WiFi Access point mode w/ static IP

Bome Products
,
1

Can I use BomeBox in WiFi Access Point mode while using a static IP dress for the BomeBox? I have a wireless access point to witch I want to connect the BomeBox, but it does not have a DHCP server.

2

Hi, and welcome to the Bome Community!

I don’t believe WiFi access points allow for static IP addresses. You need the BomeBox as a DHCP Client and let the you current hotspot serve DHCP.

If you set the BomeBox ethernet as DHCP master, and WiFi as a Hotspot, it will serve DHCP to any attached WiFi Clients.

I’d be interested in seeing what type of access point is being used the doesn’t send DHCP.

I tested this by setting my BomeBox ethernet as static IP of 192.168.0.2 and WiFi as a Hotspot. I tried to connect to the WiFi with my iPhone but it never connected. However if my ethernet was attached, it connected OK so I assume my network router was probably initiating DHCP on my WiFi network when it was connected.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
5

I’m doing further checking on this to see if this can be done in advanced settings.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
7

Note that the standard ‘Hot Spot’ setting for the BomeBox WiFi means that the BomeBox is using a fixed IP address 192.168.153.1 and an own DHCP server. So if you move your devices to the 192.168.153.X network, they will work with static IP addresses even though the BomeBox has the DHCP server running. Mixing DHCP and static IP in the same subnet is not a problem.

Changing the WiFi HotSpot subnet of the BomeBox is not possible in the web config. It can be done in the ‘Advanced Config’ for which we don’t provide support.

However, there is a different way to do move your entire BomeBox to a static IP address, including the WiFi access point: This is quite simple to do with the standard BomeBox web config. The tricky part is to not lock yourself out from the web config while doing so! It’s a good idea to download the Network Reset file from the Ethernet Settings web config page so that you can easily reset the network settings.

  1. in Ethernet settings, set to static IP address. Enter the correct IP address and netmask.

  2. In WiFi settings, set to ‘Access Point’. Now WiFi and Ethernet use the same subnet.

Note that if you’re configuring the web config via WiFi, step 2. will lock you out (temporarily).

If you’re configuring via Ethernet, step 1. will lock you out, so you may want to do step 2. first, in that case.

Anyway, after that, you will be able to access the web config via Ethernet via the fixed IP address. If you’re in the same subnet as the BomeBox, the software Bome Network will find the BomeBox also in static IP mode.

Now, connecting to the WiFi Access Point will require that also the WiFi clients are in static IP mode, otherwise they may fail the connection because they don’t get an IP address from the access point.

I hope that makes sense!

8

This makes sense, thanks @FlorianBome and @SteveC
Meanwhile I changed the setup and manage to run DHCP server on the acces point. So it works now with the BomeBox in Client mode, connected to WiFi network of my acces point. However, my acces point (EnGEnius ENS620EXT) does not support the function to link MAC adresses to dedicated IP adress. Now the DHCP randomly hands out an IP adress from the DHCP range. I retreived the IP adress of my BomeBox trough the Bome Network tool, but the IP may change over time.
Therefor it would still be usefull to have the opportunity to set a static IP.
Especially in the case of more BomeBoxes and in case of using SSH to acces BomeBox, don’t you guys think?

9

For using static IP on Ethernet and on WiFi, the described way (static Ethernet + WiFi Access Point) will work fine.

If you need DHCP server or DHCP client on Ethernet and a separate static IP address for WiFi, the HotSpot mode will work, albeit only with the pre-defined WiFi IP 192.168.153.1.

So there are two use cases not covered by the standard web config:
a) HotSpot with a different fixed IP address, and
b) WiFi client with a fixed IP address.

So I think you wanted to do a) ?

Anyway, both cases are somewhat advanced, and they are error prone if not correctly configured. However, they can be configured via the Advanced Config.