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I don't currently have my LCS Wi-Fi in operation because I have totally reconfigured my layout and am now rebuilding.  

 

My home network has 28 devices on it, and I set up as many of them as I can to have static addresses.  If you haven't done so, it may be helpful is to set up the LCS WiFi module to have a static IP address.  Otherwise, every time you turn on your train layout, the LCS WiFi can have a different IP address.  That could be causing some of the problems people are experiencing.

 

On whatever device you are using as your DHCP server (for most people this is your home network's router), use the setup software to reserve an IP address for the MAC address of the LCS WiFi.  Make sure the reserved address is outside the range of addresses reserved for DHCP.

 

If you are not familiar with configuring DHCP on your router, get a computer-savy friend to do this.  It's kind of like the warning for editing the registry in Windows...If you make a mistake configuring your router, you can disable your home network.

Vince, I don't see how this could cause you to initially not be able to find the LCS WiFi module.  Since the first time you connect it to the network, it has to have an IP address that it obviously never had, setting a static IP address wouldn't be any different trying to find it for the first time.

 

If you initially connected, and then couldn't connect later with the same configuration, you might have an argument.

 

I configure all my NAS devices and network printers as static IP addresses, but I don't bother with any other devices, and in a properly working network, there should be no issues.  Truthfully, the NAS boxes and printers worked fine with dynamic IP addresses, I just like the idea of having a fixed IP address to go access them.  I also configure my secondary range extending routers as static IP addresses.

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:

 

If you initially connected, and then couldn't connect later with the same configuration, you might have an argument.

 

   

John, in this thread and the other LCS WiFi thread, I thought I had read about people connecting and then not being able to connect.  This thread was started with regard to using Blu Train and having connectivity issues.  Over the years I've had issues with various pieces of equipment being problematic using dynamic addressing and then no further problems when I switched to static IP.  There were numerous cases where I wound up with duplicate IP addresses.  That could be a problem with LCS WiFi if the router assigns the same IP address to someone's iPad/iPhone as what was assigned to the LCS WiFi.  I thought a static IP might help; it certainly couldn't hurt.

Vince,

There were numerous cases where I wound up with duplicate IP addresses.  That could be a problem with LCS WiFi if the router assigns the same IP address to someone's iPad/iPhone as what was assigned to the LCS WiFi.

A router just won't do that by itself. It takes human intervention, by manually assigning a static IP directly to a device, for that to happen.

Last edited by Barry Broskowitz
Originally Posted by Barry Broskowitz:

Vince,

There were numerous cases where I wound up with duplicate IP addresses.  That could be a problem with LCS WiFi if the router assigns the same IP address to someone's iPad/iPhone as what was assigned to the LCS WiFi.

A router just won't do that by itself. It takes human intervention, by manually assigning a static IP directly to a device, for that to happen.

Yes it will, Barry.  I've experienced it multiple times...on my home network and on corporate networks that I supported. 

 

I've seen the routing table in a router all screwed and assigning IP addresses that were already assigned to newly connected devices.  The routers had to be rebooted and then everyone had to reconnect.  I had a Linksys router at home that did that so many times, I finally just replaced it.  The replacement router has been in service for about 2 years now without any problems.

If a router is assigning duplicate IP addresses, it's broken, unless the configuration is screwed up, I have to agree with Barry here.  When I've seen issues with duplicate IP addresses by far the most common issue was static IP addresses that were allocated in the DHCP server address range.  If you're using static IP addresses and you assign them outside the DHCP server address range, you'll never have a dynamic address stepping on one of your static IP addresses.

 

I have seen multiple routers have their routing table corrupted resulting in duplicate dynamic IP addresses.  That also resulted in some devices losing their IP addresses and having to restart IP to get a new address.  The only router that ever did this repeatedly was a Linksys that I used at home.  And, I did decide something was fried and I replaced it.  In other cases I always suspected a power glitch in the telecom closet because it would happen once and then never again.

 

Well, my original intent was just to say that using static IP addresses could prevent problems when trying to reconnect to the LCS WiFi after powering down the LCS WiFi. 

 

Like I said, my layout is not up right now, but I seem to recall I had to assign a static IP address to the LCS WiFi in order to wirelessly connect to it when using LSU on my PC.   I will refrain from any further comments on that subject until I get my layout back up and running and can test. 

I am now able to connect the Blue Train app to the LCS Wi-Fi box with it configured as "Connect to Home Network". I had to set the Blue Train app for Client and then preface the client address 5001 with the IP address of the LCS Wi-Fi box so it looks like this
nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:5001
I got this from Gunrunner John on another thread.

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