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Thread: Setting up 2 main repeaters on house without networking in place

  1. #1
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    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.

    1. 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?
    2. 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.

  2. #2
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    HQS and RR2 12.x both support Unicast. I don't know what the difference is but it works infinitely better. I recently had an issue where I had (3) HQS processors. The software could only find 2 of them, even when I was directly connected to the "missing" processor. I could browse the web so I know the network was working. I switched to unicast and haven't had an issue since.


    We typically supply the network so we rarely see issue #2. DHCP is fine for temporary networks but ultimately I think you want static address to prevent conflicts.
    Convergence Technologies Raleigh, North Carolina
    www.convergenceusa.com

  3. #3
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    That is great to hear! I haven't done a new system since upgrading to 12 but this could save a lot of headache. And yes, this is just temporary.

  4. #4
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    2. 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?
    I prefer to leave everything DHCP and make reservation in the router just for the occasions that the subnet needs to change or the dhcp server be it a switch or router needs to be pulled for what ever reason. At least everything will instantly be on what ever the new device's subnet is. You won't know what they received until you check the bind table but anything with discovery will still work.

    For initial setup I would just install my own cheap wi-fi router. Then make a list of all MAC addresses and give them to the IT guys with the IPs you want so he can make those reservations. That assumes you first get a range from the IT guys where he will let your stuff reside. Then when they do their setup everything will just work and you can take home your router for the next setup.
    VAV
    Danbury, CT

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