MiniCapt Remote Microbial Air Sampler Operations Manual
Page 3-1
Chapter 3
Ethernet Communications Overview
This chapter provides the following basic details on Ethernet communications:
• Ethernet Addressing Basics, this page
• MAC Address on page 3-3
• Static IP Addresses versus DHCP Addresses on page 3-4
• Troubleshooting Ethernet Connectivity on page 3-4
• Instrument to Laptop Ethernet Setup on page 3-6
IT Department
The Information Technology or IT department of an organization is responsible for
configuring and controlling the corporate network. Any time an Ethernet enabled
instrument is attached to a corporate network, IT must be involved, since a static (i.e.,
fixed) IP address is required by the instrument. The IT department is responsible for
assigning fixed addresses.
Ethernet Addressing Basics
Particle Measuring Systems instruments must be properly configured for Ethernet
communications in order to work. There are multiple numeric parameters required to
properly configure an instrument and a small error in one or more of these parameters
can result in no communications, or worse—sporadic communications.
All instruments support the common IPv4 standard. Valid addresses are in the range
of 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255. The number 255 corresponds to the special value of 0xFF
in hexadecimal. Numbers 256 or larger are not valid. Each number in the dot sequence
is sometimes called an octet.
There are four different parameters to configure:
• IP Address—
Required
• Network Mask—
Required
• Gateway Address—
Depends on network. May be blank or 0.0.0.0
• Multicast Address—
Used only in Facility Net. Default value is generally OK.
These parameters are described in detail below.
IP Address
The Internet Protocol (IP) address consists of two portions:
• a network portion
and
• a location portion
