AppleTV 3 floods DHCP when ethernet connected

I just stumbled upon this thread and as an owner of three ATVs, all Ethernet wired, I've never seen this (and just looked at both the router and took a WireShark trace and do not see it happening right now). So, a few questions:

1) Does this happen with the ATV in a particular state (sleep, up but not running an app, running any particular app) or all of the time?

2) What is the time frequency of the DHCP Discover messages from the ATV?

3) What is the DHCP lease time as configured on the router?

Probably more questions after these, but it is a start. Just want to see if I can re-create it to get more info.

I also recently found this and also found a solution that worked for me. In another post that I cannot find it was mentioned that you should check your wireless settings. When you are wired, your wireless settings are not visible. I unplugged my Ethernet and noted that I had a valid WiFi setup configured. I chose the option to forget the network and re-attached the Ethernet cable. I am only seeing normal DHCP activity now. The other thread mentioned that both networks would remain active and that this is an "IOS thing". Others have stated that switching to WiFi has worked for them, possibly for the same but reverse reason. Looks like IOS is happiest with only a single connection to your network.

Good luck 🙂

I'm having the same issue. My dhcp lease time is set for 24H, but the apple tv asks for a new lease about once a minute.

Logs:

Jul 7 11:40:41 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:41:54 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:41:54 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:43:06 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:43:06 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:44:18 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:44:18 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:45:30 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:45:30 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:46:16 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPINFORM(br0) 192.168.1.208 fc:aa:14:72:37:b0

Jul 7 11:46:16 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.208 fc:aa:14:72:37:b0 blackbox

Jul 7 11:46:42 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:46:42 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:47:54 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:47:54 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:49:05 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:49:05 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:50:41 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e

Jul 7 11:50:41 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.206 1c:1a:c0:79:29:9e Apple-TV

Jul 7 11:51:20 unknown daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[531]: DHCPINFORM(br0) 192.168.1.200 4c:0b:be:0b:a5:a0

I never connected my Apple TV to WiFi. According to my router logs, the ATV is renewing its ethernet lease every ten minutes, even though my lease time is 7 days.

Admittedly, this isn't the flooding of the network that others are seeing, but it's still more DHCP activity than the rest of my thirty devices combined. Even portable devices like my phone aren't asking as frequently. It's making it hard for me to find real problems in my logs.

Apple knows how to write a network stack. Why have they failed here?

The Apple TV also has a bonjour sleep proxy built into it.

About Wake on Demand and Bonjour Sleep Proxy - Apple Support

That means it needs to be capable of reaching the network even when you may think it is not being used. If you don't have any other Apple devices running a bonjour sleep proxy the ATV will step in.

I don't think it is realistic to say that creating 1 extra packet every 10 minutes is a 'failed networking stack', try filtering your logs.

glarbl_blarbl wrote:

I'm having the same issue. My dhcp lease time is set for 24H, but the apple tv asks for a new lease about once a minute.

Once per minute is not a flood, if it was thousands of time per minute I would agree that is a flood and a major issue. Once a minute is nothing. If you put tcpdump on pretty much any device you will see a constant stream of seeming needless management traffic. I would guess it is related to supporting their screwed up Bonjour protocol but who knows. What ever the reason that is the way it works and it is not likely to change, and it is not hurting anything.

This DHCP behavior isn't universal, however. I have three ATVs that are all several hours into their 12-hour leases without misbehaving.

There have also been several reports here of the Bonjour Proxy in the ATV being broken (see this post).

You're right. Once every ten minutes is just an irritation, not broken. But on first glance, it did seem strange that my portable devices ask for their IP address less often than a supposedly fixed device. I apologize for being over-dramatic.

I also suspect that you are right that it has something to do with Bonjour Sleep Proxy. The ATV seems to be happy with its address when it's in use. Only when it's idle does it constantly need to be reminded of its IP address.

Just curious: When the ATV sleeps and you see the 10-minute DHCP requests, are you able to see the ATV as an AirPlay choice on any devices (assuming you have an iSomething that supports AirPlay) and will the ATV wake up on its own if you choose it for AirPlay?

So 3600x more traffic than expected is not a flood. Got it.

Sorry if my issue doesn't rise to the level of severity of the original poster, but my understanding from this thread was that posting logs of the issue would be helpful.

To me, if a networking device is ignoring a setting by orders of magnitude -- then that is a bug.

EDIT:

Realized I took those logs while the ATV was sleeping. I'll check it when the thing is awake later today.

Sorry, 1440x more traffic. That's what I get for trying to do math in my head before coffee.

1440x seems like a big number but you should probably examine how big those packets are, here is some more pre-coffee maths…

I get at the most 600bytes per request.

Gigabit ethernet carries upto 125,000,000bytes per second (probably more like 90,000,000 in my limited tests).

802.11.g WiFi networking is around 6,000,000bytes per second (or more like 3,000,000 in my limited tests). So even if you have old WiFi you still have many times the throughput that these packets require.

I can't see how 600bytes is a problem, it may be other issues that are causing network slowness mentioned here.

It seems like there is a bug here, however it is unlikely to cause issues on a home network as far as I can see.

Test my hypothesis if you like, I used…

sudo tcpdump -plenv -i en0 -s 1500 port bootps or port bootpc

To view the packet length & used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_rate_units#Gigabit_per_second and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bit_rates for the rates.

If you capture packets & look at how other devices behave they also send many DHCP requests, for example a test Mac Mini sends 2 requests per second during the boot picker phase (hold alt at startup). It may be annoying, but it could also be normal?

If we cannot help here please consider visiting an Apple store or posting feedback to Apple…

http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

More bug reports may increase the chance of a resolution.

> Just curious: When the ATV sleeps and you see the 10-minute DHCP requests, are you able to see the ATV as an AirPlay

> choice on any devices (assuming you have an iSomething that supports AirPlay) and will the ATV wake up on its own if you choose it for AirPlay?

Yes and yes. It takes about three seconds for the ATV to wake up and start mirroring.

Thanks for the feedback. I was just trying to see if I could connect the dots between a couple different issues but they seem to be independent. Carry on!

I have been having this same problem for a long time. A few more details to add:

I have 2 Apple TV 2s connected via Ethernet cable, 2 older Apple TV 3s connected via Ethernet cable, and a brand new Apple TV 3 connected via WiFi. I also have a static DHCP reservation set up in my router for all of the Apple TVs.

The Apple TV2s do not have the DHCP "flooding" issue and seem to always show up in the iOS Remote app or iTunes as Airplay devices.

The wired Apple TV 3s do have the DHCP flooding issue and frequently do not show up in the Remote app or iTunes as Airplay devices.

The WiFi Apple TV3 is very new but so far no issues (same as Apple TV 2s).

I believe at least one of the older Apple TV 3s has the serial number range that Apple was replacing because of a bad firmware update (or something like that), but of course I didn't know about their extended replacement policy regarding these units until it was too late to take advantage of it.

I'm going to try swapping one of the wired ATV 3s with the brand new WiFi unit to see if the new one has this same problem.