MikeRubin's profile

Contributor

 • 

16 Messages

Sunday, January 9th, 2022 6:20 AM

Closed

Why can’t I release a reserved IP address in xfi router?

I have a number of devices that I no longer use but for which I reserved IP addresses in my xfi router.  I want to free those addresses for use with the replacement devices.  In the past, I had some success by forgetting the device if it showed up as offline in the Xfinity app, but these devices long since stopped appearing in the app. It does not appear there is any way to delete or block offline devices in the router UI, either.


I presently have ten offline devices on the “connected devices “ list in my router interface.  Some of them used to have reserved addresses, but I have changed them back to DHCP.  However, the router does not release the reserved address even though I have stripped it from the offline device. When I try to assign the same address to the replacement device, I get an error message saying that the address has been reserved for another device, even though that address is not then in use.

I have had home internet since the 1980’s and have owned routers from half a dozen brands.  Until I started to use the xfi, I never had seen a router that did not have an explicit means of releasing a reserved addresses for a device no longer in use.  

Searching this forum, I have learned there is no apparent means of accomplishing what I want with this router, short of a complete factory reset, which always is a recipe for disaster on a network with as many devices as mine serves.  I am posting this question, anyway, in case someone has doe up with a workaround for this since the last forum member asked the same question a year or so ago.


Of course, I could revert to my user-owned equipment, but that would mean living without tech support entirely.  Still, given the xfi router’s many UI issues, it may be the smart solution.

Problem Solver

 • 

513 Messages

3 years ago

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out to us via our forums. Just to clarify, you are trying to forget the devices for which you have assigned the IP addresses. If that is the issue you are having. You would need to access the offline device through the device details and forget the device so that it no longer shows assigned to the gateway. 

Contributor

 • 

16 Messages

3 years ago

These devices no longer appear as inactive on the app, so there is no way to forget them using the app.  There also is no way to forget them in the router connected devices interface.

(edited)

Official Employee

 • 

2.8K Messages

I'd like to see if there is any troubleshooting we can do on our end to better assist you with resolving the concern. Please send us a direct message to "Xfinity Support" with your full name and address to get started.

 

To send a direct message you may need to:
Click "Sign In"
Click the "direct message" icon
Click the "New message" (pencil and paper) icon
Type "Xfinity Support" in the "To:" line and select "Xfinity Support" from the drop-down list which appears. The "Xfinity Support" graphic replaces the "To:" line
Type your message in the text area near the bottom of the window
Press Enter to send it

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

Contributor

 • 

16 Messages

3 years ago

I have confirmed with xfinity tech support that there is no way to get the xfi router to release reserved IP addresses even after devices have been forgotten.  Xfinity suggested a factory reset, but that would be disruptive, require me to re-reserve the addresses of about 20 devices in total, and would solve the problem only until the next time a MAC address changed as a result of a device image update.

Problem Solver

 • 

948 Messages

3 years ago

@MikeRubin  Did you try to change them not using the app, just logon direct to the router, I think there’s a bug, so when you try to change it, you HAVE to put a word in the comments box, if you don’t you get a error, just a thought

Contributor

 • 

16 Messages

@jlavaseur​ Thanks, but, yes, I use the router interface.  Apparently, if you didn't "forget" a device in the app, though, you can't delete it in the router interface. (I have some "inactive devices" that I replaced two years ago still listed.)  Even if you use the interface to put the old, inactive device back on DHCP, though, you still can't use its former reserved IP address for a new device. 

Visitor

 • 

1 Message

I had similar issue. I used router UI to set old MAC to DHCP and waited for the DHCP timeout. Not sure if this was necessary since I went out of town. Upon returning home, I got up early and power cycled my xFinity router. Afterwards the reservation and knowledge of the long gone MAC address was gone. I was then able to reassign the IP to a new device. 

Contributor

 • 

16 Messages

@user_82a7e7​ I had no success reassigning to DHCP mentioned above. Instead, I have to assign the old device to a new reserved address, reduce the refresh time to two minutes, and then wait a couple of days to reassign the old IP address to the new device.

I now have 22 devices shown as inactive. A third of them are devices that actually are online with addresses reserved in the hardware. The rest are devices that I disposed of up to two years ago or devices like phones or tablets that have new IP addresses each time they join the network.

For a modern router, this one has some really bad attention to details. 

forum icon

New to the Community?

Start Here