Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Again...Why would someone else be on your network?

You should be running an isolated network, and the only devices on it should be your stuff. So you only need to worry about IPs for the 3 or 4 or 40 things on your isolated network.


Sent from my iPhone
 
Last edited:
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Steve Hurt said:
If I set a static IP address to the exact same address as someone else's static IP address, there won't be a conflict?
Click to expand...

Simple Answer: As long as you are on your own network, this will not be a problem.

More Detailed: When put behind a router that is providing a NAT gateway to the Internet (most consumer level routers), your IP addresses are not seen by any device on the Internet side, and therefore does not cause a conflict.

Since most routers being used in this scenario don't even attach to the Internet nor any other networks (they're network islands), having unique IP addresses is only a requirement of your own devices.

I prefer to use 192.168.3.x range.

Sent from my SPH-L900
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

If I remember right, I had to assign an IP address to my router
If I'm understanding what people are saying here, then:

The router's IP address is for "router to stuff after the router connections"
and not for "iPad to router/computer to router/xxxxx to router connections"

Is this correct? Because if it is, it's an important piece of information that I wasn't aware of.
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Steve Hurt said:
If I remember right, I had to assign an IP address to my router

If I'm understanding what people are saying here, then:

The router's IP address is for "router to stuff after the router connections"
and not for "iPad to router/computer to router/xxxxx to router connections"

Is this correct? Because if it is, it's an important piece of information that I wasn't aware of.
Click to expand...

Every device on a network has to have at least one IP address if it wants to use IP to talk with another device. That includes the router.

Speaking of routers, they have (at least) TWO network interfaces on separate networks: the internet port, and the bridge/WIFI connection. Both will have distinct IP addresses. Most often, the internet side gets its IP address from your cable modem or whatever device connects you to the internet. The ethernet/WIFI (i.e. "internal network") side will most likely have a commonly used 192.168.1.1 address, but you should be able to change it if you want. (Compared to corporate type routers that might have six or eight or more ports, each with their own IP address on separate networks and the router moves traffic between all of the networks.)

Another common function of a router is to dole out IP addresses to devices on your network. The official name of this function is called DHCP. When a device boots up, if it does not have a hard-coded IP address, it will ask the "network" for one. If there is a DHCP server on the network (i.e. your router), it will respond with an IP address for your device. This greatly simplifies networks if you don't have to know the IP address assigned to any given device.

When using tools like X32Edit or Mixing Station, you have to know the IP address of your X32, so the preferred choice is to manually assign an appropriate IP address to your mixer and key it in directly on the board. That way the IP address never changes. The risk is, if you haven't told your router about that, the DHCP service might give the same IP address to another device booting up. That is why you have to use an IP address that is outside of the range that your DHCP server is responsible for.

-- Mitch
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Mitch Miller said:
The risk is, if you haven't told your router about that, the DHCP service might give the same IP address to another device booting up.

-- Mitch
Click to expand...

As long as your static devices are online, your DHCP server will serve IP addresses around them. While I now keep DHCP address in a different area then my statics, I never had a problem when they overlapped, providing my static IPs were on first.


Sent from my iPhone
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Steve Hurt said:
If I set a static IP address to the exact same address as someone else's static IP address, there won't be a conflict?
Click to expand...

If your traffic is all on the private side of the network then the answer is no. There are places online that go into this. In my experience however, it was necessary for me to go back to school to take networks 101 and 102 (along with system architecture) in order to stay up with current technology. It's only going to get worse as time goes on. I am old school and I learned in the analog days, but I recognize that the times are changing so ongoing education is a necessity for me.
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Some basics. Not real hard to learn but very important if you intend to use networking in your audio system.

Addresses in the 192.168.xxx.yyy are approved for private networks. There are others, mostly for much larger networks. Do not just pick a number as your network may get into trouble some day in the future.

The 192.168.xxx is your network number. The xxx can be anything from 0 to 254. Avoid 0,1,2 as they are used by default by many things. I use 42 since that is the answer.

The yyy is the unique number for a device. I tend to use high numbers for things like routers. My router might be 192.168.42.250

If I had an x32 I might assign it 192.168.42.32 which would be easy to remember. My LS9-32 has 192.168.42.132 for example. I decided that all my devices would be above 100. I keep a list of all the addresses I use along with what they are for.

The DHCP server hands out addresses to devices that ask for one. It has a pool of addresses it uses. Each router vendor or even model has a pool but not always the same pool. I always set the range I want it to use. Often I set it to something like 51-80. This means my DHCP server will never give out an address I assigned.

Note that by using my method, I never use any of the default addresses so never have a problem with conflicts on my networks.

Earlier someone claimed a DHCP server won't give out an address you are using. That is only correct if it assigned it. It does not know what addresses you have assigned ( though it is possible some routers are programmed keep a list of addresses it sees for use by the DHCP server, that isn't often the case). If a device you assigned an address to isn't yet connected to the network the server can't know about it. So, if it assigned an address to your laptop and you had set that for the mixer, your network would not work.

I hope this keeps some folk out of trouble.

Have fun.
Sent from my iPad HD
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

I ordered an Airport Extreme, it arrived Monday but I haven't had a chance to turn it on yet. And as that console didn't go out last week and won't again this week, there has been no urgency. I will certainly report back and let everyone know if the Extreme solves the metering issue, I had no luck getting metering to function with either of my other "work" routers, enabling UDP, etc.
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

David Sturzenbecher said:
As long as your static devices are online, your DHCP server will serve IP addresses around them. While I now keep DHCP address in a different area then my statics, I never had a problem when they overlapped, providing my static IPs were on first.


Sent from my iPhone
Click to expand...

This is not true for most DHCP devices. It would require that the DHCP ping the IP address prior to handout, but that is not part of the standard protocol.
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Tim Padrick said:
At the theater, I set it up like this:
Click to expand...

Tim,
Having known you for many years, and don't take this the wrong way, but I find it almost shocking that you would post a diagram of your active network. If you worked with me that would have been grounds for loss of employment, no questions asked.

I've already traced those addresses through tw telecoms customer net, and I'll bet a paycheck I could be on that office CPU by the end of the day if I wanted to be. I suggest you remove the diagram from your post.
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Jim R said:
Matt
See the soundcraft expression Facebook page for further discussion on getting meters to work. What worked for me was setting a fixed IP on the expression and enabling port 3333 for UDP.

Rob
"42 since that is the answer" .... Finally someone has answer; what was the question??
Click to expand...

Correct, refer to the Soundcraft Facebook page or PSW for the answer.
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Ummm, I assume Tim has altered his post then? There are no uniquely identifiable public facing IP addresses on the diagram I can see (apart from the DNS servers).
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

I have a DN9344E EQ, a laptop and a WiFi router. I would like to control it over Wifi when walking about with the laptop but would prefer the reliability of a wired connection when possible (when the laptop's sitting on top of the rack). Assuming the Elgar remote software can use two different network adaptors at once ( laptops wifi card and ethernet jack) are there any pitfalls to this?

The EQ has two ethernet ports, but I think they're intended for daisy chaining units. Would the router be the only thing connected to the EQ and would the wired connection be to the router?

If this is a total thread hijack I'll make a new one but it seems relavent to the topic.

Chris
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Chris Nixon said:
I have a DN9344E EQ, a laptop and a WiFi router. I would like to control it over Wifi when walking about with the laptop but would prefer the reliability of a wired connection when possible (when the laptop's sitting on top of the rack). Assuming the Elgar remote software can use two different network adaptors at once ( laptops wifi card and ethernet jack) are there any pitfalls to this?

The EQ has two ethernet ports, but I think they're intended for daisy chaining units. Would the router be the only thing connected to the EQ and would the wired connection be to the router?

If this is a total thread hijack I'll make a new one but it seems relavent to the topic.

Chris
Click to expand...

no pitfalls, just connect the eq to the router and connect the Ethernet from the laptop to the router/switch as necessary
 
Re: Router for Soundcraft Expression/Performer

Chris Nixon said:
What addresses? The ones in the diagram? There's a heading at the top which says "IP Addresses have been changed for venue protection, but are representative of method".

Chris
Click to expand...

Sorry Irish, but the DNS site can be traced back to Hancock Internet and the owners address is 2331 East 600th Street, Greenfield Indiana USA 46140. There are seven sites currently sharing this DNS host, two of them in Greenfield Indiana. The theatre Tim mentions is located at 122 West Main Street Greenfield Indiana, and it is one of those seven sites. Sorry we've never met before, probably due to my staying on the PSW site 99% of the time. Drop me a PM if you have questions, I've been designing and implementing large scale networks for businesses and the federal government for over 30 years. I'm sure I could pass along some tips.
 
Top Bottom