With no direct internet connection how does one upgrade license?

Dawg Fan

I have wireless internet here at my home.  I do not want to run a 100 foot cable to the location of the router to connect to the flex.  The computer connected to the radio has wireless. How do I complete license process?  BTW- I own two 6600M radios and can't even locate a tech support number on your website, why isn't it listed under contact tab?  All i see is sales???

K5CG

M Murdock

Hi 

There are a few options.   

The helpdesk link is in the top right of the main page where it says Support.   That link takes you to this point:  https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/

The radio must be connected to the internet to complete its licensing.   We have had customers run a cable to their modem, turn on the radio, wait 10 minutes and the licensing is complete.  You only need to connect the radio to the Internet.

Another option is to turn on Internet Connection Sharing on your PC assuming the radio is LAN cabled to your PC and the PC is wireless.  This is a Windows feature and it seems to work about 50% of the time.  ICS is documented with Microsoft.

We do sell a Wireless Network Bridge adapter in our store if you wish to give it a try.  http://cart.flexradio.com/FlexRadio-Wi-Fi-Network-Bridge_p_1146.html.  Once you configure this device, you connect the radio LAN cable to it and the Radio will then have access to your WiFi.  But, be aware, WiFi is not a reliable LAN connection method due to Latency issues on the WiFi Lan.

I hope that helps you out.

Dawg Fan

Danny - thanks - your input worked superbly...Not sure why Flex support wants to make this so complicated....simply use your suggestion for windows machines...

Jon_KF2E

K5CG

I'm glad it helped.

With the radio not being connected directly to your LAN (immediately behind your router) you are limited to local shack operation; no SmartLink, etc. That may be by choice or your only option due to circumstance. If you can find a way to run Ethernet or fiber to your shack someday it will open up a whole new way of doing things with Flex (and negate the licensing access issue).

Good luck!

WK2Y

K5CG

Bob, your 6500 is wired Ethernet on your LAN and your PC is WiFi on the same LAN?

WK2Y

Erika - KØDD

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Jon

In most cases, yes, but I am going to share some findings I have done on consumer WiFi (I have a career with this exact area when I worked for a company here in Toronto that did WiFi for consumer and commercial environments).  If running a full Cisco or Meru (bought by Fortinet  system, WiFi can be almost LAN esk.  But, those systems come with an 'air traffic controller'.

The issue today is with stream on consumer-grade equipment.  MIMO helps but it doesn't solve the streaming performance.  Then, you need to leave bandwidth for your neighbour since he don't know how much of the ether he is consuming yet the RFC does require it.

For our customer base, will over 90% (if not higher) only know 1 thing about WiFi and that is to turn it on and it should work.  After all, that is what the manufacturers want you to believe.  Those that dig under the covers of how the technology works will quickly understand how to improve it.  It is easy to get it to work.  It is hard to make it work well.  WiFi is sort of plug and play and that is why we call it a party line.  

If you search in this community, you can see all the studies I did on consumer WiFi and how adding streams caused it to fail.  

This is why we always recommend making using a LAN connection a priority and WiFi as plan B.  The Internet providers want you to use 100% WiFi since it is easy for them and when your performance degrades, they can blame WiFi congestion and walk away from it.   My ISP at the location where my remote is packaged with the EERO's system as it works so well to improve WiFi.

If WiFi works for you, awesome.  In my Urban environment, and I know what I am doing, my iPad fails to stream movies after dinner due to RF congestion and it isn't an ISP issue at all.  My Apple TV works perfectly, but it is hard wired, exactly for that reason.

I hope that helps explain my perspective.

73

WK2Y

K5CG

CAT7 is still twisted pair Ethernet cable. Fiber is a different animal. If you're going to run just one cable from the router to the shack, fiber is the better long term solution. You'll need a router and switches (or just a pair of media converters) to take the GBICs (fiber interface module) at each end. It's not rocket surgery once you figure out how it works. When you're ready, ping me if you like.

WK2Y

Thanks for the offer.  Would do it today, but work is such a viscous trap. ;-)
Thanks again.

Mike-VA3MW

 Danny, I have limited experience with Fibre (as in, someone else always did it).  Can you comment what what type of GBIC's go with what type of fibre?  It would help with my eBay shopping. 

K5CG

Mike-VA3MW

Awesome.. thanks .  I know just the place to try it out.

K5CG

In my situation, I do have an Enterprise class switch in the rack, but not at any endpoints in the house, like in the shack. So I am using the same media converter as above to convert back to UTP. Then it connects with a short jumper to a GbE switch for the PC, Flex, Smart TV, AllStar repeater... you get the idea.

Dawg Fan

I have no desire for remote use of radio...lightening here too often and too bad to keep rigs hooked up...

Michael N3LI

I run wire with Ferrites to my 6600, but SSDR to my laptop and the Maestro are both running wireless. 

Is it possible that routers are being hit with RFI that masks as a wireless problem?

David Kowell

my local wireless co. is stopping service next month so I went and got hughes  sat internet service for life of me I cant get  it to work with flex 6400 m and 6300   when I hook up lan cables to hughes router    will someone please HELP! tnx k2cka

David-N5PSM

I use hughes net.   You need a business account with a fixed IP address for SmartLink to work. (That is my experience so far)

K5CG

He hasn't said anything about SmartLink. It sounds like he can't even get his radio to work whilst inside the house connected to the Hughes router.

David Kowell

radio s wont connect  6400m or my 6300  wont connect even if I plug lan cable from radio to pc

K5CG

Oops. I reread your comment.

K5CG

The only reason I can think why you can't connect to the radio if it is connected directly to the PC is that one of them is set to DHCP and the other is set to Static IP. Check your PC Ethernet and IP settings and see if it is DHCP or static.
I think if you do a factory reset on the radio it will revert to DHCP.

Mike-VA3MW

Just an update to all those helping out.

A lot of our customers do not have much (if any) network experience, so if you are trying to help out, you may need to provide some basics first.

There is one other way to extend your LAN without having to pull CAT cable across your house.  I have tested these and they seem to work reasonably well.  

There are devices called PowerLine and I have tested the ones from TP-Link.  https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter/dp/B00AWRUICG/ref=sr_1_3  TP-Link AV600 Powerline Ethernet Adapter - Plug&Play, Power Saving, Nano Powerline Adapter(Tl-PA4010 Kit).  These are about $35.

Essentially, you plug one in the Wall (not a power ****) near your Modem and connect a LAN cable from one box to the Modem.  Then, you plug the other end in near your radio (again, not a power ****) and the LAN cable to the radio.  The setup is pretty simple and they usually work right out of the box.   Power Bars and Power Strips seems to **** their communications.

There is some concern about HF  noise, from these, but I have yet to hear it on the ones I have tested.  If you do hear some HF noise or birdies then just unplug it when you don't need it.

It looks like this.  



M

WK2Y

Out of curiosity, I went out and got one of these "travel router" Wireless Network Bridge adapters to try out.  The good news is that it does connect my 6500 to my wireless network.  The bad news is that the oddity where I have to power down the router, turn on the rig and then immediately power up the travel router in order to connect is present with the travel router just like it is when I bridge through my PC. 
Someone once explained  to me why that happens , but I don't remember what the explanation was. 
Networking is a strange beast.
73, Bob
WK2Y

Dawg Fan

John KB4DU

Mike-VA3MW

Dawg

I think we need to look at your network configuration and see if there isn't a better way to do it.  (Do you have it described somewhere here in summary?).    Can you actually draw a picture for us showing what is running where and the model number of all the hardware involved?   I can't wrap my head around this.

There must be a better way to lay this out since I always have a few radios going (for work) on a basic home network design and I don't seem to lose connections to the radios.  The only problem I have is that SWR Plotter and SliceMaster often pick up the wrong radio since there can be up to 3 devices on the same network.

Just sketch it out on paper and take a picture of the topology and post it here.  That might help shed some light.

Mike