How IP reservations work
Purpose: Keep the device that acts as the reader at the same network address every time, so the counter and the reader never lose each other.
When to use this: Setting up or fixing Order & pay with a pinpad when the reader is a handheld in Mobile Terminal mode. That mode reaches the handheld by its IP address, so the address has to stay put.
Why it matters
Every device on the network gets an IP address from the router. By default that address can change when the device reconnects or its lease expires.
Mobile Terminal pins two addresses together:
- The workstation points at the handheld with Mobile Terminal IP.
- The handheld points back at the workstation with its Redirect target.
If either address changes, the pair breaks: a sale rung on the counter never prompts on the handheld, or it times out (and sometimes the card is charged while the check stays open). An IP reservation prevents that.
What an IP reservation is
An IP reservation (your router may call it a DHCP reservation, static lease, or bind IP to MAC) tells the router to always hand one specific device the same IP. The device still gets its address automatically, it's just always the same one. You tie the device's hardware address (its MAC) to a fixed IP.
This is done on the site's router, so it's typically handled by whoever manages the network. Have the reader's MAC address and current IP ready before you start.
Set one up
- Get the device's MAC address and current IP.
- Handheld: open the device's Settings → About / Status and read the Wi-Fi MAC and IP.
- Workstation: open a command prompt, run
ipconfig /all, and read the Physical Address (MAC) and IPv4 Address.
- Log into the site's router / gateway admin page.
- Find DHCP or LAN settings, then Address Reservation (wording varies by router).
- Add a reservation that ties the device's MAC to the IP you want it to keep.
- Save, then reboot the device so it picks up the reserved address.
Reserve both ends of a Mobile Terminal pair: the handheld and the workstation.
Tie it back to the settings
- The workstation's Mobile Terminal IP must equal the handheld's reserved IP.
- The handheld's Redirect target must equal the workstation's reserved IP.
See Workstation · Setting up Mobile Terminal and Handheld · Mobile Terminal mode for where those two values live.
Verify
- Reboot the handheld and the workstation, then confirm each still shows the same IP.
- Ring a small test sale on the counter: it prompts on the handheld. Approve, then void it.
- On the workstation dashboard, Service Stats still shows the handheld's address under MobileTerminalIP.
