Is firmware updating needed for new GPIB-ENET/100?

[weininghao@hotmail.com]

Hi,

i got a new GPIB-ENET/100 box few weeks ago, and on the back panel shows the REV  1.1.

I installed an old driver nienet-linux-1.2 on Suse linux 10, and connected the box with the computer. The PWR/RDY light wrinkles with orange color.

I changed an old   GPIB-ENET/100 box instead of the new one, the PWR/RDY light became steady orange and the box worked. 

Shall I do some firmwate update before using the new box?

Regards,

Weining 

[SFK]

Hi Weining,

is the Power LED still flashing rapidly (red-yellow) like during the startup self test, or did the frequency change?


If the blink intervals do not change, the box is still trying to receive an IP address through DHCP (this is the "out-of-the-box" behaviour) - see Getting Started with Your GPIB-ENET/100 and NI-488.2™ for HP-UX. If your old ENET/100 was also configured for DHCP, maybe your DHCP server is MAC-address-sensitive - as this address is (at least theoretically) unique for every device, you will have to add the new ENET's MAC address to your server's configuration.

On the other hand - if you configured the old ENET/100 to use a static IP, you will have to also configure the new one - the flashing should stop afterwards.


As far as I know, C9 is the current firmware - it can be found here: GPIB-ENET/100 Firmware C.9 - Any OS. You will have to have the ENET's IP settings successfully configured for updateing the firmware though.


As I just found your other post (GPIB-ENET/100 problem with NI 488.2 v2.5 under Suse 10 [ New ]), I will answer more questions there.


Best regards,
Sebastian

[weininghao@hotmail.com]

Hi Sebastian,

thanks for your answer.

Yes, the Power LED flashs rapidly like during the startup.

I connected the box directly with the computer, does that mean the IP address of box cannot be set through DHCP but mannually? Sorry that I am not familiar with the DHCP and MAC-address-sensitive. 

I have no idea what has been configured with the old ENET/100. Does the configuration here means the 

192.168.1.2 ENET gpib

in the file /etc/hosts, or something else? 

I also have other questions to the reply of  GPIB-ENET/100 problem with NI 488.2 v2.5 under Suse 10 [ New ] .

Best regards,

Weining 

[SFK]

Hi Weining,


the ENET/100 does accept IP addresses assigned by a DHCP server if configured for it (should be enabled by default), but many DHCP servers in company networks only assign IP addresses to devices "they know". So if you connect a new (and potentially threatening) device to such a network, it will not receive an IP address - and though cannot do any harm.

In this case, you would regularily contact the network administrator and give him the MAC Address of the device, which is a theoretically unique (serial) number. The admin would then add this address to the valid addresses in the device cache of the DHCP server, which then would assign an IP address to the new device as soon as it is reconnected.

Your hosts file has nothing to do with this. The hosts file is just an alias lookup table for your computer, so that you can address remote systems with simple names instead of their IP addresses without the need of a DNS server.

Best regards.
Sebastian

[weininghao@hotmail.com]

Hi Sebastian,

thanks for your patiently explainning.

Best regards,

Weining