Setting up 2 main repeaters on house without networking in place
What is the best way to set up an inclusive system in a house that does not yet have the networking set up or is likely just temporary until they sort those things out in a few months. Meanwhile, the lighting has to work especially if a lot of the actual dimming is done remotely.
- In the past, even with a single main repeater, I've had issues with my main repeater showing up on the local network. Even with the software given full permission to go beyond the firewall and no virus scanners,etc., it often does not find the main repeater with multicast and I've had to resort to 1990's technology of directly connecting the the main repeater to the computer, going to my network settings and changing all my settings, and even after all that, I'd be lucky to set up the network settings and have the software find it on the network once I undo everything. Other times at a different house and unnit, no problems at all and it finds it right away with the exact same router. I can rant about how utterly inexcusable and frustrating this is that Lutron hasn't addressed this, especially since the troubleshooting part of the forum is full of similar issues, but my question is, with two main repeaters, can I just connect them both to my network and assume the software will find them or will I go through a similar hell of having to direct connect them? How would I direct connect them when I only have one Ethernet port?
- Once the first question is resolved and I can find both main repeaters on the software, is it best to assign a static IP address for each repeater or to keep everything in DHCP until the networking is figured out? I'm inclined to want to leave everything in DCHP and connecting the two main repeaters together. That way, if once the networking is finalized and someone plugs both into the network, they still work regardless of the IP scheme used. If for instance I had them as 192.168.1.50 and 192.168.1.51, and the networking guy later picks 10.0.0.1 and plugs them in, there will be conflict. What's Lutron's suggestion?
Any other suggestions on networking and initial setup? I'm fine with the design, location, and programming but the networking problems I've had with both Ra2 and QS always gives me pause. I wish it would work the first time every time once the repeaters are plugged in to the network like every other network based devices I've ever used.