Guides

Procedures for keeping the address record honest

Each guide starts from a job that lands on an admin’s desk — a spreadsheet nobody trusts, a static that needs a home, a branch office that needs an address plan — and ends with a record you can rely on. They assume you are working on address space you administer.

• DHCP reservations vs static IPs for printers, servers and IoT

  When to hard-code an address and when to reserve it in DHCP, with PowerShell and Kea examples, a per-device rule set and the mistakes behind conflicts.

• Find genuinely free IP addresses before you assign a static

  Why a failed ping doesn't mean an address is free, and a layered check with Angry IP Scanner, ARP, DNS and DHCP before you hard-code a static IP.

  Uses Angry IP Scanner
• Move IP tracking off the spreadsheet and into phpIPAM

  A step-by-step migration from an IP spreadsheet to phpIPAM: clean the data, build sections and subnets, import, then let scheduled scans reconcile the record.

  Uses phpIPAM
• Plan subnets and VLANs for a new branch office

  Size, split and document subnets and VLANs for a new branch: a worked /22 example, VLSM order, a calculator cross-check and the record to create before go-live.

  Uses LizardSystems LanCalculator