Networking Conundrum (Beware: headache inducing)

[ak123]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out. I'm having big trouble setting up a device to communicate with a computer at work, and as the manufacturer can't help without us paying a yearly fee, and our own tech group says the device is not on their support list, I'm on my own.

The system apparently worked fine until the device broke, and after getting it replaced now the networking won't work.

Ok, so this device is supposed to have an IP address of 172.24.1.2. The instructions are to set up my computer (via ethernet) to have a static IP of 172.24.1.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.248. (The internet won't work when I do this so I simply use wireless for netting.)

Apparently the device works through port 3333 so I added exceptions to the Windows Firewall for that.

I'm instructed to make sure to use an ethernet switch just for the computer and the device. Our room has a couple of ethernet switches and a couple of firewall routers (Trendnet) at the other end of the room (each of the switches has a cable connecting it to a router, and there is one cable connecting the two switches together). Now, long ago both the crossover cable from the device and the cable from the PC network card were connected to a mini hub whose cables then ran underground to parts unknown to me (I guess they go to the ethernet switches, which have tons of cables for various computers) but clearly whatever fried the device fried those connections, so I've had to experiment running longer cables aboveground to the switches and routers.

Yesterday after a bunch of different experiments, I tried connecting both the cable from the device and the cable from the computer to one an the same firewall router and VOILA, the device immediately popped up on screen as connected, and everything looked great. This was 4:50 pm. I played with it a little, turned off the computer and went home at 5:00.

Today, I turn on the computer and I get a message saying that the wireless is not set up properly because the DHCP is off. This is odd, as I remember it was on and fine they day before. It asks me if I want Windows to fix this and I say yes. (At this point I was busy with other things so I did not check if the device was running). Sure enough, when I try running the device it's like it's not connected at all. Back to square one. Spent 5 hours on this subsequently and nothing.

I should add that the firewall router we have runs on 192.168.0.1. My predecessor password protected and I tried resetting it but failed (then again, everything worked yesterday without me having to access the router directly).

Any advice would be much appreciated. I'm supposed to make this work pretty much immediately

 

[DistraughtSysop]

What kind of device is this? Do you have any way of accessing some kind of configuration menu for it?

What is the make and model of this firewall router you mentioned?

If everything is connected on the same LAN then you could set the device ip to anything you want if you can access a configuration tool. Does it need to be isolated from the rest of the network?

 

[ak123]

Distraught, the device is kind of a storage drive for teachers when students do audio assignments (the recordings are saved to the device instead of a hard disk). You're supposed to be able to configure the device directly, by plugging a monitor and a keyboard into it. I've plugged in the monitor, but we don't have any keyboards with cables that will fit (the device has USB ports as well but it won't recognize keyboards hooked to them).

In any case, today at 4:30 pm I was able to get everything working again. Same configuration as the last time I got it running, same cables and everything. I basically had to turn the device off and keep it off for a long time, then start up as instructed. So evidently the connections and IPs as they are set right now do work. But I did practically the same thing, turning device off, yesterday and it was no good. Anyway, I had to leave at 5 and put it on standby (you're not supposed to turn it on and off frequently) and hopefully it won't go bust for me tomorrow. (At least today there were witnesses, so people can't accuse me of being delusional!)

In terms of isolation, yes, apparently the device and the computer are supposed to be on their own ethernet hub, all to themselves. The firewall router is a Trendnet RB-TW100-BRV204 I think.

 

[DistraughtSysop]

Is it still working today?

When you do get it working, are you able to get anything if you try to go to 172.24.1.2 on your computer's browser? You're really going to need some way of getting into that configuration if you're trying to troubleshoot a problem. Maybe you could find a keyboard that works - does it use a ps/2 input like this:

 

[ak123]

Distraught, it was working fine today, thanks for asking. I think a vital factor now is making sure I put the device on standby when I'm done and not actually turn it off. Also, I'm trying to be extra careful with any network prompts/updates from Windows just in case. I'll need to buy extra-long cables, since at the moment it's almost impossible to walk around the computer without tripping (which I guess is why it was all wired to run underground initially!).

Before, when I put 172.24.1.2 on the browser nothing would turn up, but I haven't tried it since I got it to work. I'll try that tomorrow. I guess it should work if the connection is running. And yes, the mouse and keyboard inputs are exactly those, I think. Just a few months ago we got rid of a bunch of old keyboards and mice, so it kinda sucks!