FCSP networking not following DHCP rules

[K6CCC]

ok, could you please explain these terms because i was actually having issues last night when i got home after the Qmerit certified installers finally installed my FCSP.

For the short answer, DHCP is short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It is the process that assigns IP addresses to devices on a network. In a typical home network, the DHCP function is handled by your router (functioning as the DHCP server) - but it can be other devices. Typically the DHCP server will have a pool of addresses that it will draw IP addresses from, and you can in most routers assign a specific device to always get the same IP address (generally called an IP address reservation). For devices that you will need to access, it is generally preferred to have that device always get the same address.. Depending on the router, a DHCP reservation may or may not be in the address range of the pool of available addresses - I normally use addresses outside of the pool of addresses.

For the longer answer, here is some reading. Warning, it gets into pretty serious details that are beyond what most of you will want to read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol

Sponsored

 

[Zprime29]

I have not done anything to mine since initial setup 2 years ago. The only problem I have had is with Ford recognizing when I want to change the charge current. I don't think that is related. If I remember, I'll start paying attention to see what it does.

 

[Maquis]

Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve created a reservation for mine.

It’s interesting….the IP scanner I use tries to name the entries it finds. The address my FCSP is using had the name that corresponds to an old Dell laptop we had and a blank in the MAC address field….its likely they shared that IP address at one point in time.

 

[K6CCC]

I guess most/all routers are smart enough to not assign a duplicate IP address to a device that is "not following the rules" but still active.

Sort of. Most DHCP servers are smart enough to remember a device with an expired lease - at least for a while. However eventually that will likely time out, and the DHCP server will no longer remember it. Some (few) will check to see if there is a device on what it believes to be an unassigned address, but even that does not necessarily work - for example devices that will not respond to ping.

I have a built a lot of homebrew IoT devices with built-in web pages (ESP8266, ESP32) and suspect none of them follow the rules either.

Actually most of them likely do. The DHCP protocol has been around for decades and well understood that it is a very basic part of the networking stack. I have no idea why the FCSP does not do so properly. If your DHCP server allows seeing how long it's been since a device renewed it's DHCP lease, you will likely see that all or most of your devices are regularly updating. On my IoT devices LAN, I have something over 60 devices and the FCSP is the only one that does not renew it's lease. And in my case I do have a reservation for the FCSP that is outside the normal IP address pool, so there should never be a conflict.

 

[Evans]

Your router should provide the capability to assign a DHCP reserved IP Address based on the MAC address of the FCSP. If you know the IP Address, you can find the associated FCSP MAC address. Using Windows PowerShell: arp -a You will see the list of your IP addresses and associated MAC address. The DHCP server will always assign the same IP address to the device (FCSP using it's MAC address). For a much deeper dive down the rabbit hole, you can use an application called WireShark (Free of cost last time I looked). WireShark allows you to capture networking traffic. It's extremely powerful and provides for setting up extensive filters, as well as capturing network traffic to a file for later analysis.

 

[TaxmanHog]

The blame belongs to TI, you could make the argument that Siemens should have sourced a better networking device for the system.

Sponsored