Project - Allowed Networks - Discovered Tab & VLANs

[LiveOakCustom]

Good evening all - 

I am running VLANs network setup - 192.161.117.1 primary, 192.168.137.101 - security, 192.168.157.101 - video streaming, 192.168.177.101 - Control4

I have read on other portions of this forum that Allowed Networks tab may no longer work in Composer Pro restricting the ability of the system to search for equipment outside the VLAN being used for the Control4 system.  Does anyone know if this is true or what the work around is?  I am probably simply imputing the subnets incorrectly.  Any help pointing me in the correct direction when working with VLANs would be great appreciated.

[lippavisual]

Your router will dictate whether or not the different Vlans are allowed to talk to each other or not.

Ive never used the allowed networks setting and can integrate with other devices in different Vlans.

[LiveOakCustom]

9 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

Your router will dictate whether or not the different Vlans are allowed to talk to each other or not.

Ive never used the allowed networks setting and can integrate with other devices in different Vlans.

I have my araknis router set on inter VLAN routing but Composer Pro not picking anything up.  Any ideas?

[TFlury]

I have never used the allow networks either but I have done some odd things. Using unicast TCP hardware. Router araknis 300, network switches netgear GS752TP. Vlans configured on the router and switches with a trunk port and inter vlan traffic enabled. On the switches I would have to have the C4 processor port PVID to the primary data Vlan with most of the gear. Other items were PVID on a secondary Vlan. The C4 controller port was untagged on the data vlan and the secondary vlan. All hardware knew the destination IP and I never had any issues. No idea if this will work in your case but it worked for me.

This is also not the correct way to do things... it just worked when I needed it to.

Having dedicated vlans for hardware is not bad but anything you want control4 to control should be on the same subnet. Its going to make it easier to setup and be more reliable.

If your running into an issue where you have to many devices maybe try a /23 or /22 single subnet.

[LiveOakCustom]

Thanks for the replies.  This all started because I started having drops with my Altona video switch.  Checked all wires and even replaced some.  Nothing helped.  I gave up and started a rebuild hoping that using VLANs would fix the system.

Only created more issues.  Maybe I should have simply gone the DHCP reservation route but I figured it was traffic that may be causing issues.  I am a network novice at best.

[lippavisual]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:54 PM, LiveOakCustom said:

I have my araknis router set on inter VLAN routing but Composer Pro not picking anything up.  Any ideas?

Are you talking about SDDP or items being broadcasted?  You’ll never see that happen between VLANs, out of the box.  That traffic is typically blocked in your firewall.

statically assigning IPs to the equipment on the different VLANs should solve most of your problems if you’ve allowed that access.  In Composer, use the IP addresses for connectivity. 

[lippavisual]

On 10/21/2022 at 6:17 PM, LiveOakCustom said:

Thanks for the replies.  This all started because I started having drops with my Altona video switch.  Checked all wires. I am a network novice at best.

I’ve run into several Atlona pieces dropping the lan ports periodically.  I try to stick with rs232 for them or at least have it in place as a backup.

As for the network novice comment, then I’d recommend you just run a flat network.  Either reserve dhcp addresses or assign statically outside the dhcp scope.

[Cyknight]

On 10/21/2022 at 3:22 PM, LiveOakCustom said:

Allowed Networks tab may no longer work in Composer Pro

First I'm hearing of it.

On 10/21/2022 at 3:44 PM, lippavisual said:

Ive never used the allowed networks setting and can integrate with other devices in different Vlans.

For VLANS the allowed network setting is primarily for discovery purposes and devices drivers where C4 needs to intercept mass broadcast info - many would never need to use it in even the most advanced setups.

The primary reason you'd use it is if needing to reach devices that are on a different subnet (one example, we have a system where a security camera setup (not done or maintained by us!!!!) is on an ISP router. Port settings on the router plus the allowed network setting is allowing us to view the camera feeds on the system still.

Another is if you're using a non default subnet mask (ie 255.255.254.0).

2 hours ago, lippavisual said:

I’ve run into several Atlona pieces dropping the lan ports periodically.  I try to stick with rs232 for them or at least have it in place as a backup.

As for the network novice comment, then I’d recommend you just run a flat network.  Either reserve dhcp addresses or assign statically outside the dhcp scope.

100% this. Serial for Atlona, and if you don't know networking, don't do VLANS or be prepared to dive into it fully.

[LiveOakCustom]

Thanks all.  Everything on the VLANs was working good except I could not get things to communicate through the router from different VLANs.  Based upon comments received, I gave up and returned to a flat network with substantial DHCP reservations for C4 and other equipment.  I am still having drop outs on the Atlona but less frequent.  I will switch to try serial ports.  Dumb question since a have only utilized a serial port for an alarm connections in the past - are you making serial port connections from all receivers to all tv/endpoints or are you utilizing serial ports for as many connections as possible?

On an alternate note, is it beneficial to switch to MOIP?  I know there is an additional investment but would it be worth it considering that it appears Atlona may not be updating the PRO88 any longer?

[LiveOakCustom]

Forgot to mention.  The PRO88 was purchased about 10 years ago.  The dropout issue started happening about 6 months ago.