Is it possible to populate host name for a mac address where it is shown as N/A? I have bind ip to mac set and entered a comment for each device. But some host names are blank and it is not possible to set this on the client. Is there a way to populate host name by another means. I have Vigor 2927 and AP920C devices.

Hi  nps ,

When using ‘Bind-IP to MAC’ quite often admins are moving the host to an IP outside the DHCP range, which removes the use of DHCP, which is where the info you want is being extracted from.

If you’re using the 2927 as your DHCP server and have chosen to use a certain range for your DHCP clients and a separate (“reserved non-DHCP”) range for your Bound-IPs, you may notice that none of the bound devices show their hostname?

If you make the entire DHCP range so that it includes your proposed “reserved” range as well, then the hostname should be extracted and shown.

Obviously this will cause normal DHCP clients to be assigned to IP addresses you may have had in-mind for binding to certain MAC addresses. So as a workaround or rather a better way of tackling it, you can Bind to the higher IP addresses in the DHCP range, say up at the .168.*.200+ point, and can even start the DHCP client range from .168.*.10 leaving the first 9 IPs (or 8, minus the 2927 itself) for servers or hosts that you really don’t need, or want, to show their hostname(s).

The comment (name) you assign to the host when you bind an IP to its MAC is separate, and is displayed when you choose to ‘Show Comment’ in pages like the ‘Diagnostic >> ARP Cache Table’  or ‘Diagnostic >> DHCP Table’ pages.

Some hosts won’t even reveal their hostname when queried by the DHCP server.