Railmaster and iPad

[Glosgas]

I'm sure that this has been covered a multitude of times, but I've searched for an answered and can't find one.

I have purchased a licensed copy of Railmaster, but i want to experiment before I decided which computer to install it on.  I have downloaded the latest version and installed it on an old laptop.  It works fine.  I want to be able to control the layout from the touch screen on my iPad.  I have connected to www.my-apps.eu and followed the instructions. I know the IP address of the laptop and entered it correctly.  I have started Railmaster on the laptop and then the iPad.  The iPad says Connecting to 192.168.0.76:30, but doen't connect; it just cycles through the numbers after the colon.

The Laptop is running Window 7 and McAfee, supplies by BT.  I have tried turning off the Firewall completely.

A couple of questions are:

Do I need to setup Port Forwarding on the router?

Does the www.my-apps.eu link work with the demo software?

And finally most importantly....

Can someone help please?

[Chrissaf]

Do I need to setup Port Forwarding on the router?

.

You shouldn't need to.

.

Does the iPad 'Mobile App' work with the demo software?

.

Yes, according to the HH manual.

.

Go to AC's RM Help Site. There are instructions there on setting the 'static IP addresses' needed to use the 'hand held' throttle APP.

.

The link to AC's help site can be found here:

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/railmaster-help-site/?p=1

.

Even if you get the iPad APP to communicate with RM, there are still unresolved issues with it. The Mobile APP is awaiting a complete (promised) re-write update. Until that happens, it really isn't IMO worth expending time and resources on trying to use it.

.

McAfee is known to cause issues with RM. McAfee is just too aggressive and blocks RM access to external resources. McAfee is also documented on the Help site mentioned above.

[Fishmanoz]

There is also no problem with activating RM to experiment because you can deactivate, move it then reactivate as many times as you want. 

[2Gingers]

Hi Glosgas,

 

I remember having that problem a few years ago, and if my memory serves me right - I had to go in to the ini file and alter the TCP start address, something like from 30 to 50.

 

This might not solve your perticular problem but its worth a try.

[Glosgas]

Thanks to you both.

I've looked at AC's guidance; I couldn't immediately spot anything particular to my problem.  I will try fixing the Laptop's IP address, although everytime I've tried to solve the problem I'va always checked that the IP address hasn't changed.  I had read that McAfee is particulary unhelpful with Railmaster. I had uninstalled it before I installed Railmaster.  I'd prefer to see a dedicated App.  I've also tried changing the Port addess, al to no avail.

I had intended, if I cold get the iPad working, to access the Railmaster App from my desktop Mac and use that as the Railmaster controller. Like remorely controlling the Laptop software from the Mac Desktop.

[Glosgas]

Cracked it!

i changed the Laptop static IP from 192.168.0.76 to 192.168.1.76 and it worked. Quite why, I don’t know. 

[Chrissaf]

Quite why, I don’t know

.

I can tell you why.

.

The 192.168.0.n address you used is not on the same TCP/IP Network as your router. For two devices to communicate together when both are connected to the same LAN, they BOTH have to be configured to use the same Network and / or sub-net IP address. Since 192.168.1.76 worked, then that means that your router has an address that also starts with 192.168.1

.

Some ISP provided routers also use Network ID 192.168.0 instead of, or as well as 192.168.1 this is why your 192.168.0.76 address was not picked up on as being the issue. If you had also posted the router address in your first post, then the solution could have been arrived at more quickly. Congratulations anyway for finding it yourself even if it was more by luck than informed judgement.

.

For example: My router (BT provided) has a Class C private address of 192.168.1.254

.

My PC IP Address is shown in Yellow and my router IP Address shown in Green. See how they are both on the 192.168.1 Network ID

/media/tinymce_upload/bdbb1eaf7ff0fcc287408ea644a3fec6.jpg

.

I can publish this address information on the forum because it is a private address info and not broadcast onto the Internet. Loads of BT routers have this very same address. It only has very local significance to your own home network.

.

TCP/IP IP address 192.168.1.n is what they call a Class C subnet, therefore the first three octets denote the Network address and the fourth 'n' octet denotes the device on that Network of which there can be 254 (.1 to .254) on a Class C address.

.

In simple terms, when you set your RM PC with the Network address 192.168.0.76 The PC could not see the router because the router had a different Network address i.e 192.168.1.n (where n is number between 1 and 254 that is not 76)

.

Now what the router does is 'route' as the name implies TCP/IP packets from one Network ID to a another Network ID. But as the PC couldn't see the router, then the router couldn't route the packet. By having two different IP Network addresses configured on the SAME LAN segment you had created a catch 22 scenario, that couldn't be resolved by the router.

.

By changing the PC address to 192.168.1.76 you now put the PC on the SAME TCP/IP Network as the router (192.168.1.n). The PC can now communicate with the router and the router can then route the packets from the PC to the iPad.

.

But you may be thinking to yourself, but hang on a second the iPad is also on the 192.168.1.n Network. So why can't the iPad communicate directly with the RM PC without going through the router. This is called 'Peer to Peer' Networking. The RM software does not support 'Peer to Peer' networking. The iPad and the PC will be configured to send ALL LAN data packets to the router to let the router decide what to do with them. Therefore the router becomes a key component in the path of the data packets between different devices, even when those devices are on the same LAN.

.

I have somewhat over simplified the process to try and make it more understandable. There are many other protocols involved in the communication process, but I have left references to those out of this reply.

.

If you go back to AC's Help site, you will find a downloadable PDF called "IP Primer". I am the primary author of that document. It details a lot more of the networking processes and how TCP/IP addresses are constructed, if you want to learn more.