Reserving an IP on a Cudy Router Without Losing Your Mind

If you’ve ever gone hunting for a simple “DHCP Reservation” option on a Cudy router, you’ve probably discovered that Cudy likes to play a little game of hide-and-seek with its terminology. The feature is there, it works well, but it’s not always called what you expect. That’s why reserving an IP on a Cudy router is one of those tasks that feels harder than it should—until you know where to look. Once you crack the language barrier, though, the process is straightforward and incredibly useful.

The big benefit of reserving an IP address is consistency. Devices like printers, servers, or cameras really don’t appreciate surprises, and neither do the apps or computers that talk to them. By reserving an IP, you’re telling your router, “Hey, this device gets this address every time—no exceptions.” In my case, I used an HP DeskJet 2600 as the example in the video, because printers are famous for breaking the moment their IP address changes. One reservation later, and those “printer not found” errors magically disappear.

On a Cudy router, the trick is understanding that IP reservations are often tucked under something like Static Lease, Address Reservation, or a similar-sounding menu instead of the classic DHCP wording. You’ll usually need the device’s MAC address, then pair it with the IP you want it to keep. It’s not obvious at first glance, but once you’ve done it once, the mystery is gone—and suddenly Cudy’s interface makes a lot more sense.

The payoff is well worth the couple of extra clicks. Reserved IPs make troubleshooting easier, keep port forwarding rules stable, and generally reduce the number of “why did this stop working?” moments in your network. Whether it’s an HP DeskJet 2600 or any other always-on device, taking the time to lock in an IP on your Cudy router is one of those small networking wins that saves you headaches later.

Click here, or the image  to check out the Cudy AX3000  

For those of you who want to see a short video demonstrating how to do this, here you go

Enjoy

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Opinion: Impact of AI on Networking Engineers

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One of the biggest advantages of this YouTube playlist is its flexibility. You can watch at your own pace, revisit tough concepts as many times as needed, and integrate learning seamlessly into your schedule — no deadlines, no tuition, and no classroom required. Whether you’re balancing work, school, or personal projects, this on-demand format makes mastering deep learning both accessible and sustainable.

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From the web: Microsoft Confirms It Can Share Windows 11 BitLocker Keys With Law Enforcement

Microsoft has basically confirmed that it can hand over BitLocker recovery keys to law enforcement if there’s a valid legal request.

BitLocker is the built-in disk encryption used on lots of Windows 11 machines, and many people don’t realize that the recovery keys get saved to Microsoft’s cloud by default — which means if the FBI or another agency gets a warrant, Microsoft can hand those keys over to help crack open a locked device. This hasn’t been widely known until recently, but reports say at least one case in Guam involving fraud investigations saw the FBI get the keys from Microsoft and use them to unlock encrypted laptops.

It’s stirred up a bunch of privacy debates because the whole point of encryption is to keep prying eyes out, and folks are pointing out that other tech companies design their systems so the provider can’t hand over keys even with a warrant. While Microsoft says key recovery is meant to be a convenience for users, security experts worry storing these keys in the cloud makes them a potential weak spot — not just for law enforcement access but also if hackers ever breach those cloud systems.

https://www.ghacks.net/2026/01/24/microsoft-confirms-it-can-share-windows-11-bitlocker-keys-with-law-enforcement/

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Why fiber rollout alone isn’t the answer

The Case for the Post-Install Check-In

Installing new network gear can feel like crossing the finish line of a marathon. The link comes up, the lights blink happily, and there’s a strong urge to declare victory and never look back. But that’s exactly why post-install check-ins matter. An install isn’t really done when the hardware is mounted and powered on — it’s done when you know it’s behaving itself in the real world, not just during that first five-minute victory lap.

In this case, I followed up on a Ubiquiti Wave Pro link after the install, fully expecting to see a calm, stable connection living its best life. Instead, I found the link hopping frequencies like it had too much caffeine. On paper, everything looked “up,” but under the hood the radio was changing channels far more often than it should. If I hadn’t checked back in, this would have quietly turned into intermittent performance issues and finger-pointing later on.

That’s the sneaky danger of skipping follow-ups. Many problems don’t show up immediately — they creep in once the link starts dealing with real interference, weather changes, or other radios in the area. A post-install review lets you catch these early warning signs while they’re still small and fixable, instead of waiting for a user to report that “the network feels weird sometimes,” which is never a fun troubleshooting starting point.

Following up also gives you a chance to validate your original assumptions. Maybe the spectrum looked clean during the install, but reality had other plans. Maybe auto-settings are being a little too enthusiastic. Checking back confirms whether the configuration you chose is actually the right one, or if it needs tuning. It’s like going back to tighten the bolts after a test drive — boring, but extremely effective.

In the end, checking on equipment after an install isn’t about mistrusting your work — it’s about respecting physics, RF chaos, and the fact that networks love to misbehave when you’re not looking. That quick follow-up on the Wave Pro link turned a potential future outage into a simple adjustment. And honestly, that’s way better than getting a call later that starts with, “So… this has been happening for weeks.”

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Introduction: Moving Beyond Basic Benchmarking

For network engineers, relying solely on basic single-stream iPerf or simple ping output often fails to capture the true performance characteristics of a network path, especially under load. This is where FLENT (The FLExible Network Tester) comes in.

click on the image to read the article 

Cudy AX3000 Review - The Setup

 

Based on some limited research, I picked up a "Cudy AX3000 Multi Gigabit Dual Band WiFi 6 Mesh Router" from amazon.

https://www.cudy.com/en-us

I wont bore you with the whole 'unboxing' speech, but there's a lot to be said for a company that packages a product that doesn't

require a class in vendor unpackaging to get to the product.

It came with an installation card, ethernet cable and power supply.

Keeping in the spirit of your typical IT install, I chose to ignore the instructions and wanted to see how far I can get without having to resort to reading the manual. ;)

 

I connected the unit's internet port to my cable modem using the provided cable and plugged my laptop into the LAN port. After about a minute, I checked my and my address was on a 192.168.10.0/24 subnet with a default gateway of 192.168.10.1.

I figured I will try to access the internet and was a little disappointed that it it didn't work and I noticed the globe with the circle/line through it. 

This is important for me to know in case i consider this for some of my clients and friends who are further than a short drive away.

I figured I will just type the router IP address into my browser to see if I can access the router, or if I will be forced to download an app.  Cool, the browser loaded this page.

Its nice to see the vendor forcing you to change/create an admin password with some suggestions on creating a strong password.

I created my new password and was then prompted with a setup/captive portal.

Again, its important to me to know that until you create your password and go through the install screens, you will not have internet access.

Since my set up was DHCP based, I basically clicked by about half a dozen screens and completed the install.

As a side note, I found it interesting that the router had a few setup options that could help me out in the future.

Wireless access point in particular would be cool.  Currently, if I need a wireless access point and only have a residential router available, I disable DHCP and use the Lan port to connect to the current network.

After the install, I ran a quick Wireshark capture and noticed it was sending out IGMP packets.

I've seen IGMP enabled on a lot of residential routers and get annoyed when there isn't a way to disable IGMP. I figured "what the heck" lets see if Cudy allows me to disable it. I was pleasantly surprised when I quickly found the setting and disabled it.

The only other thing I did was change the SSID's and passwords.

Here's an interesting note: I chose to disable auto firmware updates so I could do it myself. I intentionally downloaded the incorrect firmware and was impressed that it did not blindly accept it. 

 The only thing worth noting was that after the firmware upgrade the password for my 2.4ghz SSID was a series of randomized characters, so I simply changed it back.  I only noticed because some IOT devices reported being offline after the firmware upgrade.

As far as WiFi performance goes, it did outperform my previous lab wireless router by 50 Mbps up and down as well as added some solid coverage to 2 spotty areas.

I tried to keep the first write up short and plan to do more based on different features and scenarios, so let me know if you like this format.  

For example, the next thing I want to set up is the various flavors of VPN server, VPN client and VPN tunneling, bandwidth control...

amazon.com link: https://amzn.to/3N7pooH

amazon.ca link: https://amzn.to/3YZoCg5

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Cyber Leaders Podcast