SOLVED: Turning DHCP OFF in router cuts all network connectivity in HDA

[mnz]

My HDA has been working perfectly for more than a year. Then, I changed ISP + router & modem.

If I keep DHCP ON in my router (TP-LINK TL-WR841N, plugged on a TP-Link modem TD-8616):
- My HDA is working almost normally. I'm saying "almost" as certain apps don't work as they should. (e.g. The amahi app for iPhone works, but always as a remote connection, never local even if I'm on the same network)
- I can still access my HDA from clients and browse files, etc. No problem.
- Dashboard and control panel work from clients.

If I Turn OFF DHCP in my router:
I lose all network connectivity in the HDA. Impossible to access it anymore, impossible to connect to the network and the internet from the HDA etc.

I tried rebooting, turning on the server first, than the router, etc. to no avail. Gateway and router IP address seem to match.

As soon as I turn DHCP back ON, my HDA is working almost normally (see above).

Any ideas ? Not sure what's going on and how to fix this.

(P.S. Still working with Ubuntu 12.04. Could upgrade to Fedora, but since my usage is basic, I thought I could leave my server as is and be happy for a couple years... Honestly, upgrading would be a huge problem : don't have the time to do so at this point.)

[bigfoot65]

Odd behavior for a router.

Can you control how many IP addresses it hands out? If so, make it 1. Then power off all devices except the HDA. Once it gets the DHCP lease, you can power on the other devices and they can get their IP address from the HDA.

If you can control the IP addresses by MAC address on your router, you could set it to only provide to the HDA as well.

[mnz]

Thanks Bigfoot65. Will try that tomorrow and will report back.

[bigfoot65]

No problem.

That is the simplest solution and will save time trying to diagnose.

I have mine set up that way just because and works fine.

[mnz]

- In the router's DHCP settings If I set "Start IP Address" and "End IP Address" to the same address (e.g. 192.168.2.100), would that do it ?

- Second question -- and possibly conditioning the rest of my experiments... I accidentally clicked on delete in the HDA control panel. I'm surprised there's been no confirmation dialog. Poof, the HDA is gone... Is there any way to recover it or does it mean that I need to re-install everything?!

Thanks.

[bigfoot65]

Yes that should work.

As for the HDA profile, if it's gone you might be able to email support to get it back. Otherwise a reinstall will be required.

It should have asked if you were sure you wanted to delete.

[mnz]

Yes that should work.

Thanks!

As for the HDA profile, if it's gone you might be able to email support to get it back. Otherwise a reinstall will be required.

It should have asked if you were sure you wanted to delete.

Strange... I didn't get any confirmation dialog. I will e-mail support and cross fingers.

Thanks again Bigfoot65.

[mnz]

BTW : how do I e-mail support?
Thanks.
[Edit : don't mind paying if that'll save me time...]

[mnz]

Thanks a lot.

[mnz]

OK, my HDA is back in the control panel. Many many thanks.

However, even after the HDA was given the 192.168.2.100 address, it doesn't work. The server has internet access, but clients don't seem to be given any address by the HDA. It's not acting as a server it seems. All clients were turned off, server was turned on, then clients were turned on one by one. None of them had internet access.

What can I do to debug, find out what's wrong with my set up ?

I'm almost giving up... but will be giving it another try as I don't feel like rebuilding my server from scratch on Fedora.

[Edit : wondering if it could be related to the modem also acting as a router??]