How do I disable DHCP or caching DNS server?

Question

Level 1

15 points

How do I disable DHCP or caching DNS server?

This AEBS is intended to replace another non-Apple wireless router. However, if I can't get things config'd properly, then I'll probably go with a non-Apple router.

I would like to (a) disable the DHCP server or (b) configure the DHCP server to give back my list of nameservers rather than always handing out the AEBS's address as the nameserver.

I already have configured and run a standalone DHCP server and caching nameserver (that also has reverse mappings for my local net, unlike the one built into the AEBS). I want to keep using that.

Thank,

G4, iBook, MacBook C2D, Mac OS X (10.4.8), linux, NeXT, etc. etc.

Posted on Feb 3, 2007 12:50 PM

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Answer 1

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Feb 3, 2007 1:55 PM in response to cleeland

I would like to (a) disable the DHCP server...

Configure the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) so that the option to distribute IP addresses is DISABLED.

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Answer 2

cleeland Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 3, 2007 2:52 PM in response to Duane

Where is this option? The only place I see reference to "distribute IP addresses" is under "Internet->Internet Connection->Connection Sharing", and according to the help "distribute IP addresses" is for the situation where the ISP allocates multiple routable IPs to you, and those multiple routable IPs get distributed inside the router.

I have a single (static) routable IP, and my "Connection Sharing" setting is "Share a public IP address".

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Answer 3

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Feb 3, 2007 3:06 PM in response to cleeland

You want to set that option to "OFF (Bridge mode)". See this screen shot:

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Answer 4

cleeland Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 3, 2007 6:03 PM in response to Duane

Except that I don't want it bridged to the Internet. I want the router to do NAT. I just don't want it to do DHCP or act as a caching DNS.

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Answer 5

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Feb 3, 2007 8:35 PM in response to cleeland

Those kinds of options didn't exist on the earlier AEBS and don't appear to be possible with the new square AEBS either.

Since you have a computer acting as DHCP server you can configure the AEBS to send all traffic to that computer by enabling the "Default host" option in the AirPort Utility (under the NAT tab).

Then the computer acting as DHCP server can also do NAT.

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Answer 6

cleeland Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 4, 2007 6:49 AM in response to Duane

Thanks for all the replies, but none are of any help. Basically, you're suggesting that I use the AEBS as an access point. A very expensive access point. It'll get returned before that happens.

The heart of the matter is DNS--the AEBS insists on handing out it's address as the DNS server to DHCP clients rather than the address of my DNS server. That's the only reason I want to turn off DHCP. If I could get it to stop handing out itself as the DNS server all would probably be fine.

I'm not going to offload everything to another machine as that creates potential security issues. What I want is very simple, and every other broken wireless router I've had has been capable of delegating this function.

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Answer 7

Mar 11, 2007 10:58 PM in response to cleeland

This is not supposed to be that hard. I bought the AEBS partially for it's NAS uses. I've just taken to setting a static DNS entry here, but it's rather annoying that it doesn't allow you to override the default behavior in many cases. It should not always proxy DNS info to the outside world. DHCP should also be something you can turn off, especially in certain Windows environments.

(I'm a Sysadmin for both sides of the house.. even though I'm using my AEBS at home. They work nicely, but shouldn't, under the manual settings mode, have that many less features than the Netgear, Dlink or Linksys models. )

I'd recommend a bug report to apple about it. They tend to see things when there are bug reports, and for those w/ ADC accounts, use that...

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