Hotel network issue connecting to large administrated network

[Dwake]

So I have this control 4 system in a conference room at a hotel.  HC250, SR250, 7" touch screen.  The TV, apple TV and audio reciver are all IR controlled.  I took the hotel internet pluged it into an apple router and then pluged the apple router into a switch along with the RJ45 cables for the HC250, touch screen, apple TV.  First the router was set for DHCP.  After a period of time the Rj45 connected devices would stop working and the SR250 would lock up.  I would reboot everything and it would start working again.

So realizing this was a network issue I put the apple router in bridge mode.  The behavior experineced prior still occured.

The networking people at the hotel could care less if my stuff works and give no help at all.  Its a very large hotel.

 

 

I am just learning more and more about networking and have some understanding.  But I do not know how to fix this issue.

I can put everthing on a stand alone network without any internet connection and figure out another way to connect the apple TV but that stops my ability to log into the system remotely and disables the use of features like tune in and also doesnt allow me to update the controller software.

 

Does anybody on here have enough network knowledge to guide me through this? 

[msgreenf]

I don't think anyone here can guide you thru it. I think you need help from the network team at the hotel

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[Dwake]

I don't think anyone here can guide you thru it. I think you need help from the network team at the hotel

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As i said " The networking people at the hotel could care less if my stuff works and give no help at all.  Its a very large hotel"

 

I was hoping someone knew how to create a isolated network in a network I can tbe the only one that has, had this issue.  Outside residential network this is what you deal with.  I wish the network guys at the hotel could help but it seems they dont really get it either, hence the lack of help. 

[msgreenf]

You can create your own network and everything would work fine but remote access wouldn't be guaranteed to work

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[Cyknight]

In this scenario, I'd at least start with a separate network, taking a network feed off the the main system as an internet feed.

So yes, use your router as a router

Make sure you have the router set to a different range, and make sure you set the router to use and pass through a static DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for example (Google's)). If you can, get a static IP from the IT guys to use, but leaving WAN ip on DHCP will work.

That should work for most scenarios and would leave their IT guys out of things.

 

You're likely seeing one of two things - possibly an issue with the switch you have, but more likely the controller is having problems getting through DNS resolution - it's seeing a server (company system router via your own router lookup most likely) but it cannot properly resolve anything. It will keep trying and get bogged down (otherwise, the remote freezing makes little sense).

 

This setup isn't ideal, and is likely slower remotely - but I doubt that's such a mayor concern for a conference room.

[Dwake]

In this scenario, I'd at least start with a separate network, taking a network feed off the the main system as an internet feed.

So yes, use your router as a router

Make sure you have the router set to a different range, and make sure you set the router to use and pass through a static DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for example (Google's)). If you can, get a static IP from the IT guys to use, but leaving WAN ip on DHCP will work.

That should work for most scenarios and would leave their IT guys out of things.

 

You're likely seeing one of two things - possibly an issue with the switch you have, but more likely the controller is having problems getting through DNS resolution - it's seeing a server (company system router via your own router lookup most likely) but it cannot properly resolve anything. It will keep trying and get bogged down (otherwise, the remote freezing makes little sense).

 

This setup isn't ideal, and is likely slower remotely - but I doubt that's such a mayor concern for a conference room.

 

 

Thanks for providing a possiblet explanation of what is occuring.  I guess my networking sklls need much improvment.  When you say to set the router to use and pass through a static DNS, I get lost.  So for now I think I will just have to do a stand alone network.  This I can do and set up.  As far as being able to use the main WAN as my internet using my router as a gateway without having this resolution problem im stuck.

[Cyknight]

If you have the internet connection to full automatic it uses the ISP provided DNS servers. But if you have one router after the outher - it'll likely see the first router as the DNS server (many routers do this - it's why you see the router IP as the DNS in your computer network. What then happens is device - router - router - ISP for DNS resolution. This causes issues.

 

By manually setting your WAN ip settings - many routers allow setting an automatic adress/use DHCP setting but static DNS (again, much like you can on a PC). Do that - or if you CAN get a static IP to use from the IT guys, set it to full static.

From the other end - it depends on the router but most will allow you to set the DNS servers it sends out to DHCP devices, or at least the primary server (ASUS for example you can add one DNS to send to lan devices, the second will always be the router). This is normally found in the LAN settings/DHCP server setting.

 

If that seems too complex, you can also set all devices connecting to the router to a static adress and set those devices' DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

This may prove to give your more issues with remote access connections (and possibly streaming music services - haven't tried) mind you - but again how pressing is that in your situation.

[AK1]

If you'e going to set up a stand-alone network, you're 94% of the way to connecting it to the hotel's network and getting Internet connectivity. Key point (as Cy said), make sure the stand-alone network uses a different Class C to the one used by the hotel. For example, if the hotel network is handing out IP addresses beginning with 10.0.x.x, make your router hand out IP addresses in the form 192.168.x.x and vice versa and so on.

 

What model of router are you using so we can put these examples in more concrete terms?

 

Then, as Cy said, you're going to change the DNS settings in one of the ways suggested. But first post your router's info.

[Dwake]

If you'e going to set up a stand-alone network, you're 94% of the way to connecting it to the hotel's network and getting Internet connectivity. Key point (as Cy said), make sure the stand-alone network uses a different Class C to the one used by the hotel. For example, if the hotel network is handing out IP addresses beginning with 10.0.x.x, make your router hand out IP addresses in the form 192.168.x.x and vice versa and so on.

 

What model of router are you using so we can put these examples in more concrete terms?

 

Then, as Cy said, you're going to change the DNS settings in one of the ways suggested. But first post your router's info.

Thanks for the help

I am using a apple airport express.

 

for a stand alone I typically do the following.

I go to the TCP/IP

I have a choice to configure IPv4 using DHCP or manually. I choose manually

 

Router IP enter a fake number 169.x.x.x

Subnet mask 255.255.255.0

Router address 169.x.x.x  same #s as router IP

DNS server 10.0.1.1

 

then I go to the DHCP page

set it up 10.0.1.2--200 with a 800 day lease

 

This seems to work for me with a stand alone network.  I hope this is OK.

 

I am going to the hotel tomorrow AM so I will be able to give more info and what pops in the router if I try to hook it into their internet.

[AK1]

This seems fine for a stand-alone network. The 800 day lease seems unusual, I see no reason to use 800 days instead of the default period.

 

Then when network is working satisfactorily as stand-alone, on Airport Express set your WAN address to DHCP (assuming the IT guys won't give you a static). From memory Airport Express allows a dynamic WAN IP address and static DNS Servers so as Cy said, use 8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers. 

 

On Network Tab, set Router Mode to DHCP and NAT (keeps your network a separate entity from hotel). I don't think Airport Express allows pushing of specific DNS address to DHCP clients, so I assuming your C4 devices will just end up with a DNS server of 10.0.1.1 being your Airport and your Airport will be using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

If this still doesn't work, then go to each C4 device and set it to a static IP and DNS of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

[Cyknight]

I'd dissuade you from such a long lease time - any sort of partial reboot can cause weird issues (ie the router reboots, but controllers do not). Indeed - that may even be your very problem.

Keep lease times around 1-5 days (24 hour /86400 seconds is probably the most common default and perfectly good to use in almost any setup).

[Dwake]

I appreciate all the help. I tried everything..... Same problem continued. Eliminated everything except stand alone router with direct line to controller and another direct line to the touch panel. I gave up and concluded it must be the controller or touch panel.

Replaced controller loaded project , problem solved. I'm a little ticked at control 4 on this one. Luckily I got plenty of calls on record over the last year, and they better RA the controller.

[vitali]

try to change Apple router. I have no idea why, but I had same problem, so ones I tried to change router and just in case didn't have Apple, so used something else, I think it was or netgear or buffalo. it works so far.