Network Sharing - FreeWaveTechnologies/ZumIQ GitHub Wiki

Introduction

Most users, in their initial enthusiasm to use their ZumLink or ZumIQ devices, connect them to their corporate network something like this:

Then they find that one or both devices run sloooooooow. Sometimes they even find that connecting the devices to the network brings the whole network to its knees. There are two reasons for this behavior.

First, Zum #1 is acting as a network relay, taking every packet that goes over the corporate network and broadcasting it to Zum #2. Likewise, everything that Zum #2 sends to Zum #1 goes out over the corporate network, even if was only intended to stay between the two devices.

Second, if the PC connected to Zum #2 is also connected to the corporate network, this sets up a network loop.

The solution is to connect Zum #1, not directly to the corporate network, but to a PC equipped with two network connections, like this:

This is easy to do with Linux, but not so easy with Windows. Since most users have Windows, and the Windows setup is more difficult, what follows is a description of the procedure to follow with Windows 10.

Second Ethernet port - Procuring the Hardware

You’re going to connect Zum #1 to a second Ethernet port on the new PC, instead of connecting it directly to your corporate network. Most PCs don’t have two network cards, but a USB-to-Ethernet dongle works nicely. Any of them on the market will do. FreeWave engineers use several different models. One example is the Linksys USB3GIG.

This next part gets a little tricky.

Opening the Network Connections Window

To set up the second Ethernet port, you need to find the Network Connections window (no, not the easy-to-find one, a different one) in Windows 10. Here’s the official Microsoft way to do it:

Go to Control Panel, go to the Network and Sharing Center, and click on the link in the left pane to "Change adapter settings."

Almost as easy(?) to remember is this method:

Type ncpa.cpl in the Start > Search box and press Enter.

You should see a window that looks similar to this one:

You’re going to end up using this window a lot, so just create a shortcut for it on the desktop of the PC.

One of these Ethernet connections is the connection from the PC to your corporate network — in this example, it’s Ethernet 2. Another one is (or will be) the connection from the PC to Zum #1 — in this example, it’s Ethernet 5.

Setting up the Second Ethernet Port

WARNING: If the ZumLink has Device Firmware FWT2024, DO NOT change the IP address of the RJ-45 Ethernet connection to a 192.168.137.something IP Address! This will break the RJ-45 Ethernet Interface and you will only be able to access the unit thru the Micro USB. Skip to the Network Sharing Section below.

Note: If the ZumLink has Device Firmware FWT2024, this section will only work through the Micro USB interface as it uses IP address 192.168.137.1 and 192.168.137.2. The Micro USB IP Address of the ZumLink is fixed at 192.168.137.2. So use that interface to create this link. The Micro USB interface will show up as an Ethernet interface in the Network Connection window. Skip to the Network Sharing Section below.

For the second Ethernet port, your PC is going to act as the network gateway. This example assumes that Zum #1's IP address is 192.168.137.something. You can adjust the IP address of the PC according to the IP address of Zum #1. One day we’ll have DHCP enabled in the ZumLink product line and this won’t be such a pain. But for now …

Double-click on the icon for the second Ethernet port, Ethernet 5 in this example. Click Properties, then scroll down to Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Double-click it, or click it once and then click Properties. In the TCP/IPv4 Properties window, click Advanced. In the Advanced TCP/IP settings, click Add if no IP addresses are listed, or select an IP address and click Edit.

In the TCP/IP Address window, enter 192.168.137.1 (or whatever) for the IP address, and 255.255.255.0 for the Subnet mask. Click OK four times, and then click Close.

Whew.

You’ll connect this second Ethernet port to the corporate network in a minute. First, you’ll need to connect to Zum #1 and change the gateway IP address to match the IP address you just entered. Connect the PC to Zum #1 with a micro-USB cable, and open a serial connection.

Login as admin , so that Zum #1 opens in the Freewave shell. When you type the network command, you will get a response like this:

FreeWave Shell
>network
[Page=network]
   mac_address=00:07:e7:00:07:60
   ip_address=192.168.137.150
   netmask=255.255.255.0
   gateway=192.168.137.1 
   stpEnabled=false
   txqueuelen=25
   mtu=1500
   nameserver_address1=8.8.8.8
   nameserver_address2=8.8.4.4
   netmaskFilterEnabled=false
   arpFilterEnabled=false
   vlanMgmt=0
   vlanTag=0
RESULT:0:OK
>

You may need to change the gateway to the value you entered for your second Ethernet port, by entering these two commands. The save command saves the configuration in non-volatile memory.

>gateway=192.168.137.1
gateway=192.168.137.1
RESULT:0:OK
>save
config.save=Saved
RESULT:0:OK
> 

Log out, and log in again as devuser. You should be able to ping the PC from Zum #1, and Zum #1 from the PC. If you can do that, then your second Ethernet connection works fine.

Enabling Network Sharing on the PC

You’ll still want to get to the Internet from both Zum devices, for things like apt-get and pip, so you’ll need to enable network sharing. In the Network Connections window, double-click on the first Ethernet port, Ethernet 2 in this example, and select Properties . At the top of the Ethernet 2 Properties window, click Sharing .

Enable sharing by clicking the Allow other network users to connect … checkbox. You will then have to select the second Ethernet connection from a drop-down menu. Click OK , then Close .

You may get a scary message about Windows having changed the IP address of your second Ethernet port. If you did, you’ll need to go through the steps above, to change the address back to what you want it to be.

AN ASIDE ABOUT IP ADDRESSES: ZumLink and ZumIQ devices ship with a default address of 92.168.111.100; therefore, the User Manual and other FreeWave documents recommend that you set the IP address of your Ethernet port to 192.168.111.1. However, Windows 10 insists on setting the second Ethernet port's address to 192.168.137.1 every time sharing is enabled ... or re-enabled. We'll discuss that little annoyance below. You may decide that it's easier to change your device addresses to 192.168.137.something once, than to undo Windows' helpful edits every time you have to re-enable sharing.

Note: DO NOT change the IP address of the RJ-45 Ethernet Connection to any 192.168.137.something address in the ZumLink if you are running Device Firmware FWT2024 . This will break the RJ-45 Ethernet connection and only allow access thru the Micro USB connection.

Now, you should be able to access the Internet from either device — try ping 8.8.8.8 to test it — but you won’t get all of your corporate network’s traffic over the radio link. Just what you wanted.

Babysitting the Connection

Unfortunately, Windows 10 has a nasty habit of randomly dropping the connection between the two networks, even when you have Network Sharing enabled. Sometimes it happens overnight, and sometimes it happens once a week. It’s random and unpredictable.

If you lose network connectivity on your devices, try pinging the second Ethernet port (192.168.137.1 in this example) and the Google nameserver (8.8.8.8) from Zum #1.

1. If you can’t reach 192.168.137.1, then your second Ethernet port isn’t working. Try disabling and enabling the port first (right-click on the icon in Network Connections). If that doesn’t fix it, then unplug the dongle at both ends, wait 60 seconds, and plug it in again.

2. If you can reach 192.168.137.1, but not 8.8.8.8, then Windows has stopped sharing. Double-click the first Ethernet port, click Properties , then click the Sharing tab. Disable sharing by deselecting Allow other network users ... , and click OK . You MUST click OK for the change to take effect. Wait a few seconds — it doesn’t take very long — and then re-enable sharing, making sure to specify the second Ethernet port in the Home networking connection field. Click OK , then click Close . That should fix it.