Why Aren’t My MetalLB Load Balancers Visible on My Router?

Consumer routers often have trouble displaying clients that aren't typical DHCP-assigned devices. It's not surprising that MetalLB's load balancers aren't appearing. But don’t worry, you can still port forward just by using the IP. This limitation is just on the router's interface. Just make sure the MetalLB IPs are set outside of the DHCP range to avoid conflicts.

Remember, MetalLB doesn’t use DHCP; it assigns IPs statically from your pool. To check the connections, you can perform an ARP lookup. If you're on the same subnet, try using 'arp -a' to see if the load balancers show up there.

Have you checked the ARP table on your router, if possible? After pinging the MetalLB IP, you can use 'arp -a' on your client to see if it shows up there. This should help confirm if ARP is working correctly for you.

It sounds like your router might be displaying DHCP reservations rather than the ARP table. MetalLB assigns IPs from your specified pool and uses ARP to advertise its presence. Since you're accessing services fine, that part's working well. Try setting up a static port forwarding rule with the MetalLB IP as the destination. If it still doesn’t work, it could just be a limitation with how TP-Link has implemented their port forwarding options.