How do I see my DHCP clients list on my new Airport Extreme AC?

I'm familiar and aware of the responses in the link provided. For 99% of home users using their home computer on their home network, that command as well as several others from Terminal, will work just fine, for most situations. The command line is a powerful tool.

I'm sorry that my contribution to this thread "missed the point". I don't care for the adversarial tone of the previous comments and will therefore allow others who volunteer their time to help out. Sheesh.

For anyone finding this thread in the future, here's an example of how the arp command was able to help me find a device on my network, even though the previous poster said "it's not a viable solution".

I bought a new TiVo and wanted it setup with a static IP. It initially got a dynamic IP from the Airport. I typed the arp command and found the newest IP address ending in the dynamic range 201-255 in my setup, and bingo, there was my TiVo Mac address and IP. It was the only one in the dynamic range, so it ended with 201, so I knew that had to be the TiVo. I copied the Mac address and pasted that into Airport Utility 6 and gave it a new static IP ending in 53. This is also helpful when setting up new devices, like IP cameras.

Good luck all, and hope this helps.

Sorry you feel my reply was... "adversarial." Don't be mad at me because your post suggestion ... "really" doesn't work or not relevant to 'heart' of the topic.

On the contrary - you're accusatory comment about me.... "missing" the point" - couldn't be further from the truth. The entire reason I know about this post and contributed an actual viable, working solution myself - because at the time I was researching and looking for a solution to this issue.

I'm very familiar with Terminal and it's ability, and was excited to learn of this being a possible, easy option. And I mentioned I had in fact tried it, however, found that it was not only, not a personal option, but also through research of your own link you posted - that it really isn't a working option.

And if you have kids, you'll know even better, home networks are no longer a 99% "norm". Nowadays, our home networks can look like they qualify for corporate support. Have a family, add several iPhones, Airport Extremes & Expresses, iPads, Macs, MacBooks, iTV, and a plethora of other miscellaneous mobile devices, and before you know it - we look like we have to upgrade our tech support options.

And because this method really doesn't work in "real world" networking conditions it absolutely needs to be cautioned as such. Yes, the method "can" display IP address data,, but it's old data that your computer has seen before, already existing on your network, that may in fact changed, which then, is not the best data available, most current.

It should be known to, that Airport Utility as it stands, only sees wifi DHCP client lists and IP addresses - not wired, and the entire reason a viable and reliable "hard wired" option has been sought for. Running Apple's own Airport Utility with the previously mentioned Apple script will do what Airport Utility use to do - see ALL IP addresses, wired and wireless.

But seriously.... don't be mad at me because the method you posted doesn't work, especially where the link you gave says so as well.

The method absolutely CAN work, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to set up my TiVo's and IP cameras. Will it work in every situation? Like most things, probably not. As another poster warns, please know that at the arp command may not work in all cases! Be forewarned and be careful!! 🙂 However, just like I did, feel free to give it a try and see if it works for you in your situation. It's often easiest to try simple methods before moving on to other ideas. If it works, great. If not, try some other methods that have been suggested.

Dude, it really seems you don't understand exactly what data that command line is gathering?

I never said it didn't work! Did you completely miss the part of my last post where I said - it "can" work?

I am NOT saying you can't get a list of IP addresses using arp. Do you want me to say it again in black and white?

YOU CAN. THERE!! I said it. I'm just saying you can't get a completely reliable list.

Despite how loud you yell - aint going to change the fact that the terminal arp command method only produces and shows basically, OLD data - or nothing at all as in my situation using a new mac. But whenever I need to find IP addresses it's because I need to know accurate info at that moment - not later.

You're right - the method "may" or "may not" work for someone, but according to your own link - the data gained from this specific terminal method within many cases - will not be accurate in any one specific time will not be accurate, or possibly completely incorrect. One iPhone away from your network for the day, and by using arp - and your data is incorrect.

So if someone has time to waste and an inkling to do extra, unnecessary trouble shooting in order to simply obtain potentially, unreliable, outdated IP addresses, some of which may not even still exist on your network at all ?? Then by all means - use the arp method.

BUT YES... the arp method ALONE, without any other extra trouble shooting will "work" to produce... "a list" of IP addresses.

Accuracy and reliability... optional.

arp command worked for me. On Yosemite, I filtered it further with a grep:

arp -na | grep -v '(incomplete)'

Then just looked for first instances of unique (MAC address?) lines. I was able to locate my hardwired device relatively quickly. Yes,the data might be dated, but worked none the less. In the face of no other useful or easy suggestion, this worked swell. Thanks tobylaura for the USEFUL reply!

:-)

Awesome, hooray! Exactly - it works, I said that.

But I stand correct regarding this method & the caution in using it.

*** C A U T I O N ***

This method works only if a client machine has previously scanned and seen the network, and even then, data obtained may still not be accurate. Further, this method can provide an inaccurate "false-positive.".

* Example: your looking for your Ethernet, network printer, but it powered off or died. This method will still show the printer. I don't think that's very useful.

* Example: If you put a new Mac on a network, as we did, and this method won't work as this method relies on previous data that may not exist. A new mac wnot see anything but the gateway IP and the last IP.

It works... sort of. Useful? That's questionable. Definitely not accurate.

Steve, glad the tip was helpful and useful! Hopefully others will find it helpful too. I setup two more wired devices on my network today, (for a total of 47 devices) with arp, and liked your update to it as well. Cool - thanks!

Router: Airport Time Capsule 2nd gen 7.6.4

Airport Utility: 6.3.4

Computer: Intel Mac OSX 10.10.1

I found that if I hold down "Option" and then double click my router in "Airport Utility",

It will open with an added tab of "Summary". If I don't hold option, I get a side window,

with the airport info and click "edit" and no summary tab is available.

As you can see below, it list all of my wireless clients.

I have no wired clients, so not sure if it would show those.

Hope this helps.

Telsa147

Holding option is nothing new in seeing "wireless" clients. It's already known, and I believe mentioned early on.

While there's been debate over "how" to see all DHCP clients (more specifically wired) because that's the root reason for this forum topic. I don't think there's ever been a question of seeing wireless, nor the ability to do so with the option key option?

It's already been stated though... the ability to see "wired" clients is no longer available in the newer versions of Airport Utility. So I realize this post is kind of redundant, but this should answer your not knowing if you can see wired clients on a network with the never version airport Utility.

You could use in terminal the ping command

ping xx.xx.xx.255

which pings all machines in your subnet.

I have found the answer after of lot of experimenting. I am running El Capitan 10.11 and Airport Utility 6.6.3 and here is how I found a method to identify the IP address of the DHCP clients on my Airport Extreme (old version and new AC version).

Open Airport Extreme (works on AirPort Extreme and AirPort Extreme AC - I Have both).

Click on the Airport you want to find the wireless clients for - a pop up box appears showing the DHCP clients names but not IP addresses.

Mouse over the client in question (no need to click, just wait a second) and another pop up will open showing you the name, IP address, hardware address, etc.

Hope that helps all like me who were pretty frustrated at not being able to find it.

PS - this also works on the wired AirPort connections. Click on Other Wi-Fi devices, you can then click on any wired connections and do the same thing for hardwired devices connected to the Airport.

I know that this is an old thread but I have previously had this issue with my Time Capsule. I've just come across a possible solution while replacing my old 1TB unit with a new 3TB tower.

There is in Mac AirPort Utility the option to export the configuration ( File > Export Configuration File ). Run this option and make sure the encryption checkbox is unchecked. This generates an XML file that you can open with TextEdit. Search the file for 'leases' and following this is a list of all the DHCP leases with hostname, IP, MAC address.

Not sure if this works for AirPort Extreme, etc. Maybe some else can confirm?

Hope this helps future folks looking for an answer to this question.

Yes, it does. Thanks!

Export configuration File works on an AirPort Extreme.

Thanks Rich.