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    How to change netmask and ip to get more DHCP addresses

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • L
      luke240778
      last edited by

      Can someone please tell me how i can make my OPT1 interface DHCP for up to say 10000 clients?

      I am not sure what is best to change the netmask to and also what ip range is ok to use.

      should i use 255.0.0.0 or 255.255.0.0 ?

      with IP should i stick with 192.168.100.0 or should i use 192.0.0.0 ?

      I dont really understand all this very much. i just need to know how to have a dhcp pool of up to 10000 IP's.

      Thanks in advance

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      • D
        dhatz
        last edited by

        You can't use 192.0.0.0 (since the relevant private IPv4 address space is 192.168.0.0/16 i.e. 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255)

        You could use a /18 netmask for a total of 16K IPv4 addresses.

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        • L
          luke240778
          last edited by

          Strangely i tried that first, but i got some strange result.

          I made my interface IP: 192.168.100.1 / 18

          Then when i went to the DHCP server to change the range, it was saying the IP was 192.168.64.0

          So that made me think  i was doing something wrong.. 16k is fine by me

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          • N
            Nachtfalke
            last edited by

            /18 means you can use

            192.168.0.0/18 - 192.168.63.255.255/18    16k IPs
            or
            192.168.64.0/18 - 192.168.127.255.255/18    16k IPs
            or
            192.168.128.0/18 - 192.168.191.255.255/18    16k IPs
            or
            192.168.192.0/18 - 192.168.63.255.255/18    16k IPs

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            • D
              dhatz
              last edited by

              Since you had configured your interface IP as 192.168.100.1 the system picked the correct range for you 192.168.64.1 - 192.168.127.254 which would correspond to a /18 netmask that would include that IP.

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              • L
                luke240778
                last edited by

                Ok i see.. so i could still start my IP pools from 192.168.100.1 if i wanted to right? seeing i am not going to need all 16k ip's

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                • N
                  Nachtfalke
                  last edited by

                  If you are starting at 192.168.100.1 as DHCP pool instead of 192.168.64.1 than you just have ~7100 IPs in your pool.

                  192.168.100.1 - 192.168.127.255.255    ~ 7100 IPs

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                  • L
                    luke240778
                    last edited by

                    perfect. I'm only going to need somewhere between 5000 and 7000 anyways.

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                    • N
                      Nachtfalke
                      last edited by

                      @luke240778:

                      perfect. I'm only going to need somewhere between 5000 and 7000 anyways.

                      In theory you then can use a /19 Netmask. This is enough for 8.192 Users.

                      192.168.0.0 - 192.168.31.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.32.0 - 192.168.63.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.64.0 - 192.168.95.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.96.0 - 192.168.127.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.128.0 - 192.168.159.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.160.0 - 192.168.191.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.192.0 - 192.168.223.255    8.192 IPs
                      192.168.224.0 - 192.168.255.255    8.192 IPs

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