Topic: How do I see static-IP clients in router table?

[Cobra951]

Sandy has this printserver, which is working fine now.  Earlier, it wasn't.  I figured out the problem, but was frustrated for a while with my inability to see, within the router's setup webpage, if the printserver was getting to the router.  All I could get it to show me was the DHCP-clients table.  The printserver is a static IP (192.168.1.50).  How do I get the Linksys WRT54G setup/status app to show it to me, if active?  Search attempts for this online so far are burying me in noise about static-IP ISPs and other close-but-no-cigar topics.

Thanks!

Edit:  Forgot to mention that this is all wireless.

[Ghandi]

First google hit when I searched. Dunno if it will help or not. Didn't seem like there was a solution in the thread.

[scottws]

Generally, you just have to keep track of static IP addresses on your own because they won't show up in lists such as that of DHCP clients.  There's no way I know of to just get a list of all static IPs without something like a network inventory tool.

[Cobra951]

OK, so it isn't anything I'm missing then.  What I ended up doing at the time to see the printserver was going into the printer's properties and getting the forgotten address of the IP port out of that.  Typing that IP into the browser address bar brought up the printserver's applet, which looks very similar to the router's (since it's also Linksys).  Yes, it was being seen and apparently working as it should.  The problem was the connection to the printer.  The printserver's USB light was yellow, which I guess means it sees something, but it's not happy.  Disconnecting the USB cable, waiting for the light to go out, then reconnecting made it green and happy.  I'm thinking the issue there is that she has this old parallel-port printer, for which she got a USB conversion cable (which has to have active circuitry, I'm sure, maybe even an IC chip).  Making everything happy there must be a bit more involved.

Thanks, Scott.

[WindAndConfusion]

What you want is called "service discovery." You have two basic ways of doing this, UPNP and MDNS, and they both entail running software on your computers (not the routers, so much, although they can usually do it too).

Vista and XP both support UPNP-SSDP. If you enable "network discovery" on all computers, you should be able to view all other discoverable computers under the "Network" tab.

You can also install MDNS clients on all computers. This will let you bind domain names, so you can say things like "http://sandy.local". Once installed, all computers on the same subnet can see each other. Apple will install MDNS on your computer if you download iTunes (don't worry, you want it, and it's magnitudes more secure than the UPNP bullshit Windows already comes with). I think it's part of the "iTunesHelper.exe" background task, so make sure it's enabled (if you previously axed it).

[Cobra951]

Thanks.  iTunesHelper is running.  I wondered what it did.

[WindAndConfusion]

Did that work? If the computers can see each other in iTunes, then MDNS is working. (Also I was wrong, iTunesHelper.exe is just a service that detects iPods and other things. MDNSResponder.exe is the MDNS service that comes with iTunes.)

And there's a Wikipedia article about Apple's implementation of MDNS*, which is by far the most popular on Windows.

*(Don't worry too much about the two "security vulnerabilities" mentioned; I speak from personal experience when I say that UPNP is worse in every imaginable way, and it's also more widely deployed, so there are more people running around trying to exploit it.)

The last suggestion I can make is that Asus routers come with a modified version of DD-WRT, that includes a graphical nmap tool with UPNP-SSDP support. It ends up looking like this:



The panel on the right that says "client status" is a snapshot of all the IP addresses my router knows about. It can also retrieve the device's name (via UPNP-SSDP), and it conveniently provides a hyperlink if it detects the machine at that address is responding to incoming HTTP. This is still nowhere near as convenient as MDNS, though.

[Cobra951]

Oh, that one.  I zapped it shortly after I noticed it in task manager.  I made it go away completely, somehow.  I'll have to look it up again.  I'm leery of added processes that just sit there even when the software that uses them isn't running.  Apple excels at that.  iTunesHelper and iPodService I need.  MDNSResponder I think was only related to some sort of sharing.  I didn't know it added such a capability (as you described) to the system.  Is it the Bonjour service that uses it?  I know I disabled that in Services.  I'll check it sometime.  Thanks for the info.

[WindAndConfusion]

MDNS is the name of the underlying protocol. Bonjour is Apple's trademarked implementation of MDNS.

Let me know how it works for you. I've been programming with both MDNS and UPNP, and I'd really like to hear from users.

[scottws]

You could also set up internal DNS.  I mean that's what DNS is for.