Honestly, I think the push for everyone to use static IPs on small office networks is overkill.

Last week in a Denver shop, I watched a junior tech spend 3 hours manually assigning addresses to 15 devices that would have been fine on DHCP. Has anyone else seen this happen, or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_murphy16d ago

My buddy's office did that for all their workstations and it was a mess. They had constant IP conflicts because the spreadsheet got outdated. Now they only use static for the actual server and let DHCP handle everything else.

the_terry16d ago

That "3 hours manually assigning addresses" part is the real cost people forget. It's not just the time, it's the human error risk. Now someone has to keep a perfect spreadsheet forever or the next tech is lost. Static makes sense for servers, but for a printer? You're just building a future headache.

carter.gavin9d ago

Ever try using DHCP reservations instead? You get a fixed IP for the printer without the spreadsheet mess. The router hands out the same address every time based on the MAC, so it's set once and forget. Saves you from those future conflicts when someone adds a new device.