15ECLYPSE APEX
Fixed IP Address or Hostname Management
Why should ECLYPSE IP controllers use a fixed IP address or use hostname Management? To pro-
gram or to access an IP controller, you must be able to connect to it. Like a postal address, a fixed IP
address that is always assigned to the same device allows you to consistently connect to and work
with the same device.
An alternative to using a fixed IP address is to use the controller’s Hostname Management which al-
lows a controller to be identified by a nickname such as
Office_205
instead of the controller’s IP ad-
dress. The hostname can be used in a Web browser’s address bar or in the EC-
gfx
Program’s
Connect
to
screen.
Networking Basics
When manually configuring the TCP/IP interface on an ECLYPSE IP controller (the DHCP option is
not used), an IP address, subnetwork mask, and a default gateway are required in the Network Set-
tings.
IP Addressing
The most widely used internet addressing scheme is IPv4. It codes an IP address in 32 bits.
An IPv4 address is made up of two parts defined by a subnetwork mask; the network portion (which
identifies a specific network or subnetwork) and the host portion (which identifies a specific device).
About the Subnetwork Mask
Devices on the same sub-network can address IP packets to each other directly without routing. The
range of IP addresses available in a sub-network is defined by the subnetwork mask. This is also
called the subnetwork mask’s ‘address space’. The subnetwork mask is coded in 32 bits as follows.
An IP packet addressed to a device on another network portion will have to be routed through the
router’s WAN port as such an address is not local. BACnet/IP broadcast discovery messages such as
“Who-Is” do not pass through network routers that separate subnetworks. This means that BACnet/IP
controllers on different subnetworks will not normally communicate with each other.
BBMD allows broadcast message to pass through a router: on each subnet, a single device has
BBMD enabled. Each BBMD device ensures BACnet/IP connectivity between subnets by forwarding
broadcast messages found on its subnetwork to each other, and then onto the local subnetwork as a
broadcast message. See BBMD Settings.
IPv4 Communication Fundamentals
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