ipconfig

[Ether]

I am trying to set up a laptop PC (Vista) to replace the Classmate for non-competition use. The laptop has LabVIEW and Driver Station software installed with all updates. There will be a wired connection from the laptop to the WRT610N router, and a wireless connection from the router to the bridge.

The router and the bridge are already set up properly (they work fine with the Classmate).

Can someone please post the necessary ipconfig commands to configure the LAN on the laptop? Also, the ipconfig commands to change it back to the way it is now.

I have attached a copy of the ipconfig/all output from the laptop.

Thanks.

[Mark McLeod]

Is this what you mean (with 3.58 replaced by your team #)?
I don't have much Vista specific experience though.

netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static 10.3.58.6 255.0.0.0 10.3.58.4 1

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Is this what you mean (with 3.58 replaced by your team #)?
I don't have much Vista specific experience though.

netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static 10.3.58.6 255.0.0.0 10.3.58.4 1

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

Yes, I think that's it. I couldn't remember the "netsh" command.

Thanks! I will give that a try.

[Greg McKaskle]

When you launch the DS, it lists the NICs, and tries to determine which will be used to connect to the robot. In the situation where multiple NICs could be used, it presents a dialog allowing you to select.

With the standard setting, each launch of the DS will check and configure the NIC. If you would like to reset the IP after running the DS, you should be able to invoke the script "FRC Restore My Network Settings.bat" which is located in the Public Users Public Documents folder next to the ini file.

If you do not want the DS to configure the IP, you can update the ini file to contain a line setting the value of
NICName = <noNICConfig>.

You should also see a message describing any IP change to the Messages box -- helping understand what NIC was modified, what IP was set to, etc.

Greg McKaskle

[Ether]

C:\z>netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static 10.73.37.6 255.0.0.0 10.73.37.4 1

The requested operation requires elevation.

Does "elevation" in this context simply mean it requires admin privileges?

(I would have just tried it rather than post this question, but the person who has the admin password is not presently available).

[Mark McLeod]

Yes, it's just restricting the netsh operation to an administrator account.
E.g., right click on Command Prompt and click on "Run as..." once you get an administrators account.

[Ether]

With the standard setting, each launch of the DS will check and configure the NIC.

Does the DS, like the netsh command, also require admin privileges in order to configure the NIC?

Does the DS get the info it needs (to configure the NIC) from the information contained in the FRC DS Data Storage.ini file? If so, do I need to edit that file to put the team number and ip address info in there? (I looked, and that info is not presently in there).

If you would like to reset the IP after running the DS, you should be able to invoke the script "FRC Restore My Network Settings.bat" which is located in the Public Users Public Documents folder next to the ini file.

The BAT file uses netsh to read the original settings from the text file FRC Original Network Settings Dump.txt. Do I need to edit that txt file to put the original settings into it? (I looked at the file, and it doesn't look like it has the original settings in it).

If you do not want the DS to configure the IP, you can update the ini file to contain a line setting the value of
NICName = <noNICConfig>

OK, I'm guessing that this is what I would do if I wanted to use the netsh command to change the settings, yes?

[Bot190]

When you run the DS on the setup page i think there is a box for you team number. Once you enter your team number it sets the nic to the correct settings. I'm fairly sure that it gets the current settings first and puts them in a file so they can be restored.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Yes, it's just restricting the netsh operation to an administrator account.
E.g., right click on Command Prompt and click on "Run as..." once you get an administrators account.

OK that's the problem. Apparently with Vista, even if you are logged into an admin account it's not sufficient to just open a command window and start typing netsh commands.

I right-clicked on the netsh.exe executable and selected "run as administrator" and was able to run the commands you provided. I didn't get any error messages, but I'm wondering about the results I got.

When I ran the commands:

netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static 10.73.37.6 255.0.0.0 10.73.37.4 1
netsh interface ip show config

... I got the result:

Configuration for interface "Local Area Connection"
DHCP enabled: Yes
Default Gateway: 10.73.37.4
Gateway Metric: 1
InterfaceMetric: 10
DNS servers configured through DHCP: 192.168.1.1
Register with which suffix: Primary only
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None

Is DHCP supposed to be enabled? And why don't I see the 10.73.37.6 and the 255.0.0.0?

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by Ether

Is DHCP supposed to be enabled? And why don't I see the 10.73.37.6 and the 255.0.0.0?

I'm pretty certain that you only really want static IP addresses, though it will probably work with DHCP. I seem to remember (at least in 2009 when I last messed with the guts of the protocol and I don't think it has changed) that the robot waits for the first IP address that connects to it since the last reboot (on it's sub-net) and then will subsequently only connect to that IP address. I believe (it's been a year and a half) that I have connected to our bot from 10.9.71.13 (with my own DS software), and it worked fine. I don't have access to a robot to test this out, so I'm going off memory.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Ether

OK that's the problem. Apparently with Vista, even if you are logged into an admin account it's not sufficient to just open a command window and start typing netsh commands.

I right-clicked on the netsh.exe executable and selected "run as administrator" and was able to run the commands you provided. I didn't get any error messages, but I'm wondering about the results I got.

If you need to do this from the command prompt only, try runas.

[Ether]

Thanks for the help guys.

Turns out the laptop has a bad ethernet connector.

Well, silver lining, I learned a little about network troubleshooting.


If anyone's willing to take a crack at some of the open questions though I'm still interested.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Ether

..., but I'm wondering about the results I got.

When I ran the commands:

... I got the result:

Is DHCP supposed to be enabled? And why don't I see the 10.73.37.6 and the 255.0.0.0?

I assume you meant your outstanding questions about the DS application?
I'm not sure, and Greg is the final authority (especially because he can change the DS app to do whatever he wants it to do), but I'll start...

• If the FRC DS Data Storage.ini doesn't exist the DS creates it.
• What you see in the file is all the DS ini knows about. If there isn't an entry for it, then it can't be set that way. However, the IP address is generated by the DS app from the team number. Edit your team number and your IP will get changed accordingly.
• If you've edited the file (while the DS app is NOT running), then your changes will be taken and used when the DS starts up to configure the NIC/team number, etc. Changes you make while in the DS app. will get written back out to the .ini file.
• The DS will change the NIC if it doesn't match the team number, unless the NIC is set to <noNICConfig>. The DS will ignore the NIC in that case and you can use netsh or go through Network Connections to make your settings.
• The FRC Original Network Settings Dump.txt file only got created the very first time you ran the DS app, not every time. If you delete the file it will be regenerated with whatever the current settings are, before the DS app attempts to change the NIC. You can also edit the file by hand if you like.

I've never seen the NIC dialog Greg mentioned he included, so I don't know what circumstances trigger that.


I assume you meant your netsh command didn't work all the way, because the Ethernet connection turned out to be broken? When it took the Gateway, but didn't change to your static ip address.

Here's what I got on an XP machine when I ran the commands.
The first command takes a few seconds, but then you should have seen "Ok." returned.
Not that this helps you with your broken Ethernet...

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

• If the FRC DS Data Storage.ini doesn't exist the DS creates it.
• What you see in the file is all the DS ini knows about. If there isn't an entry for it, then it can't be set that way. However, the IP address is generated by the DS app from the team number. Edit your team number and your IP will get changed accordingly.
• If you've edited the file (while the DS app is NOT running), then your changes will be taken and used when the DS starts up to configure the NIC/team number, etc. Changes you make while in the DS app. will get written back out to the .ini file.
• The DS will change the NIC if it doesn't match the team number, unless the NIC is set to <noNICConfig>. The DS will ignore the NIC in that case and you can use netsh or go through Network Connections to make your settings.
• The FRC Original Network Settings Dump.txt file only got created the very first time you ran the DS app, not every time. If you delete the file it will be regenerated with whatever the current settings are, before the DS app attempts to change the NIC. You can also edit the file by hand if you like.

To me this is very helpful information. I'm afraid to ask, but is this in a document somewhere that I overlooked? If so, my apologies for not searching more diligently.

[Greg McKaskle]

I believe the Original Settings file is documented along with some of the other usage info, but the implementation details were not. The dialog about NICs should not appear except on machines where the interfaces have been renamed or when there appear to be multiple wired NICs. Then the dialog will only appear when the ini doesn't declare a NIC to use.

Greg McKaskle