Trying To Configure Device From PC Via Ethernet Connection

Tobermory

Tobermory

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I have one of the new style electrical devices, which can be configured through an Ethernet port. The device has an RJ-45 socket for this purpose. And can generate a GUI through a web browser. Apparently it has fixed IP address (192.168.5.11).

I would like to access the device using my Sony VAIO laptop, which is running MS Windows 7 Home Premium. I access the internet with this through a wireless connection to my home LAN. However, the laptop also has a wired Ethernet port, terminated with a RJ-45 connector.

I connected the RJ-45 sockets on the device and the laptop using an Ethernet cable. And I typed http://192.168.5.11 into the IP address box of an Internet Explorer window on the laptop. But the IE cannot find the IP address.

Can anyone suggest anything, which might help me to access the external device, please?
 
To plug the device directly into your laptop, you would need a crossover type network cable.

From your description, it sounds like you have a wireless router though?

Therefore, you can keep your laptop on the wireless network, plug your device into the router (as it should have some spare network ports on the back, for wired devices) and then, as both exist on the same network - hit that IP address you mention.

The snag comes, if the 192.168.5.11 fixed IP on the device was set manually, that is - it does not fall into the same range, as what your LAN/WLAN has setup...

You can check from your laptop, Start > Windows Key + R > Type CMD and press OK, then type IPCONFIG and hit enter - you will see your IP address here, IPv4 e.g. 192.168.x.x - hopefully it will be in the 192.168.5.x range and so it should work.

If not, you can adjust your router settings to dish out DHCP IPs in the same range of 192.168.5.x or get hold of a crossover network cable.

Hope that made some sense :)
 
I have tried using Firefox as well as Internet Explorer. On PCs, running Windows XP Pro and Windows 7. It still appears that the browsers cannot resolve the address.

I think that the IP address of the device was set manually by the supplier. Running IPCONFIG yielded the following:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 4:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::4e72:b9ff:fef6:20cb%4
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

I have obtained a crossed over network cable.

I would be grateful for advice as to what I should now try?
 
Ok, so your computer is cabled to a router presumably? If that is the case, is there a spare outlet on the router and if so can you plug the device into it? This will give you physical connectivity.

We've then got to deal with logical connectivity. If the device is on 192.168.5.x and your computer is on 192.168.0.x then there is no way you are going to be able to connect to it unless you manually set your computer IP address to one in the 192.168.5.x range.

This is fairly easy to do - but how sure are you that the device has it's IP fixed? It's relatively unusual as most will be set to obtain their addresses from a router using a protocol called DHCP.
 
Or could you set the subnet mask to 255.255.0.0 to bring the device into the same subnet as your laptop?
 
Thank you for all the advice.

The manufacturers of the device told me that it is not DHCP compatible. But they also provided me with details of how to change the IP address, default gateway and subnet mask settings. And I was then able to configure these so that the network address of the device matched that of the router. And the host address of the device was unique on the LAN. I connected the device to a spare port of the router, as suggested above. After which I was able to access the GUI of the device by simply entering the new IP address in to a browser on any PC connected to the LAN.
 
more interested to know what the actual device in question is.........
......even though you've now solved your problem.
 
Totally agree - ask for help setting something up but give no indication what it is!

Might have got more help here, and quicker, with a bit more information.
 
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