FAQs: Local Network Access What do I need to do to access the web pages of my thermostat? From an overview perspective, you need to do the following: - Have power applied to the thermostat
- Have the physical Ethernet connection installed
- Have a working DHCP server on your network
- Get the IP address and port from the lcd display of the thermostat
- Using a pc on the same local are network as the thermostat, type in the IP address and port into your browser.
See the following questions for more information on this subject. Back to top How does my thermostat get an IP address? Proliphix thermostats are DHCP clients. When a thermostat initializes; it sends a request for an IP address to a DHCP server. The DHCP server responds and provides the thermostat with a unique IP address. Back to top What is a DHCP server? A DHCP server provides unique IP addresses to computers or other networked devices on the same IP subnet network. The DHCP server guarantees that no two devices on the network will have the same IP addresses. This address resolution prevents IP collisions that can cause network problems. Back to top What is the difference between dynamic and static IP address? The NT thermostat defaults to a dynamic IP address. Therefore it requires a DHCP server to resolve its IP address. The Dynamic address could be different each time the device does an IP address request. A static address does not change and therefore does not require a DHCP address resolution. Back to top Why do I need a DHCP server on my network? The thermostat requires a DHCP server to be present on the network to provide the initial address resolution. Once the thermostat has an IP address you are able to access the unit by using your browser. It is recommended that once you access the thermostat via the web pages, you should set your thermostat to a static IP address. This will ensure that your thermostat will always be at the same IP address when you try to access it. Back to top What else should I know about static addresses? When your DHCP server gives you an IP address, it is from a pool of available addresses the DHCP server maintains. If you change your IP address method to static without changing the IP address to something outside the pool of available DHCP addresses, the DHCP server may assign another device the same address as your were given from the DHCP server. It is strongly recommended to set your static address outside the range of the DHCP pool. Here’s an example of this process: If you have a Linksys router, you are most likely going to be given an IP address in the range of 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150. This is because the default setting for most Linksys routers is to have 50 addresses available to the DHCP pool. When you change the thermostat IP address mode to static, you should set your IP address to something like 192.168.1.50 to 192.168.1.99, this way you will not end up with two devices that have the same address. Back to top What does locally connecting to my thermostat mean? Locally connecting to your thermostat means that your pc is on the same subnet as your thermostat and no routing is needed for the two devices to communicate with each other. For example, your thermostat has an IP address of 192.168.1.50 and your pc has an IP address of 192.168.1.100. The two devices are considered to be on the same network. All you would need to do is type in http://192.168.111.100 in the address field of your browser and you would then see the Proliphix web pages from your thermostat. In this example, there is no need for an active Internet connection to allow the pc to talk to the thermostat. Back to top How do I access my thermostat from a browser on my local PC? The thermostat can be accessed through your LAN with a browser. You will need to know the IP address and the port number of the thermostat you are trying to view. To get the address from the thermostat, go to the lcd on the thermostat, select “Next” and then “Network Status” to display the current IP address and port for the thermostat. Type the address and port number into you browser address bar with the following format: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: . This can be bookmarked for future access. Back to top What browsers are supported? We have tested our thermostats with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers. Safari on the Macintosh has been reported by end users to work, but we do not provide a Macintosh firmware upgrade utility. If you are a Macintosh user and need to perform an upgrade, you will need access to a Windows based pc. Back to top
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