Need Help Clarifying Wireless set-up Design


 
T

Tim Barbee

New member
I set my Stoker up with the wireless Bridge to run over my home wireless network while I’m at home, I get that. But do I read it right that if I want to run it during competitions with a system that is just the laptop to the Stoker without the network that I must use a wireless router to connect the two?
So instead of Stoker-Bridge-Network-Laptop, I would have Stoker-Wireless Router-Laptop, do I understand that right?
 
I'm just learning about this also Tim but if I understand correctly, if there is a wireless network at the competition then you can use the wireless bridge to hook to their network and then to you laptop. Otherwise I assume you hook the stoker to the laptop with an ethernet cable. Or you if you wanted, you could build your own wireless network at the comp using an air card and a wireless router.

Like I said just learning so take this with a grain of salt.
 
Tim: I'm new to the Stoker, but I believe that you can run an ethernet cable directly from the Stoker into your laptop. No bridge needed. That would work for comps.
 
Eric is right. If the laptop is next to the stoker, then a direct cable connection is all you need. However, you then need to reconfigure both the PC and the stoker to have specific (static) IP addresses. This is pretty easy but you need to know how to do it. (there is a way to have the PC assign an address to stoker but that is too much trouble for this simple scenario.)

Alternatively, get any old wireless router. Plug one end into the stoker. Then the laptop can connect using that and your laptop is free to move around without a cable to stoker. In this scenario, no reconfiguration of either device is needed as they would both get their IP address from the router as they do today in your home.
 
Tim - I have the same configuration at home and at comps that you are talking about. At home, I use a wireless bridge to put the Stoker on my home network. At comps, I use a wireless router to connect the Stoker to my laptop. Most comps won't have an internet access or if it does, it is not secured so I would access it very carefully.

At comps, I use the wireless router since the Stoker is out by the smoker and my laptop is in the travel trailer -- running a wire is not an option for me.
 
I do the same thing Steve does. I had a spare Linksys WRT54G kicking around that I use for comps. Just set it up with security and a unique network name and hook the stoker up to it. I'm able to monitor/control the cook from inside my trailer. It's basically a 2 node network.

-rob
 
Thanks for all the info.
For my comp set-up it sound like the Stoker-Cable-Laptop will be the best, it will be one less thing to plug in.
 
Thanks for all the help. I have the system up and running with both the wireless bridge and the direct cable set-ups.
Working on a trailer redo right now so I can't do a test cook as of yet but if the weather clears up maybe in the next week or two.
 
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