Reserve IP Addresses for Devices and the Selora Hub

Many Home Assistant integrations store a device’s IP address when the device is added: cameras, TVs, gateways, Wi-Fi relays, speakers, and robot vacuums. When the router later hands the device a different address, after a power cut, a router reboot, or a lease that expired while the device was off, the integration keeps calling the old one and the device becomes unavailable. Nothing warns the customer until an automation stops working.

Some integrations follow a device to its new address when Home Assistant sees it again on the network. That usually needs the device on the same network segment as the Selora Hub, or an mDNS relay between segments, and many integrations do not do it at all. Reserving the addresses removes the problem for every integration.

Reserve Device Addresses

Reserve each address after the device has joined the network and before you add it to Home Assistant:

1. Connect the device and let it get an address from the router over DHCP, which is the default on nearly every device.
2. In the router’s administration page or app, open the list of connected clients or DHCP leases, and find the device by its name or MAC address.
3. Reserve its current address. Routers call this a DHCP reservation, address reservation, static lease, or fixed IP. Give the entry a clear name, such as Garage camera.
4. Add the device to Home Assistant. If the integration asks for an address, enter the reserved one.

Reserve the address in the router rather than typing a static IP into the device. An address set in the device can collide with one the router hands out later. If a device has to use a static IP, choose an address outside the router’s DHCP pool.

If a device already changed address after it was added, reserve the new address, then update the address in its integration: open the integration entry and select Reconfigure from its menu (⋮), when the integration offers it.

Which Devices Need It

Reserve an address for every device that Home Assistant reaches over IP, including:

• Cameras, video doorbells, and recorders
• TVs, streamers, and speakers
• Gateways and bridges for shades, locks, and lighting
• Wi-Fi switches, relays, and plugs
• Robot vacuums

Zigbee and Z-Wave devices do not need one: they talk to their coordinator or controller, not over IP. A coordinator or bridge that sits on the network, such as an Ethernet Zigbee coordinator or a Hue Bridge, does.

Give the Selora Hub a Fixed Address

Phones, other devices, and some integrations reach Home Assistant at the Hub’s IP address:

• The Home Assistant URL under Settings > System > Network is often set to that address.
• Robot vacuums running Valetudo connect to the Mosquitto broker app on the Hub by its address.
• Some Reolink cameras send their events to the Home Assistant URL, and battery-powered Shelly devices of Gen2 and later report to it over their outbound WebSocket.

Fix the Hub’s address in one of two ways:

• Reserve its address in the router, like any device, and leave the Hub on DHCP. This is the simplest option.
• Set a fixed IP in Selora Connect, as described in IP Configuration . Choose an address outside the router’s DHCP pool.

Keep a Record

Reservations live in the router. Replacing the router, or a factory reset of the internet provider’s gateway, erases them, and every device may come back on a new address. Record each reserved address, with the device it belongs to, in the installation notes for the customer, and recreate the reservations whenever the router changes.

Networks With Several Segments

On a network split into VLANs, for example with cameras on their own, each VLAN has its own DHCP pool. Reserve the address in the pool of the network the device is on. Integrations that follow a device to a new address usually lose track of it across VLANs, so reservations matter most there.