Problems with RDP to mini-PC

[scotty38]

Go into the network settings for your adapter (I'm assuming wireless) and you'll see the options in there. It's nothing to do with Virgin so they may not be able to help you unless you get someone keen on the end of the phone as it were. Even if they configure a static on the router you'll still need to do the pc side anyway

[StevieDvd]

Any mobile devices or smart hub (hue, hive etc) connected to your system can get an ip address. If for example a relative connects to your wifi at times and had just walked in you'd see it listed.

I agree with the others about static addresses being a good solution but as I understood your reluctance to fiddle with a working system (with little netwrking skills) I suggested arp -a as that does not change any setting.

 

 

 

[StuartT]

1 minute ago, scotty38 said:

Go into the network settings for your adapter (I'm assuming wireless) and you'll see the options in there. It's nothing to do with Virgin so they may not be able to help you unless you get someone keen on the end of the phone as it were. Even if they configure a static on the router you'll still need to do the pc side anyway

Is the adapter the router? Or do you mean something in the laptop?

[scotty38]

Yes adapter is referring to your network "card" in the mele

[StuartT]

1 minute ago, StevieDvd said:

Any mobile devices or smart hub (hue, hive etc) connected to your system can get an ip address. If for example a relative connects to your wifi at times and had just walked in you'd see it listed.

I agree with the others about static addresses being a good solution but as I understood your reluctance to fiddle with a working system (with little netwrking skills) I suggested arp -a as that does not change any setting.

Thanks. But if apr -a can't change any setting, how does it help me?

[scotty38]

arp -a will just give you a list of addresses in use basically

[StuartT]

4 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Yes adapter is referring to your network "card" in the mele

ok, so are you saying I can set something in the windows control panel of the Mele which makes it always take the same IP address? (whereas normally it is the router than assigns those)?

[scotty38]

yes configure your mele to use a static address similar to what I mentioned plus you will then also need to set up the DNS entries.

Right click the network icon in the system tray and go into settings. This might look different depending on win 10/win 11 but then pick the adapter and click Edit and go from there. Should be self explanatory....

[StevieDvd]

4 minutes ago, StuartT said:

Thanks. But if apr -a can't change any setting, how does it help me?

It will show you the ip address assigned to your devices (once you know their mac address).

For how to change the static address on your pc, mini-pc or both here's a page with the instructions. You can use Windows settings, a command line or a powershell.

Your pertinent details are the router is 192.168.0.1 and your PC is currently 192.168.0.13

Do you have a direct connection to the Mele or only a remote one?

[StuartT]

10 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

It will show you the ip address assigned to your devices (once you know their mac address).

so is a MAC address something that doesn't change then, for a given device?

11 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

Do you have a direct connection to the Mele or only a remote one?

I am connecting to the Mele via windows remote desktop. The Mele is currently plugged into the router via a cable (so is on the same network)

[scotty38]

mac address won't change, unless you change it on purpose but generally that's not done

[StuartT]

So the Mele seems to now be 198.168.0.34

Interface: 192.168.0.13 --- 0x4
  Internet Address      Physical Address      Type
  192.168.0.1           40-0d-10-9e-e4-08     dynamic
  192.168.0.34          00-ce-39-d1-7a-e3     dynamic
  192.168.0.255         ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff     static
  224.0.0.22            01-00-5e-00-00-16     static
  224.0.0.251           01-00-5e-00-00-fb     static
  224.0.0.252           01-00-5e-00-00-fc     static
  239.255.67.250        01-00-5e-7f-43-fa     static
  239.255.255.250       01-00-5e-7f-ff-fa     static
  255.255.255.255       ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff     static

So if all the 192 addreses are actual devices, there does seem to be one connected that already has a static IP (192.168.0.255). I wonder what that one is?

[scotty38]

That's the "network" essentially, don't worry about that one.

[StuartT]

sorry for all the questions. two more

1. should I set the static IP address to be the same for the ethernet and the wifi connection?

2. it's asking for other addresses like gateway and subnet mask. Do I find those out from ipconfig /all and just keep them the same?

[scotty38]

Different addresses for eth and wireless.

From what I've seen your router is 192.168.0.1 and subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

[StuartT]

Just now, scotty38 said:

Different addresses for eth and wireless.

Ok, so I'll need to save two RDP connection settings shortctuts on my laptop depending on how the Mele is connected to the network (one with each IP address in)

[scotty38]

yep

[StuartT]

is the gateway IP the same as the router IP?

Also, I need to enter two DNS servers. So  I use 194.168.4.100 and 194.198.8.100 ?

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX500-DBS Wireless Network Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 9C-B6-D0-3F-49-8D
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::b75f:ced0:3aca:2fd2%4(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.13(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 27 December 2022 17:04:37
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 29 December 2022 11:15:50
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 261928656
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-28-27-1A-8E-9C-EB-E8-D9-1D-E5
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
                                       194.168.8.100

 

[scotty38]

yes and yes

[scotty38]

I know a typo but 194.168 for both

[StuartT]

ok. It looked like that worked! Thanks so much for your patience 🙂

[scotty38]

no worries

[StuartT]

it's now saying that the fixed IP I set the Mele to is a dynamic one. Is this expected?

[scotty38]

yep that's fine.

Just to add it shows as dynamic as you have basically fudged a static but the dhcp server doesn't really know it's a static.

As I mentioned the downside to doing it this way is that the DHCP server in your router "could" assign that same address to a different device and then you'd have a conflict. On a small home network and the address "out of the way" it's a good shout that it'll all be fine.

Edited December 28, 2022 by scotty38

[StuartT]

sorry one more thing... how do I see my remote (mini PC) drives from my laptop?

There are lots of web guides to how to do the reverse (how to see my local drives from my remote PC) and I have that working fine. But seemingly no guides to how to do the reverse. Thanks

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by StuartT