Network goes down..what now?

Thomas Hayes

I must say that I miss the old Axlink connection for the touch panels. I just had a router/switch fail and took down some rooms because the panel and controller lost connection with each other Whenever possible I connect the panel and controller to the same router/switch but it is not always possible. I know that today everything is IP dependent but is there a way to fall back to the old(reliable) hardwired axlink if for whatever reason the network fails? Too bad the Modero panels didn't have a Axlink connection that would sit idle till the panel lost connection with the controller for X time and than switch itself to the Axlink connection till the controller and panel started talking again.

DHawthorne

One of the side effects of this is that we also now have to be network managers. On one hand, that does mean more $$, so that's good, but it's also more hassle. I have a customer who decided that, since I put in a WAP for his touch panel, he may as well ignore the wired network connection in the room and use wireless. Well, that's fine, but now he calls me whenever he can't connect to the Internet. 1% of the time, it really is an issue with the WAP I installed (and usually, I just have to reboot it), but usually it's his router or T1 modem. It's just annoying ...

informel

network issue

one way to get out of this is to keep them separate.
I was using the same for home network and house control.
I will use 2 wireless router now.

vining

Using 2 wireles networks also bring up other issues. In multiple Access Point insatllation you have to stagger the RF channel or frequency AMX says by 5-6 and Cisco say by 3-4 and not repeating RF channels until you out of range so that the freuquencies of the different wireless networks or same netwrok for that matter don't overlap and step on each other.

Sometimes it's hard enough do this properly for one wireless network but two can be a real challenge. Now if you talking about installation where you only need one and one, one wap for each network no problem but multiples. Then through in a Panasonic multi cell wireless phone system, yuk!

In can be done but doing it right requires some planning.

I would recommend separates also. Let routers be routers and access points be access points. Using a good router. In the reasonable price range I prefer Linksys RV series commercial router which can be consider more like Cisco with a web set up interface as opposed the the terminal Isys set up of a pure Cisco.

informel

2 wireless network or not

I agree with you about possible problem, but once you know about channel overlapping problem, it is not hard to plan.

I would even prefer not connecting the AMX controller and access point to the outside world. As house control (or multi dweling unit control) become more and more popular, we may see some hacker trying to get into the system.

As far as router,I'm using a Cisco for my demo unit. I had a very good price when passed my certification

informel

WEB interface

vining wrote:

I would recommend separates also. Let routers be routers and access points be access points. Using a good router. In the reasonable price range I prefer Linksys RV series commercial router which can be consider more like Cisco with a web set up interface as opposed the the terminal Isys set up of a pure Cisco.

I have a Cisco 806 router and it has a WEB interface that is as easy as others to program, but you can still go at the command line to go deeper

vining

informel wrote: I would even prefer not connecting the AMX controller and access point to the outside world. As house control (or multi dweling unit control) become more and more popular, we may see some hacker trying to get into the system.

It's been a common practice for some time in areas where security is a legitimate concern to have all wireless on its own subnet there by having a firewall between the wireless and main wired system allowing more access restriction and control to the core wired network where all the high level access to critcial data bases and applications is restricted.

However I do mostly resi and I couldn't imagine not connecting to the internet.

DHawthorne

vining wrote:

It's been a common practice for some time in areas where security is a legitimate concern to have all wireless on its own subnet there by having a firewall between the wireless and main wired system allowing more access restriction and control to the core wired network where all the high level access to critcial data bases and applications is restricted.

However I do mostly resi and I couldn't imagine not connecting to the internet.

I have seen just the opposite attitude in resi - people just aren't concerned with security on their wireless. Except in apartment buildings, most of them can't get a workable signal once outside the house, so they consider the "bother" of having to set up encryption keys on every computer not worth doing. And they are correct in that you pretty much have to be inside the house to connect to their network, which is sufficient security on many cases anyway.

But the other prevailing attitude in resi I have seen is, "Oh, you are adding wireless for my touch panel, I want to use it for my computer too." My sales team seems to have a very hard time saying no to that - they think of it as a sales point, "oh yeah, and now you will have wi-fi in your house too," like it was a bonus they throw in. I find it a difficult position to overthrow.

informel

D'ont do what I do, do what I say

I do not use encription at home because I fixe a lot of laptop/PC and if I set them up so they work on my network, I know that I might forget to remove the setup and it will not work when they go home.

But I alway say to my customers that if somebody get into your network and send porno from it, the RCMP (I'm in Canada) could come take all your equipment and you will have to go to court and proove it was not you and that normally works.