iRFR: iPad & Ion problem

Can anyone throw any light (sorry!) on this infuriating problem, I wonder?

We have recently bought a new Ion, running the latest software. Bought a new Wi-Fi router, set up a new network, and configured it as an access point - with no internet access. We want to be able to use an iPad running the iRFR app, as a remote - so that we're more easily able to focus 96 new (overhead) scans with it.

Installed the app. All OK so far. Got the iPad talking to the Ion after a few hours of faffing about with the router configuration. However this was only for a glorious hour and a half or so! When it finally connected (it wasn't actually too clear how this happened though!), we were able to stop and start the app numerous times during this period. It always reconnected with the Ion, and we had complete iRFR functionality, every time. We thought we'd finally cracked it, so exited the app again and switched network connections on the iPad, went on the internet, etc. in order to test if it would reconnect after switching back to the new network using the new router again.

We still haven't managed it! - It's been a few days, now, and it's driving us nuts!

There are some odd things going on though. It appears that the router is OK - we can access the Ion from a MacBook using the same network. On the iPad if we go into Settings/Console it sees the Ion, and when we test the connection we get full blue bar read-out and it 'dings' to say it's connected. However, when we hit the connect button on the welcome screen, we just get a message saying "No connection - Disconnected from host"! Quite often, on multiple attempts to 'Connect' the Ion appears for a split second in green, and the 'Virtual RFR', 'Cue List', and 'Playback' lines become bold - but never longer than a second or so - before we get the "No Connection" box  again. It's as if it's connecting and then something causes it to drop the connection. This is what was happening when we were originally attempting to connect. Then all of a sudden it connected. We thought it was something we'd done to the router, but actually when it connected this one and only time, no one was doing anything!

So, there you go -

We've tried everything we can think of, including trying all the available wi-fi channels on the router, but as yet no success. It's behaving like a physical "loose connection", or like losing a 'phone signal.

ANY suggestions would be extremely gratefully received.

 

Parents Reply Children
  • Hi Corey -

    Sorry - I'm on UK time here, I assume your in the States.

    I'm off-site at the moment - finished for the day - brain fried!

    Tried to reply using the iPad, but was unable to 'write', as the wiki appears to use Flash for that, and of course that won't work on an iPadt!! Ha! Ha!

    Anyway back on good ol' Windows now - VPNing into my work machine from home.

    I will probably need to come back to you tomorrow when I have proper access to all the items on the network, but off the top of my head I think the router IP is 10. 101. 1. 1 

    We're not using a WEP key or WPA on the WLAN, because we're not using the WLAN. The Ion is using a LAN socket to connect, and the authentication is WPA - PSK  with AES encryption. As far as I'm aware there are no special functions/settings turned on in the router.

    I'm afraid that's the best I can do for now.

    I will confirm all this tomorrow.

    Thanks for your interest and assistance on this.

  • Hey Onebrow, I am based out of our Germany Office. You are using a WLAN to connect from the iPhone to WLAN Point / Router which is then connected via Ethernet cable to the Ion. Could you turn off the WPA-PSK Excryption and see if the problem goes away?
  • COREY: Sorry, slip of the acronyms there! My brain saw 'WAN'.

    Back at work now. I will try that a.s.a.p. today (there's a lot of other stuff going on though), and get back to you.

    BRIAN: Thanks for you input. I too think that the root cause is something to do with the wi-fi, and also know someone that has the a similar problem - only the other way around - the Mac can't connect but their iPhone can. So they're OK! However, I have tried changing channels. In fact, I've tried every channel available on the router actually, but it has absolutely no effect on the issue - whichever channel we use, we get the same symptoms.

  • OK Corey - Update:

    Did as you asked. The problem has not gone away.

    However, the Ion did stay connected long enough for me to get the Virtual RFR control panel up - on one attempt!

    But it was kicked off again within a second or so.

    I suspect nothing has changed.

    [P.S. I work for a large and busy Convention Centre - located in South Wales - and there's a lot of Wi-Fi going on here. Whatever we're able to do - I will talk to one of the IT guys here whose responsibility it is to deal with the Wi-FI systems, tomorrow, and see if HE can throw any light on it. It's not one of my areas of expertise, unfortunately. However, the IT Dept. is notoriously difficult to pin down, and this particular guy has not been around since we tried this system out. Getting information out of him is pretty difficult at the best of times - unless you've signed the 'Official Secrets Act' !]

  • I generally have better luck with iRFR/wireless routers if I set up the Ion console to act as a DHCP address server, and allow it to serve IP addresses to both the router and the iPad. If you can put the router in WAP/Access Point mode, that might help as well. Every router is that little bit different, so it can be tricky to say how exactly to do that.

    -luke-

  • Thanks for your input Luke.

    The router is configured as an access point, and we have tried setting all three units to use DHCP.   It didn't make any difference.

    Not sure how one sets up the Ion to be the "server" specifically, though. Does this happen automatically if it is only piece of kit that has been assigned an IP address?  Oh dear - not very knowledgeable on this aspect.

  • In the Settings menu in the shell, you do not want to set the Ion to receive an address via DHCP - you turn on the services, and enable the address service.

    A call to support would probably be in order, easier to troubleshoot over the phone than via the forum!

    -luke-

  • Thanks Luke - I'm already on it.

    Found all the details in the manual by now!

    Spoke to "support" a few days ago - they could only suggest it was a problem with internal settings for the router.

    I will try your suggestion, though.

  • Have you checked to make sure that the console's password matches the console's name?  The blue bars in the Setup screen are only the results of a ping test, so it is possible to have the ping test check out, but the password not match.

    It's a simple thing, but sometimes that's what gets overlooked.

  • Hans:

    It appears that you may have been right.

    No, let's face it, - probably right!

    It's hard to eat Humble Pie, though isn't it.

    We were using the "Device Name" supplied with the console - a great big long thing consisting of letters and numbers, starting with OEM. At various stages during this long "ordeal" we must have entered this "name" many times into the iPad. It's had to believe that we could have got it wrong every time. But I changed it to a simple 7 character name - easy to remember and repeat - without much chance of an error. After altering the details in the iPad app configuration, it connected straight away!!! I couldn't believe it!

    Actually since the time you posted, Hans, we also tried using a network set up for us by the IT Dept. here, and of course got the same results as before. So this time we went back to the original little router and changed the Console configuration back to the original one. That's when I changed the Device Name, and the next step was going to be trying Luke's idea. But we haven't needed to go that far.

    I must thank everyone again for their input, and wonder off into the sunset - albeit, rather red-faced!

    I've learned a lot about networks though  : )

     

Related