Never having properly understood or set up ranges of or static IPs, after Jeremy pointed this out I went away to do my research. The following article at least pointed me to the fact that I needed to set up the range within my router, an Airport Extreme Base Station (yes, rudimentary stuff).

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11562585 

I actually connect to the internet using PPPoE, but the settings were similar enough to help me. So I left my range on the "DHCP Beginning Address" (AirPort Utility > Manual Setup > Internet > DHCP) as is, and set the "DHCP Ending Address" to 192.168.100, assuming that I would then set my VE slave machine static IPs to 101, 102 etc

But, I can't follow your suggestions to the letter as both of our rigs, being on a shared network, would be trying to access slave machines with the same static IP.  

So if I assign whatever static IP I want, will I be given the option to find the correct static IP when launching the session? VE Pro is so "clever" it will just reconnect to the machine it wants (ie the slave it was last connected to) before I have the chance to say stop and have it connect somewhere else. Maybe if I understood the VE Pro server better, this might be obvious, so any words of wisdom would be appreciated. [:D]

Kevin,

No.

Let me explain a thing or 2 about IP addresses and networking.

Your ROUTER (Airport)  pulls an Ip from your ISP. Then it creates an insulated network - once removed - for ONLY your machines. Typically the IP addresses on your internal network (your LAN) will be in the 192.168.x.x range. For example, your router may be at 192.168.1.1. Your wifi devices may be .100-.120 -- but there is no reason you can't declare your wired machines to be 192.168.1.20; 192.168.1.21, etc --

If you ever change routers, your static IP addresses will always be there same.

Read up on routers.

That's what this thread is about.

Hope this helps.

J 

Jeremy, Thanks for the further words, but "No" to what exactly?

I have my insulated network; my DHCP begins at 192.168.1.2 and I set it to end at 192.168.1.100, my static IPs will be at 192.168.1.101 and 192.168.1.102. So I think I'm all good. Gives 99 addresses for the various desktops, wireless devices etc. My static IPs I will then assign from 192.168.1.101 upwards.

But that does't help me with what VE then does with that info. I have two HD3 rigs each with a mac mini farm attached. If I move a PT session from "room 1" to "room 2", the session in "room 2", through the LAN, will still load my VE project on the mac mini in "room 1".

Or are you saying No, I haven't even configured my network correctly yet? Or no, VE Pro will never give me the choice to select which mac mini so I better get it right now? I think that was your original problem when you changed your router, you couldn't de/reselect your slave.

Many thanks,

Kevin

Kevin,

As long as all your host machines and slaves have static IPs your'e fine.

Slave #1 will always be slave #1 as long as it's 192.168.1.103 -- regardless of where it is physically. In fact, all of your slave machines can be in a machine room.

The point of this thread is that VE Pro looks to slaves by IP -- so if the IP changes, it will forget -- and it's a good practice to set a satic IP and do everything possible to never change it.

In fact, I just bought a new router and the default gateway IP was 192.168.0.1, but ALL of my machines are on the 192.168.1.x subnet, so I simply changed the router, and we're happy.

I hope this helps.

J

PS -- I doubt that your airport has true gigabit throughput at the switch. And it definitely does not support jumbo frames. Probably worth investing in a dedicated gigabit switch and Cat6 wire.

@kevin_9944 said:

But that does't help me with what VE then does with that info. I have two HD3 rigs each with a mac mini farm attached. If I move a PT session from "room 1" to "room 2", the session in "room 2", through the LAN, will still load my VE project on the mac mini in "room 1".

In this situation, yes, that doesn't help you. And if you open the PT session in room 2, it will open the slave in room 1.

For this, you need to work a bit differently. Since you DO NOT want the PT sessions to restore to the same slave. Hmm... I'm too tired to think this one through... maybe someone who has more brain power can chime in. I'll think about this and reply tomorrow.

Jeremy,

@jeremyroberts said:

PS -- I doubt that your airport has true gigabit throughput at the switch. And it definitely does not support jumbo frames. Probably worth investing in a dedicated gigabit switch and Cat6 wire.

One of the rigs is sort of on it's own dedicated switch, but a C|24 sort of messes with that. But good points to be aware of, although our problem isn't speed, that will become a factor soon enough. I had already done some research on jumbo frames and it was only a few months after we pulled Cat5e that someone pointed out that we should have pulled Cat6. I think Cat7 is in my future!! 

@jeremyroberts said:

In this situation, yes, that doesn't help you. And if you open the PT session in room 2, it will open the slave in room 1.

For this, you need to work a bit differently. Since you DO NOT want the PT sessions to restore to the same slave. Hmm... I'm too tired to think this one through... maybe someone who has more brain power can chime in. I'll think about this and reply tomorrow.

Good to at least know I'm not missing the patently obvious. I want to be able to pick the machine on which I want to load the session, not have it picked for me. As long as I have my projects saved, I should be able to point my VE Pro rtas at the proper server and connect, or so my thinking goes. I've read yours and others discussions on the DUC about decoupling/preserving, but it's still hurting my head. Perhaps there is some magic in there that reveals a proper level of control.

This question is just as relevant for someone who has a set of machines and wants to layback at an outside facility. How do they reconnect their farms over a strange LAN? Would they have to bring their router with them so there was no mess? Many thanks for your thoughts so far.

K 

So after some investigation and trial and error, the work around I've found is to set up an identity in "Mac OS > System Preferences > Network" for ethernet "OFF". Before I load a foreign session (ie one that was not created on this computer pairing), I switch the ethernet off (better than yanking the cable, as that puts the mac in a tail spin) and then load the session. The plug in can't find anything, but the session still loads. Then I switch ethernet back on in the preferences and, after waiting for the computer to populate on the LAN, clicking on the plug in, pulls up a list of whatever machines (servers) are on the network. I can then chose which to connect to.

Perhaps this brings us back to your original question, Jeremy. If you haven't set up static IPs, if you switch your ethernet off before you load a session, does this routine then solve your problem too, by your being able to then manually select your slave/server?

I always save both a viframe (project) and an mframe (whatever an mframe is) before closing each session in case something can't remember what it's supposed to be doing.

K

I have no reason to switch ethernet off. That's an ugly workaround.

I found that for me, static IP solved all issues.

Another technique is to us the decouple feature -- so that I can simply load whatever viframe that need --

But I urge anyone reading this to set all machines on the network to static, so VE Pro will remember the machines.

@jeremyroberts said:

But I urge anyone reading this to set all machines on the network to static, so VE Pro will remember the machines.

I am moving to static IPs, but until I fully make the transition, this ugly kludge is the best I've come up with.

This is the kind of thing I REALLY want to know about.

I would love to see some "best practice" information.

So you get better performace with static IP address?

Better connection?

Jumbo frames are better?

I have a Mac (Logic) and a PC (Win7+VEP5)

I have a Netgear gigabit switch between them.

What are the best settings on both sides?

I have the Mac on Automatic/Using DHCP.

I have the PC to Obtain an IP address automatically.

@frazz said:

This is the kind of thing I REALLY want to know about.

I would love to see some "best practice" information.

So you get better performace with static IP address?

Better connection?

Jumbo frames are better?

I have a Mac (Logic) and a PC (Win7+VEP5)

I have a Netgear gigabit switch between them.

What are the best settings on both sides?

I have the Mac on Automatic/Using DHCP.

I have the PC to Obtain an IP address automatically.

please read this :

http://www.cyrilblanc.fr/site_principal/slave_mac.html

I still assign static IPs to all music computers. I have two rigs are on the same (LAN) network, so the additional fear I have is that opening up a session on one rig will try to attach to a VEPro slave on the other. Static IPs seems to work for me and I haven't had any reason to change. That said, to know from VSL what they say "best practices" are, would be very helpful.