Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?
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Well yeah this doesn't seem like expected or wanted behavior..
I have created this redmine
https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11004edit: got some traction on my entry
https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11004#change-48989And yeah as I expected, not really a bug.. More a feature request - because currently it is working as designed ;)
"It's actually expected because the static section is not parsed from the lease database, but pulled from the configuration. It doesn't try to correlate the two lists. So it's not a bug, but could potentially be improved in the future."
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I tried to enter a friendly device name just for the UI to keep track of things but it seems like this is still not possible? Would be great if the Description field was editable on the DHCP leases page. Adding a description in the static page results in the UI looking confusing, unless I'm not doing it correctly.
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@terryzb said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
Adding a description in the static page results in the UI looking confusing, unless I'm not doing it correctly.
huh??
The host name you use in your reservation is where I would put in a name that makes sense - description in the reservation would be for clarification..
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@johnpoz Thanks for the reply John. I see the same thing if I edit the hostname.
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@terryzb see the same what - your pointing out the 172.16.10.104?
Did you assign an IP? I have zero things in my dhcp table that use an IP as the hostname
You have a static entry - and then you actually have another lease?
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@joyjit said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
Would be nice to be able to assign user-friendly names to each MAC address, just for UI purpose.
It's very easy. Plug the device into your network and then look for it in Statys > DHCP Leases. You can then edit it and plug in the desired IP address and host name. You can even add a description when you want. Then, at the next DHCP renewal, it will move to the assigned IP address. Of course, you can always force a renewal, to move it sooner.
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@JKnott Thank you. I wasn't really thinking to give it a static IP, I just wanted to give it a description to make it easier to identify in the DHCP lease list. Seems like in order to do this it has to have a static IP?
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@johnpoz I didn't assign an IP, just a description. That made 2 entries in the DHCP lease list, like the OP saw (and you also). You mentioned adding a hostname so I did that and it also creates 2 entries. This was a couple years ago so I was hoping that it had been addressed.
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@terryzb I never understand why you would not assign an IP to a reservation? If your going to go to the trouble of setting a reservation - put in a name and IP.. Some devices do not send a name..
Here I had updated one of my alexa's awhile back - and never got around to setting its IP in a reservation. So I just did.. And now it has the IP and name I want it to have, and the other lease is gone..
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@johnpoz To answer your question about not assigning an IP, I guess my thought process is that I'm not really trying to change the DHCP behavior by making a static reservation, just trying to add a friendly name in the UI associated with the MAC address.
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@terryzb Let me try and duplicate what your doing..
So you want to set a reservation that doesn't assign an IP, so the IP is just pulled from the pool but the name is there for clients that do not send a name. I have never done that - I always assign a IP to clients I am setting a reservation for. I just personally see no point to not doing that.
To me the whole point of reservation is setting an IP..
I also know a new dhcp server is coming.. in some upcoming release, since the current isc dhcp is eol.. I believe they are moving to kea
Is there a feature request for this - I would have to look, but prob be good idea to put it in so it might be included when they move to the new dhcp server.
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@terryzb said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
@johnpoz
about 10 hours ago@JKnott Thank you. I wasn't really thinking to give it a static IP, I just wanted to give it a description to make it easier to identify in the DHCP lease list. Seems like in order to do this it has to have a static IP?
What else are you going to assign the name to?
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@terryzb said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
just trying to add a friendly name in the UI associated with the MAC address.
That I assume^
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@stephenw10 said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
That I assume^
What's the point of assigning a name to a MAC instead of an IP address or not assigning an IP to a MAC? On my network, every device that "lives" here has a static mapped IP address with a name assigned. I also have a pool of unassigned addresses for any visiting device, though they would only be on my guest WiFi/VLAN.
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@JKnott I really don't get it either ;) If I am going to take the trouble to make sure something has a name I lookup up somewhere, why would I not just give it an IP.. So I know device X is at 192.168.1.100 or whatever and if dns fails, I can still access known device by its IP, etc.
But hey - the wireless controller for unifi allows to create an ailas "name" for some device based on the mac address.
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I can see how it would be useful. I haven't memorised the MAC address of every device on my network.
I just don't think it's possible in pfSense currently. -
@joyjit said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
When I create a static IP mapping without any IP Address, it shows up only once, with the friendly hotsname I assigned, in the DHCP Leases page.
@stephenw10 said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
Either that it allows you create a mapping without an IP address (and without static ARP
FWIW...I recently created DCHP a static mapping (v23.01/23.05) and didn't have any issue; however, in my case, I used an IP and a real domain name. I cannot show because I had to get rid of Dell Precision 3630MT...coffee lake issues for another Dell Precision 5820 with Xeon...got graphic card and memory arriving tomorrow, and should be up this week.
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@stephenw10 Thank you Stephen. I apologize that I didn't articulate my question well enough. I was just echoing what the OP asked for a few years ago in the first post and wondered if there was now a way to do it. I appreciate you confirming that it doesn't appear to be possible in pfSense yet.
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Johnpoz I see your point of just assigning a static ip if your going to go through the trouble of creating a host name.
However the fact of the matter is that all soho routers that I have used (ubiquiti,netgear,tplink, probably others) have this feature. Essentially what we are able to do on those routers is quickly within a few clicks rename a device in the client lists. (I.e. click client list/dhcp lease table, click the device , edit device name, done). It makes it quick and easy to monitor devices on a home network. Just like DHCP is quick and easy. I have absolutely no need to have a static ip on some devices like a kids iPad, etc. Or want to take the time figure out which Ip I want to assign/record to said device.
Maybe the new DHCP backend will have this from the getgo.
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@Dadman said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:
Essentially what we are able to do on those routers is quickly within a few clicks rename a device in the client lists.
I'm doing just that with with pfSense since ... a decade or so ?
I'm not touching the LAN network devices. They all stay on the default DHCP client mode.
On the pfSense side : I see the MAC of the client, assign it a IP, give it a more clear host name like 'NAS2' so I don't have to deal with (example) :
