I at some point will have my Snapmaker in a different network segment than the computer I run Luban on. Thus, the automatic detection of Snapmaker’s IP address will not work. Is there a way to configure the IP address of my printer so that it is still there after a Luban restart?
And - small thing - the dialog that lets me enter the address right now does not default to “Confirm” if I hit Enter - I always need to click on it. Minor thing, but would be nice if “Enter” would work.
@Hauke,
i am dealing with the same issue right now (for that exact reason). as far as i am aware there is no way around this, yet, but it has been recommended as a firmware/luban improvement by several people (including myself).
If you find a way let us know!
-Atom
It’s more work than what you’re asking for, but your Wifi or Router should have some configuration options to assign a specific IP to a specific ethernet address. Instruction depend on the specific hardware you have, but it should be in a section labelled DHCP.
If the SM doesn’t tell you it’s Ethernet address, you can usually look it up in one of the DHCP menus based on it’s current IP.
I’m not sure Android even supports it. I can’t think of any smart phone or tablet I’ve had that lets me set an static IP.
@clewis The printer has a static IP by default (10.0.0.xx) but because it’s on a different router (my house has 3) luban will not auto detect it… I assume it would be more difficult to add the settings in the firmware(but it is doable). But it should be easy to add WiFi configuration settings to Luban (after all most other software that is designed for network connectivity has more settings than Luban) and every other network connectable device I have seen remembers at least it’s last connection so that confirmation isn’t required every time.
Im not saying your wrong, just woundering if there Is somthing in particular that makes you say this would be difficult for snapmaker to implement? Because every other hardware and software manufacturer seems to be able to provide it.
@clewis: I’m afraid you misunderstood my point. I know the IP address of the printer, and I have already assigned a fixed IP in my router, and when I enter the IP address in Luban, connection is just fine. What bothers me is that I have to enter the IP address each and every time I (re)start Luban, since the automatic discovery fails between the network segments. The broadcast message is only limited to one network segment.
What I am asking for is to store the Ip in Luban somewhere, so that it remembers on restart.
Not sure if IP supports broadcasts in other networks than your own segment…
However, I just tried: The dialog also takes names, so I created a DNS entry for my Snapmaker. I’d then in Luban configure the FQDN of the printer, and let DNS take care of knowing the IP. That’s good practice in networks, and would suffice for me.
I will admit my networking knowlage is mediocre, more of a hardware guy. But I figure there has to be a way as my pc can find the printers(paper printers) on my other routers. But if you find a way that works I would be interested in giving it a shot. I assume currently we can not change the FQDN in Luban(I have found no network settings)?
Well, it’s the same as with the IP address - you can enter it, but Luban forgets it on restart.
However, here’s what you’d need to do:
Assign a fixed IP address to the printer (via the DHCP settings of the router that is responsible for the printer’s network)
Make a DNS entry for the IP address - choose a name of your liking - let’s assume it is “snappy”
Depending on your router’s configuration, the FQDN of the printer will now be snappy.local or snappy.[your domain suffix]. [Nitpickers will say a dot is missing for a true FQDN - nitpick all you like ]
In Luban, click the plus sign which allows you to enter the IP address of your printer
enter the FQDN instead, i.e. snappy.local
That works. But it is not autodiscovery, for this the printer would need to register itself in DNS. Currently it sends out a cryptic “android-[some number]” as its name.
Ahh so really all we are doing is giving a name to a static IP address? And in order to get it to auto discover we would need to be able to set the “device name” on the printer itself? Is that an accurate summery for a laymen?
DNS is the system that allows you to use human readable internet addresses like “snapmaker.com” or “google.de”. Basically every application that is able to use the network uses DNS to look up human readable names to get back the IP address, which is what a machine ultimately needs to connect to the regarding service on the network.
DNS knows of IPs and the names from different sources: EIther you put in the assignment manually, or the device announces its name when it joins the network and gets an IP assigned by DHCP, or the DHCP server/router will tell DNS that it just assigned an IP to a name, in which case the device needs to tell its name to the DHCP server.
The Snapmaker printer tries to tell its name to the network, but unfortunatly it does not use the name you entered during config wizard, but its name is “android-[some number]”. So either you learn this cryptic name, or you do a manual DNS entry, i.e. you choose a name for your printer and put name and IP in the DNS.
Now comes Luban: Luban needs to find the printer. The autodiscovery sends out a broadcast, and the printer answeres to it (at least thats what another post here tells)… The broadcast seems to be limited to the network segment, so if the printer is not there, it can not be autodiscovered. Luban then will need to be told where to find the printer. You can either enter the IP address, or the DNS name. Both work, but both are forgotten if you close Luban.
So to achieve autodiscovery by means of DNS, the Snapmaker printer ideally would allow the user to configure its network name, so that it is automatically registered in DNS when it joins the network. If now Luban could remember the name of the printer across restarts, you’d configure it once, and then the printer may even get a new IP, you’d still find it. It would still work if the printer could not be assigned a name by the user - in that case Luban would need to remeber the name “android-[some number]”, would also work.
Long story short: Luban needs to remember either an IP or a DNS name after a restart, that’s what I’d really like
There is a segment of network engineering masochists that like to segment their networks and still have auto discovery. I’m not one of them, but I can see why people with a lot of IoT devices might. My co-workers used words like IGMPv3, “IGMP snooping”, “uPNP”, and maybe some “Bonjour”. I dropped out of the conversation early on, but I think that’s enough to send you down a google rabbit hole.
In another forum post someone had a Wireshark network sniff of the communications - anyone really interested should start there, since it will show at one glance what the protocol exactly is. Not sure if this helps very much anyhow, since you cannot change or influence it… Perhaps it helps defining firewall rules.
My problem exactly - If auto-detection actually worked I would be even happier, but to have to retype the IP each and every time is extraordinarily tedious, as well as having to click the CONFIRM button with the mouse instead of accepting ENTER as a commit.
I expect that this should be quite easy to implement.
I don’t know if you’ve solved this problem yet, but the important term that I don’t see so far in the replies is “reservation.”
I’d suggest that you log on to your router and go to the DHCP settings (DHCP is the function that hands out IP addresses automatically) and create a “reservation” for your printer. That will ensure that it gets the same address every time it turns on.
To create a reservation, you usually need the “Media Access Control Address” (a.k.a. MAC address) for the printer. A MAC address is a unique identifier for each network device. This looks something like a8:20:66:3c:e2:13 and can usually be found on your router in a section called “connected devices”.
If you succeed at this, your printer will always get the address that you specify.
Getting Luban to see the printer at this new address is a different story that I believe has been covered here.
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