Steve183 wrote

 So why even have a DHCP range, or why not default to 2-249? 

  @Steve183 

DHCP range sets what can be given out by the router. If one sets to say 100 - 253 then you can configure on a device 2 - 99 IP addresses. Non-device configured devices then would get those above 99. Within that range, you can assign specific IP Addresses by Device MAC Address. The DHCP server will not give the Reserved address to any other devce but the one with the matching MAC Address.

My AX55 defaults the DHCP server to 2 - 253. Also sets the lease time to 120 minutes. Not a real problem, at least I've not seen it be a problem. Most devices will request an IP Address at 1/2 the lease time and if they do, they'd get the one that they have.

Steve183 wrote

  Why limit reserveds to 32?  Does TP-Link make a router that can do 100 static ips?

I think that number could be either a holdover or associated to the max. number of clients that can be on an SSID band? Some routers it seems will do 64 allowed. This link though might be of interest to you, https://community.tp-link.com/en/business/forum/topic/156835 as I suspect you'd need a business 'level' router to get that?

Even if you could do it, most Home Residential routers can only have 32 devices per SSID Band connected at one time. That is 64 on a Dual band and 96 on a Tri-band router.

  @IrvSp 

I agree.  Handling the number of wirelss clients you are asking about is far outside the scope of a home user level router.  I think you will find that a commercial router capable of supporting what you are asking will cost substantially more and typically support managed APs and other commercial grade features.

After satisfying my curioisty a little, you may want to look at TP-Links Omada line of products if you really want to scale out.  The TP-Link ER7206 combined with a few TP-Link EAP610's would be an expensive, but highly capable system. 

  @pcuttle There's no reason a DHCP server can't hand out IPs outside of its normal IP range provided that they would still be valid within the configured subnet.

In my use-case, I like to use a much larger subnet than most would and assign static DHCP leases to different IP ranges within that subnet for organization.

My Linksys WRT54GL could do this...

  @DanTheMan827 So I did a little more research and some implementations of DHCP, such as DNSmasq, will allow IP reservations managed by DHCP outside of the DHCP IP range.  So, it really depends on the what the underlying DHCP service is being used by the server.

  @DanTheMan827 My Netgear routers could do this as well. TP-Link seems to be behind the times in a number of areas.

I'm transitioning from an older Apple Airport Basestation to a TP-Link AX3000 (AX55). Previously, I had DHCP reservations for many devices in the .1 to .80 range (incidentally based on ClientID instead of MAC which The TPLink doesn't seem to support), and a DHCP assignment range from .100 to .199. That meant any random devices on the network would be assigned 100+ and easily recognized, while a printer or server could be configured as either static or DHCP, and still be assigned the correct IP.

So that's just another example of a use-case where it is preferable to have the router/DHCP server be able to reserve & assign IPs to any specific address on the LAN, while having a more restricted pool available for new DHCP assignments.

Edit: another benefit is being able to change the IP given to a device like a printer without actually having to log in to that device specifically.