New device is greyed

[kevin]

Hi

I just installed a second 2DS at a second location and am having some problems getting it to communicate.

When I log onto the Eyez-On website, I can see my first 2DS that is operating properly. On the left side of the screen, the new device is listed under the first, but it is "greyed" and has been like that for a few hours.

All of the lights on the second 2DS indicate proper operation. When I log into the 2DS locally, I see it has acquired a DHCP address, and the gateway and DNS server values are the same as those on a computer on the same LAN. DHCP Status is a green "bound" with a couple dashes after it, with a number that increases after that. I don't know what this line means.

The time displayed on top of the local page is correct (one hour off, maybe a timezone thing), so I assume the 2DS is able to see a time server somewhere. I thought I may have entered the MAC address incorrectly when registering the device so I deleted the device from my account and used the 2DS local page and clicked "activate" and the device and its MAC address again show up in my account.

The local page shows that the firmware is 01.04.40 so maybe traffic from this 2DS is reaching the Internet but traffic from the Internet is not reaching the 2DS, and the 2DS isn't able to update itself. The ACT LED blinks occasionally but that may be traffic coming from the LAN. But the 2DS got the correct time from somewhere. Maybe somewhere on the LAN, the DHCP server?

My first 2DS is behind a standard router. The second one is behind a router but the DNS and DHCP and all that is handled by a Windows 2008 server that wasn't set up by me. However cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc. are able to get onto the Internet fine (once they get past the wifi security, but the 2DS is not connected via wifi).

Where should I start looking? I did use the local page to reboot the 2DS but rebooting doesn't seem to have fixed anything.

Both locations have the same make/model/version of router. Both locations use the same ISP, providing the same services. All other networking at both locations is working.

Thanks,
Kevin

[GrandWizard]

This is covered in the FAQ under "Envisalink shows OFFLINE"

http://forum.eyez-on.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=230

[kevin]

This is covered in the FAQ under "Envisalink shows OFFLINE"

http://forum.eyez-on.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=230

Thanks. My situation seems to fall under "the 2DS and the DNS server won't talk to each other." I need to do the following procedure but I have some questions:

The Envisalink stores the IP address of the (DNS) server in its non-volatile memory so it only needs to find this information once, then it will never forget it. Knowing this you could plug the Envisalink directly into your cable/DSL modem and temporarily bypass your (DHCP server). The Envisalink should get the IP address (of a DNS server) within 10 seconds of being powered up. After that you can connect the Envisalink back into your LAN.

Questions:

My 2DS already has a DNS server's IP address in it. Does power cycling the 2DS cause the 2DS to renew its DNS settings? This would conflict with the idea that the DNS server info is in nonvolatile storage on the 2DS. The quoted paragraph above suggests:

- power down 2DS
- plug 2DS ethernet connection directly into modem
- power up 2DS
- 2DS retrieves DNS info
- leaving 2DS powered on, unplug 2DS ethernet connection from modem, plug 2DS ethernet back into switch on LAN

If there is a power outage that affects the keybus, will the 2DS's DNS info need to be reset as above again?

I have to use this "plug into the modem" workaround and can't change the DHCP DNS settings because computers on this LAN need to query a local DNS server to resolve names that exist on the LAN only, and only unresolved DNS queries are forwarded to upstream DNS servers. If the DHCP clients queried external DNS servers directly, local names would not be resolved. The DHCP clients on the LAN receive (only) the address of a computer on the LAN as the address of the DNS server.

Thanks,
Kevin

[GrandWizard]

I'm not sure why you modified the paragraph, your insertions/modifications are incorrect.

You are not trying to find a DNS server, you already know that, your are trying to find your Envisalerts server. That is the server IP that is stored in non-volatile memory.

If you have access to your DHCP server, you could check your logs to see what is causing the look-up failure.

[kevin]

Sorry, the FAQ didn't say which server it was talking about, and from context I thought it was talking about the DNS server.

I checked the logs and there are some warnings from 2009 from when we were setting it up, but everything since then is informational, like "the DNS server has started" or "the DNS server has completed" this or that.

That said, if I connect the 2DS directly to the modem and power it up, give it some time to get configuration from the ISP, then leave the 2DS powered and plug it back into the LAN (and plug the LAN back into the modem), and things work properly from there, what will happen the next time the 2DS loses power?

[GrandWizard]

No, the Envisalink holds the alerting server IP in non-volatile memory. You can power it down and restore and it will retain that setting. It will also retain its DHCP settings too if you set the module to STATIC.

[kevin]

Thanks. Back to the original question then, if the 2DS already has information in its nonvolatile storage, because it was already powered on, what makes it try to renew that info? (Because we are trying to get mine to renew its info by power cycling it.) Does it try to get new info if it can't talk to the Envisalerts server, or if it sees it has a 0.0.0.0, or both, or some other condition? I'd just feel more confident in its operation if I knew what was going on.

[GrandWizard]

You're not trying to power-cycle the module at all. The module cannot find the IP address of its reporting server so you're moving the module to somewhere where it CAN find the address, then move it back. That's all.

You could leave it powered all the time if you like.

The Envisalink will try and resolve its server's IP at boot, at the end of DHCP lease, and on the hour.

[kevin]

Thanks. I have everything up and running now.

I guess if I really needed the 2DS to be able to talk to a DNS server on this LAN, I could just stick another router between our router and the modem, and connect the 2DS to this "outer" router.