Reserved Vs. Static

[Zack_Friedman]

This may or may not be a silly question. I have a 2Tb Western Digital MyCloud NAS running My Cloud OS3 that has been connected directly to my router since I bought it over a year ago with zero problems. Yesterday my router had a malfunction of some sort and the only way to fix it was to reset it to factory settings and reload the configuration file. however, because the NAS was using a dynamic IP from the DHCP, after the restore process the IP address changed which caused some minor confusion after I tried reconnecting to the mapped drive. My router (Verizon Fios Quantum Gateway manufactured by Actiontec to my knowledge)  allows my to reserve IP addresses. If i were to reserve an IP address for the NAS, would I just leave it at that? or do I have to switch the NAS from dynamic to static IP. (I am not entirely sure of the difference between reserved and static IP's)

 

Thanks

[pwn_intended]

3 minutes ago, Zack_Friedman said:

-snip-

Leave the NAS as dynamic, and set the NAS to reserved on your router, with the IP that you want to give it.

 

Only set the NAS to static if you want to hard-code the IP in the NAS itself. This can cause problems though if the router wants to assign some other device that same IP.

[Doramius]

I'd also recommend mapping using hostname.  I've replaced NAS units several times, naming the new clone unit the same hostname and had everything identified as if nothing changed.  

[Zack_Friedman]

41 minutes ago, pwn_intended said:

Leave the NAS as dynamic, and set the NAS to reserved on your router, with the IP that you want to give it.

 

Only set the NAS to static if you want to hard-code the IP in the NAS itself. This can cause problems though if the router wants to assign some other device that same IP.

 If I told my router to reserve the IP address 192.168.1.xyz, and then set the NAS to have a static IP of 192.168.1.xyz as well, would the NAS accept that reserved IP as static? (assuming the the NAS's MAC address was included in the IP reservation on the router's end)

[Doramius]

2 minutes ago, Zack_Friedman said:

 If I told my router to reserve the IP address 192.168.1.xyz, and then set the NAS to have a static IP of 192.168.1.xyz as well, would the NAS accept that reserved IP as static? (assuming the the NAS's MAC address was included in the IP reservation on the router's end)

The NAS woulnd't see it as static.  the router just reserves that dynamic address specifically for the MAC ID of the NAS.  Some routers don't support this advanced config, but it is a good option, if it is supported.  I'd still lean towards the hostname, as the IP becomes irrelevant.

[pwn_intended]

16 minutes ago, Zack_Friedman said:

 If I told my router to reserve the IP address 192.168.1.xyz, and then set the NAS to have a static IP of 192.168.1.xyz as well, would the NAS accept that reserved IP as static? (assuming the the NAS's MAC address was included in the IP reservation on the router's end)

That setup should work in theory but is totally unnecessary. Do one or the other. If you decide to set static on the NAS, make sure that the IP you assign is is part of the reserved list on your router (ie, it is not part of the dynamic IP range that it will assign to other, dynamic clients)

[pwn_intended]

14 minutes ago, Doramius said:

The NAS woulnd't see it as static.  the router just reserves that dynamic address specifically for the MAC ID of the NAS.  Some routers don't support this advanced config, but it is a good option, if it is supported.  I'd still lean towards the hostname, as the IP becomes irrelevant.

Hostname is definitely the easiest option, but sometimes for whatever reason hostnames may have trouble resolving and IP becomes the only way. Ideally though, yes, accessing via hostname is best.