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    dgloer
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Wireless connection from laptop to ION

I have been successfully running the ION Client on my Windows XP laptop connected via an Ethernet cable, both directly attached with a crossover cable and via a Ethernet switch.  This weekend I tried to connect using wireless (I have a wireless router set up as a switch and a Wireless access point.  Other access works fine using the wireless connection.  The switch is connected to our internal network).  I can connect successfully and operate from the laptop, however I frequently lose connection to the console.  The reconnect function always resynchronizes the client and the console but the connection fails again after a brief time.

Do you have some tips that would help me make a reliable connection via wireless? 

  • I would be forever indebted if somebody could figure this out AND post complete / detailed instructions.  The ability to move around the theater with my laptop and still have the board "with" me would be awesome! 

     I am thinking it is not possible at this time.  I'd be interested in hearing *why* its not possible though...Heres to keeping our fingers x'd though!

     

  • in reply to Pat Immel
    I have no familiarity with the way ETC has implemented their protocol so take this opinion for what it is worth. My speculation for the fault has something to do with the half-duplex properties of wireless networks and a timeout that occurs when one peer is waiting for a heartbeat or keepalive that is blocked by a transmission going in the other direction.

  • One issue that needs to be considered when setting up any DMX over ethernet setup, be it wired or wireless, is Broadcast Storm protection.  Basically DMX likes to shout.  The way all the various flavors of DMX over ethernet work is by one device (the lighting desk) shouting out values and instructions to all the other devices who simply listen and do as their told.  (This is changing somewhat, obviously, with ACN and RDM, but for the moment...)  A lot of hardware, including some off the shelf plug-n-play stuff, is trained to look for this pattern, because it's an attack that would crash most computer based networks, called a Broadcast Storm.  Another issue is called Multi-Cast Filtering.  I'm not going to pretend that I understand this aspect as well as a broadcast storm, but suffice it to say that the gear is trying to listen to, and evaluate the type of traffic on the network so it can juggle everything for optimal performance.  I know that Pathway has problems playing nice with this feature, I believe other networks are also less than fond of it.  Your best bet would be to surf into the router and the access point (instruction should be in their user manuals if you've never done it) and disable these features.  There's a couple of starting points, at least.  Hopefully this will solve your problems.

    Jim 

  • in reply to jim.gross

    I have no idea what is communicated between the laptop as client and the ION but I don't think it is DMX.  The only place DMX appears is at the "backend" of ION.  My guess is it is more likely an ION application internal command interface and is not a high volume traffic.

     I have not tried connecting only the laptop and the ION to the wireless to see if network traffic has any impact.  So far my testing has been with the wireless connected to our internal network.
     

  • in reply to dgloer

    I agree with Dale.  I don't think in this instance it is DMX over ethernet, but just regular wireless communication.  Mind you, I am not exactly sure what "regular" is :-)

     

  • I have had no problems running my wireless router with my laptop as a client since 1.4.1. However, a basic grasp of networking (and ETC's networking) is required. I use a Linksys router and set it up with these settings...Set the router with a static IP of 10.101.158.254. Set the subnet as 255.255.255.0. Usually the router wont let you do a different subnet than what I described (if you can define it, it should be 255.255.0.0.). Now when you want to manage your router, your computer must be set to a static IP of 10.101.158.x (pick a number) with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. You will need to change these settings back to "obtain IP address automatically" when you are done managing your router. Now from here it gets foggy for me since I set this up a while ago. Try setting the DHCP setting 2 different ways on your router (only one will work). Set it up to be a DHCP server assigning IP addresses. I don't think this will work, so after that, set it up to not give out IP addresses, and when you connect up to the wireless router, the console should give you an IP address. Remember to put your client dongle in, and give your wireless name (SSID) something you can recognize. I suggest using the encryption features, and MAC address filtering. To find your MAC address in Windows, click start, run, then type cmd in the command line. Then when in DOS, type ipconfig, and it will show you what your MAC address is for your wireless ethernet (be sure it is the wireless as it will show both the wired and wireless info). I hope this information will is helpful and not send more people into mass confusion. I remember having to try several different methods when setting it up, but it does work.
  • in reply to Brian Webber

    Brian, thanks.  We are working on a post to explain the various settings needed at the WAP to setup wireless, along with the routers that we've tested.  Should have that up shortly.

    a 

  • in reply to Anne Valentino

    Brian and Anne,

     

    Next to Muhhamed Ali, you guys are the greatest!

     

  • in reply to Pat Immel
    Hopefully that means it worked for you?
  • in reply to Brian Webber

    Not working...

    yet!

     

    I'm just appreciating the fact that there is effort being made toward this!  Wireless remote connection would be *so* usefull!

  • in reply to Brian Webber

    Stripping the extraneous "how-to" details from your response, are you proposing that the console needs to be the DHCP server on the network, and not the router? I guess that makes sense if there are DHCP options that the console provides that are not being provided by the router. Of course, that means leaving the console on 24/7 or establishing a power-up sequence with the console coming up first which is why I have not tried it in the past.

    By way of some background, my day job is R&D for an IP telephony manufacturer.

    I have been unsuccessful with getting the Ion client to reliably connect with the Ion console either wireless or wired. They see each other, and begin the synchronization but the client faills to reach to 100%, most of the time giving up around 95%. I have wanted to try using my work laptop since it has Wireshark installed, but I made the mistake of installing the client software at work in a multiple-screen configuration. When I undock and drop back to a single screen the client software hangs on startup, probably looking for the second monitor based on my interpretation of the error logs.

  • in reply to sk8rs_dad
    I think the console is already set up to be a DHCP server, so if you set your router for the same thing, the router will try to give out an IP address of 192.168.1.x, as the client computer needs to be in the 10.101.158.x range (as dictated by the subnet mask). Note that you should only have this on an exclusive ETC network. Also, my above post says "ipconfig" to get your MAC address, it should read "ipconfig/all." Sorry about that.
  • in reply to Brian Webber

    I guess I am either not explaining clearly enough, or assumptions are being made in the absence of information that are incorrect.

    My console is not currently configured to be a DHCP server. The DHCP server on the console is disabled. It is a "Really Bad Idea" (TM) to have multiple DHCP servers on the same network. My router (Linksys WRT300N) is configured to the 10.101.100.x range and to serve up DHCP addresses in the range of 10.101.100.102 through 10.101.100.104 with MAC affinity so recognized MACs will get the same IP address if it is available. I am not using the "out of the box" default of "192.168.0.x, although using a class A IP address instead of a class C should have no bearing on the issues I am experiencing.

    My Sensor rack and Ion console are configured with Static IP addresses on the same subnet. The router is configured to serve up DHCP addresses from available addresses that do not conflict with the IP addresses of the rack and the dimmer. These are the only devices on a dedicated network: console, router, and sensor rack.

    My client laptop can get an address via DHCP from the router. All the devices can see each other. There are no communication issues between the rack and the console, ever. There are no communication issues between the rack and the laptop. The only problem is I am unable to synchronize the Ion console with the laptop. I can ping and traceroute all the devices from the laptop. I can control the Sensor rack via its internal web server. What I cannot do is establish reliable synchronization between the Ion console and the Ion client.

  • in reply to sk8rs_dad

    I posed the original question. 

    Two things need to be clarified. 

    1.  The console is an ION. 

    2.  My ION is connected to our internal network that has an active DHCP Server so I must set a specific IP address for my computer and turn of the DHCP server function of the ION.

     I have chosen to use the default IP address set in the ION, 10.101.100.101 and set my laptop to 10.101.100.102 on the ethernet port.  Connecting with a crossover cable directly to the ION, the client works fine.  Connecting via an Ethernet switch works fine, whether the switch is on our internal network or not.  The switch in question is a DLINK WBR1310 wireless router.  I have set it up according to the router manual  as a wireless access point.  With it connected to our internal network, internet applications work fine, either cable connected or wireless, and as long as I connect the laptop via cable the ION Client works fine.  It is only when I try to use the wireless side of the Switch/WAP that I have trouble.  The laptop will connect but cannot maintain connection.

  • in reply to sk8rs_dad

    I spent some time tonight making the Ion the DHCP server on the network. What a huge difference! I can now have reliable connect when wired, and once I get synchronized (2-3 attempts) have reliable wireless connection.

     I have a sneaking suspicion that the Ion's DHCP server is using different options than the Linksys router and those options are important for the IP traffic in ETC's protocol. Some day I will capture some packets and compare to satisfy my curiosity but for the moment I am a happy camper.

    Thanks for the tip Brian.

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