With no direct internet connection how does one upgrade license?

Mike-VA3MW

Hi John, that is awesome and I know those PowerLine devices seem to just 'work'.  Good news.

Dawg Fan

Mike, the network has a wireless router on one side of the house.  I am on the other side.  I have two computers hooked to two 6600Ms.  The computers use wireless to connect to the wireless router.  The radios are hooked to their respective computers.  I have never had them hooked up to the network because I had no need until I needed to update the license on one of them.  Someone suggest I share the connection to update the license.  I configured windows to allow sharing and it worked the first day, once I turned windows off and tried to operate the next day I noticed I had no connection on either radio.  I began troubleshooting windows sharing but never got it to work again.  I finally reset the wireless and got my computer working again ie connecting to the internet.  At that point I got a wireless extender with two ports and used that to connect one radio and one computer to a port.  It worked.  I have just ordered a 6 port switch from Amazon which I plan to hook into the extender and will run cables to the two computers and two radios.  Hope this explanation is adequate.  I am still perplexed as to why one must have a direct connection in order to get a new license.  Is this to add a layer of security to avoid theft?  Couldn't database(s) with software script which allows or disallows download if authorized also work?  I do not proclaim to be an IT or database type person....

Mike-VA3MW

Hi

On the one that licensed you can now turn of ICS as it is  not needed anymore.   If your turn it off, that radio will not work like you did before you had to do a license.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a wireless extender.  This is why having the model numbers help so we can diagnose what the network is actually doing.  I am always afraid of anything that has the word extender in it as I don't know if it is a 'bridge' or if it turned into another router on your network.

However, having a Network switch in your Shack that both computers and radios are plugged into will be a good thing since all devices are all the same network (aka Subnet).  This should allow both computers to see both radios in the radio chooser.

The radios need to connect with us as part of our licensing procedure.  It is much more secure to ensure that each radio is licensed correctly, and yes, to prevent theft of service.  You only have to do it once per version per radio.  The next time will be for V4 (assuming you are at V3).

The paper diagram will still help a bit more.

Mike

Dawg Fan

The extenders were installed by ATT and serve as routers and wireless extenders as they have two ports on the back for hard wiring a cat 5/6 cable along with a wireless boost capability.  The only difference in this box and the boxes in your discussion is that these also have a wireless boost capability and not just a cat 5/6 RJ45 connection.  The diagram I would draw would be the same as that of yours but with a 5 port switch plugged in the wireless extender/router on the receiving end where I will plug in the two computers and two radios.

Mike-VA3MW

Gotcha!

When ISPs install devices like Eero's or Google WiFi they don't often think about people who might run devices that might be a server.  You are not at the point yet, but  should you want to start to run SmartLink then we might have an issue where that might work very well.  

When you get to that point, you might hear about Bridge Mode.  It is not uncommon to have issues once you start to deal with devices like a Mesh or a Extender.

Mike