease - something all dns servers I’ve worked with last 20 years can manage. With properly set ip search domains this means that you can reach your devices by hostname, or by fqdn if you’d want that.

Also note that .local is a special tld reserved for mdns/zeroconf. Do not set up your dns server to serve this. You’d be better off using something like .LAN - this means that mdns/zeroconf can co-exist nicely on your lan.

Regarding vlans: this is something completely different as this is level 2 in osi. Each vlan is like a separate network - there needs to be routing to reach one from the other. I would agree that vlans are nice when used properly - to section and separate devices. One vlan for IoT devices - to keep them out of your safe home network - is a fairly common thing. A separate vlan for servers, one for management perhaps, one for guest-network and one for your normal home devices.

I use 4 vlans at home each with a /16 network from the 10/8 range. And the only static (not reserved dhcp) that I use are for dns and gateway. At work I still set up some sites where infrastructure like switches/routers etc are on static - and take this into account when I set up the ip pool(s). I’m those cases I’ll exclude the top end of the network and put the rest in the pool. Some like to do the opposite end, and some don’t care and just use all as pool and count on arp/ping to avoid conflicting leases (bad practice).

We all go down this hole at the start. The truth is, you should only reserve IPs if you actually need it to stay the same. You don't need to check IPs as often as you think, I promise. The only segmentation and planning you should do for a home network is for subnets/vlans; LAN, Guest, IOT, Server, etc.

Instead of managing the IP addresses, just manage hostnames. Make sure every device with a customizable hostname is easily identifiable. This will help you so much more in the long run.

10.0.0.0/8; so much room for activity.

I currently use 10.0.0.0/24 as infrastructure; 10.10.0.0/24 for hard wired devices; 10.20.0.0/24 for wireless devices; and 10.42.0.0/16 for docker containers provisioned by Rancher.

I don't.

I currently use 192.168.6.0/24, set DHCP to 100-199, and statically assign a few servers outside that range. Anything else can use DNS via DHCP because I use Windows for AD/DNS/DHCP.

I don't see the need, everything gets IDed by its hostname.

The only thing with static DHCP is IoT stuff that needs a consistent IP for HA to connect to it, and servers.

I use it for enterprise scale infrastructure deployments. But for a home network, it seems like unnecessary work.

I reserve everything below .100 for static IP devices like switches/access points and my work devices, the rest is all dynamic lease DHCP.

I could just set up a dashboard or figure out how to use hostnames, but I'm a caveman and I remember the IPs of the devices I want to ssh or browse to in my network.

I live alone. So I just have reserved IPs for each of my devices. Any new device gets assigned >200 so that I can easily identify new stuff, or rogue devices - which hasn't happened lol. The only special IP is my pihole that gets 192.168.1.2 next to my router since I consider it infrastructure basically. Plus pihole is my dhcp server and dns obviously

For work we have standards, ideally we separate VLANs by device type and firewall off their communication, but on a home network, I'd generally group by category. .1-9 network gear like switches and firewalls. .10-19 IOT. .20-29 servers & NAS. So on and so forth.

Son, I think it's time you learn about vlans.

Many, many, many subnets, so many subnets, different subnets for vms, for jailed services, for guest wifi, 'secure' wifi, 'normal' wifi (ie phones and shit), my workstation has a routed subnet for its lxc containers, I have remote subnets for my wifi routers over vpn when I travel (with restrictions similar to home access and the same 3 ssids), an unrouted subnet for stuff like bmcs, switches and infrastructure, a subnet in my dmz with statics, the backside of that subnet, the subnet that subnet uses for upstream access.

I have a lot of subnets.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

8 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.

[Thread #71 for this sub, first seen 20th Aug 2023, 22:05] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

The only one I set static is the servers and that's for port forwarding. So I set it to what it was using at the time. Unifi IDs the devices for me otherwise.

I do the same for desktop machines, just to identify immediately without hostnames.

I have a few vlan subnets, one for IOT devices (smart junk, automation, media players etc), one for general LAN devices (mostly computers, NAS etc), one for VMs and other services and one for guest access. all with their own fairly simple firewall rules to eachother and to the web. there are also matching Wifi networks for IOT, Main and Guest that are on those Vlans.

As for DHCP, I tend to set the DHCP ranges for xxx.100 - xxx.254 and anything below 100 is for static allocations. all in standard 192.168.x.x ranges, no need to go bigger than that. I only have IPv6 for the VMs for testing cause i'm still learning how to use that properly and safely.

I put them into groups, servers, consoles, computers, phones, smart devices, media. Between 10 to 20 per range.

Everything else the dhcp server gives out ip over x.x.x.150 so easy to see new stuff.

Sounds like fun but watch out for man in middle…home tech support!

Remember upper executive mgmt (wife) will have priority demands and expect to bypass all support/ticketing processes c/o direct access/shoulder tap, 24x7.

Tip - create high priority user stories for your upper exec mgmt needs and your rest activities (sports, call of duty, tinkering in garage/shop/man cave, etc etc etc et al) so your impl supports your key stakeholders while also aligning with your favorite best practices.

.local is the important part imo—actually, tbh I am not a super fan of the .local dns method and how it punks networks (basically like entering a crowded bar and yelling YO BRAH!) BUT it is simple and low effort (see high pri user stories).

Good luck with your PI plan, could you include us in PI retrospective so we can learn from you? Godspeed.

:]

Y tho?