Configuring Network Settings
Complete the following steps to configure the network settings of your networked RT Series devices:
- From MAX, expand Remote Systems in the configuration tree and select your remote system.
- Select the Network Settings tab. If this is the first time that you have started the controller, the setting could show either a network address, an automatic private IP address (169.254.x.x), or 0.0.0.0, depending on how your target acquires network addresses.
- Enter a host name in the Name text box. Choose a name that makes your system easy to identify.
Note Your system may already have a named assigned to it. You can keep this name or enter another name.
Note You can assign a remote system either a static IP address or automatically. If you use a static IP address, then you cannot use the host name from another computer to contact the remote system. The host name is just a label in this case.
If you configure your system to automatically acquire an IP address, the system requests an IP address from the DHCP server when the system starts up. When it assigns the IP address, the DHCP server can also assign a host name based on a requested host name from your system. If everything is configured correctly, then the DHCP server adds that host name to the DNS tables, and you can now contact this host with its host name using DNS. Because this host name request is part of the DHCP protocol, it only works with DHCP.
Although the DHCP specification allows for a remote system to request a host name from the server, it does not require that the DHCP server grant this request. The DHCP server can:- Grant the request.
- Ignore the request entirely.
- Alter the host name, such as turning a requested host name of myhost into myhost_dynip123.
The DHCP server has no feedback mechanism. The only way to find out the assigned host name is to do a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address of the system. (From a command prompt, type nslookup <ip address>.)Note DHCP for FieldPoint requires LabVIEW Real-Time 7.0 or later. DNS name assignment for FieldPoint requires LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1 or later. - On the Network Settings tab, enter the Ethernet parameters you want to assign to the remote system.
You can either assign a static IP address or have the system retrieve an IP address automatically. For more information, refer to IP Configuration. For more information on setting static IP addresses, refer to Specifying a Static IP Address. For more information on obtaining an IP address automatically, refer to Assigning an IP Address.
IP Address and Subnet Mask are required parameters. Set Gateway and DNS Server to the default configuration, 0.0.0.0, if your network does not have a gateway or DNS server. - If you are running a PXI system and if you do not have a static IP address, select Obtain an IP address automatically in the IP Settings section of the Network Settings tab to obtain an IP address automatically. If you configured your device to use a static IP address, skip this step.
- Click Apply in the Network Settings tab.
- Click Yes when prompted to restart the remote system.
- Configure locking and TCP/IP halt, if desired.