I set it up with a fixed IP once I realized that it wasn't going to be the xxx.xxx.xxx.1 device on the LAN and it wouldn't work well to have it jump around in the DHCP pool with all the other clients.....so I gave it a fixed IP outside the DHCP pool so there was no chance of inadvertent address conflict and it has "just worked" ever since. I have several network devices that I have assigned fixed IP addresses to -- network printers, wireless repeaters, and Network Attached Storage (NAS) drives each with their own range of fixed IP's within the LAN.
I like my printers to all fall within the next block of 10 addresses above the router, my NAS devices to fall within the next block of 10 above that, and each of the WiFi devices to have a major key number such as xxx.xxx.xxx.230, 240, 250......and I limit my DHCP pool to a smaller subset in the 170 to 195 range.
It's my total ignorance of the subject under discussion, of course, but that is the
most incomprehensible post I've ever read, the Hal-ganbustein exchanges included.