Come to think of it.. At the dawn of time (about 2 weeks ago) when first found LMCE i ran DHCP on both core and Linksys. Every time i did that, the core got authority over the router, changing the IP's of all computers within the network from 192.168.1.xxx to 192.168.80.xxx. Every time. Does anybody know why this is? Why the core gets the first shot over the router?
When the Lease on the IPs are half way up they request new ones. I would assume that your core just responds to the request to renew with and IP sooner. So from my experance most store bought routers that server DHCP give a lease time of one day to three days (I think one is more common). So half way through the lease time (12 - 36 hr) the PCs sends out a request to renew that lease and the Core responds first.
Not that I commonly set up up two DHCP servers on the same net, but I have several times and one always seems to be more responsive for some reason and convert the network shortly. the only way around it would be limit the amount of available IPs, but that wouldn't guarantee what devices got IPs on what network.
**Feature Request within** another option would be let the DCE be the DHCP server and hack the DHCP config file to have it give out the router as the Gateway instead of itself (and obviously have them with the same IP scheme). it would be nice as a built in feature of the DHCP web configuration to manually define the gateway with out hacking the file as a way to dumb things down for the average user.
I think MCE is a great product, but we have to get some of this stuff more friendly to the average n00b or id10t user other wise they will stay in Bill Gates cult. I think a small network config script that they can ask if this will be the DHCP server AND the GateWay also might make that easier.
I'm personally onboard with the people that want a separate router for security reasons. I'd rather a separate router be out front to be hacked instead of a system that controls my whole house. I use IPCOP and can port forward what I need to make the features work if I know all the ports. I would accept using LMCE as my router also if the DHCP and firewall were more configurable (need my VPN specially). maybe someone can fork IPCOP and plug it in as LMCEs firewall.