ENET IP Assign Problems

[optoeng]

I inherited a couple of ENET boxes (not ENET/100) and a couple of GPIB-PCII cards from my predecessor. My computer has no ISA slots, so I'd very much like to use the ENETs. I read lots of info at the ni.com website and determined that I needed the NI488.2 2.0 software license to support ENET on my Windows XP system, and I have that now.
However, I'm required to use fixed IP addresses on our LAN, and I went through a long series of phone support conversations, only to be told that the NI software does not support the NI IP Assign Protocol on Windows XP. During the troubleshooting process (incident number 422955), I somehow managed to change the behavior of the ENET. Originally, when powered up and plugged into our LAN, the ENET Ready Light would blink rapidly for a while then go steady on (with all dipswitches in OFF positions). Presumably, it was getting an IP address from our server. After various attempts to assign it a fixed address, this behavior changed to the Ready Light blinking rapidly and continuously and forever (no pattern, just steady fast blinking). As I understand it, this means that no IP address is assigned. However, if I turn switch 6 ON before powering up, the Ready Light goes steady on after a few seconds.

So, I then loaded NI 488.2 V2.0 on a Windows 2000 system, installed an ENET device, installed the NI IP Assign protocol and proceeded to attempt to assign my choice of IP address. An info window popped up after I chose the 'IP Assign' option (rt click on the device icon in MAX) that told me I should power down, turn only switch 5 ON, power up, wait for steady Ready Light. I do this, and (as described above), Ready never goes steady. So, now desperate, I power down and up with switch 6 ON instead, Ready goes steady, I click 'OK', various lights blink on the ENET, and Ready goes on steady again. However, no kind of utility, whether it be 'ping' or the NI ENET finder, can locate that ENET. How do I get the ENET back to its default? What am I doing wrongly? Is there some kind of utility I can use to determine what address the ENET thinks it's been assigned? Any clues will be appreciated.

[Randy Solomonson]

Hello-

Once the ENET has an IP address it should always remember it. This can be a bad thing if DHCP gives that same address to another machine while the ENET is powered down. Be sure to ping an address before IPAssigning, and try pinging that address before powering up the ENET.

When switch 6 is on and the ENET it should blink rapidly, then go solid. If it goes solid, it attached to an IP address successfully. If you don't know the IP Address, it is necessary to go through the setup procedure laid out in the Getting Started Manual (ni.com/manuals).

Randy Solomonson
Application Engineer
National Instruments

[optoeng]

Thanks for your comments. Having now solved this problem, I will summarize what I learned for the benefit of others:

1) The 'IP Assign Protocol' does not work with Windows XP, but it does work with Windows 2000. However, other features of NI 488.2 Version 2.0 do work properly under Windows XP. So, you can use a Windows 2000 (and probably Win 9x, too) to assign a fixed IP address, then move to XP for all other ENET communications.
2) 'Flashing steadily' means just that. For some reason, I got fixated on the 'steadily' part, and was expecting the LED to be on and not flashing.