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How many devices on your LAN?

7K views 52 replies 16 participants last post by  audacity 
#1 ·
I am currently at 62 - and these are only devices that are used regularly and that get IP addresses on my LAN via wired connections or Wifi.

Networking
Routers/WAPs 5

Home Automation
Control4 Controllers 2
Blinds 1
Irrigation 1
IP Cameras 9
Fitbit Scale 1

A/V Equipment
Game Consoles 3
TVs 1
AVRs 2
SageTV Extenders 9
Harmony SmartHubs 3

Computer Stuff
PCs 7
Laptops 4
Raspberry Pis 3

Mobile
Tablets 7
Phones 3
Game device 1

Total 62
 
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#2 ·
And I thought I had a lot :p

PC's:
Desktop/Server.
Desktop/media playback for basement
My Laptop, wifes laptop.

Media:
AVR
Bluray
LG Smart TV

Mobile:
My IPhone
Wifes IPhone
wifes work phone
Son's ipod
Android Table
Ipad Mini

Game system:
Xbox360
Wii

Networking Equipment:
2x AP
5 port switch
8 port switch
wired network printer
wireless network printer
NAS

Automation/Security:
Security System
wemo lightswitch
 
#5 ·
Wayne said:
SageTV Extenders 9
9?! Wow. How many TVs do you have?

Taking a quick look at the DHCP reservation list, I've got 43 devices, and I've got two switches and a router which have static IP addresses to.

There are some devices that I haven't turned on for a long time that aren't counted in that list (e.g. PS3, Wii).

... off the top of my head there are the following devices on the network:
7: Sonos (5 zones, 2 controllers)
9: PCs/Macs
3: tablets (2 iPads, 1 Nexus 7)
4: Smartphones
2: HDHomeRuns
1: Nest Thermostat
3: Nest Protect
5: Game Consoles (3x Xbox 360, 1x PS3, 1x Wii)
2: TVs that would lease a IP address
1: Hue bridge
1: VoIP ATA
1: Hyper-V VM server which may be leasing a number of IPs at any given point in time

edit: I thought of some more devices.
 
#8 ·
I am not counting switches that are not WAPs/routers as they don't have IPs.
The do have MAC addresses though.

Here, I have 4 computers (one is my router/firewall), access point, tablet, 2 smart phones (one only used for testing), A/V receiver, PVR, Blu-ray player. I also have a Nokian N800, but it's been years since I last fired it up. I have a few other devices that are collecting dust in my closet, but are not connected.
 
#12 ·
The do have MAC addresses though.
I first started thinking about this when I was wondering how long it would be until I filled up a subnet as more and more devices are connecting to your LAN. But as long as stuff like lighting devices are on their own LAN I doubt I will ever hit 250 or so - but my Control4 Zigbee Pro network is probably close to a hundred with dimmers, switches, keypads, etc.
 
#16 ·
But as long as stuff like lighting devices are on their own LAN I doubt I will ever hit 250 or so
In theory, you can have as many devices as you can have MAC addresses and IP addresses. With IPv4, you'll run out of IP addresses first, but with IPv6, you're limited to 2^46 possible MAC addresses¹, even though IPv6 supports 2^64 addresses on a subnet. In practical terms, you're limited by how many devices you can have without generating excessive traffic on the network.

1. 2 bits of the 48 MAC address bits are not part of the address, but are reserved for unicast/mulitcast and global/locally administered MAC address.
 
#21 ·
Nope. Bad idea. That's a recipe for broadcast and ARP storms.

Hopefully if you're approaching the upper limits of a /24, you've got some networking smarts about you and are probably segmenting things onto their own VLANs, which is the proper way to do things for a myriad of reasons.
 
#20 ·
As I said before I really doubt it will be an issue before IPv6 becomes common - and it is a pain in the butt to go around a change everything, especially when you are going to a totally different range like that as you have to change all static IP devices before they will work with each other.
 
#24 ·
905shmick said:
Nope. Bad idea. That's a recipe for broadcast and ARP storms.
I'm not sure how you can come to this conclusion.

Do you figure there is something magical about 254 machines where ARP traffic is fine, and then if you go up to, say 300 it won't be fine?

The only time I've seen a broadcast storm on a home network is when there are multiple paths and switches with no STP support. Specifically, wiring all your Sonos ZPs means you need gear that does STP properly.
 
#25 ·
I have 1tv, 2 WD TV Plus, 1 Android, 4 BluRay, 1 HDDVD, 14 desktop computers, 1 tablet, 2 phones, 1 XBox 360, 3 Laptops, 3 switches for total of 33 items.

In a different thread, I'd say I have 4 XM Radios. 2 US subscriptions and 2 Canadian.
 
#26 ·
I'm not sure how you can come to this conclusion
The problem is all devices generate some broadcast traffic, be it arp requests or simply the switch cache has forgotten about them. With enough devices, you will have most of your bandwidth consumed with broadcasts. Each broadcast a device receives will take resources on the computer to handle and decide whether to accept or ignore. With VLANs and subnets, you reduce the size of the broadcast zone, to reduce the amount of broadcasts within a subnet. So, with a lot of devices on the network, you waste bandwidth on the network and CPU resources.


BTW, with VLANs, you may not see the other traffic, but it's still "on the wire".
 
#29 ·
I have one desktop, one laptop, two smartphones, one tablet, one Fitbit Aria (scale), two Xbox 360s and one Xbox One. I also have a substantial collection of smartphones, tablets, PCs, and gaming consoles which could be using the internet, but they've been superseded by other devices and taken out of use.

I am but one man, I can only use so many devices at once!
 
#32 ·
Agree with 905shmick. By just changing the subnet mask to 255.255.254.0 you would double your IP address capacity from 254 devices to 510 addresses. That should cover most people for quite some time in a home network environment.

While simple (dumb) switches do not take up IP addresses, Layer-2 (managed) switches do take up one address for their management portal. Wireless Access Points (WAPs) also take up one address.

It may have already been said that those that use more wireless devices, should manage their router's DHCP services a little more stringently. Ensure that you have locked down your wireless security, and use MAC filtering to ensure that neighbours aren't "piggy-backing" onto your network.
 
#34 ·
@TorontoColin The 17 computers are not on all at the same time. For example, one runs my Doctor Who Tardis MAME Arcade Cabinet, one is my PinMAME Pinball cabinet, another is my Video Poker Touch Screen Machine, one is my Jukebox, one controls my Christmas/Halloween Light show, another is my main server, another one in the wood shop, one in the theatre, and so on.

When I upgrade motherboards, the replaced one becomes a new toy.that I build myself. I now have a spare computer in parts awaiting to become something new. I just don't know yet plus it has to go through the Board Council. Read: Wife. ;)
 
#38 ·
I used to have enough equipment to fill one, but with the cost of power these days, I'm pretty much down to using smaller, low power gear as well as using virtualization to spin up various flavours of operating systems when needed.
 
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