Practiscore on a Nook: Device Sync Screen Auto-populating List

[euxx]

Too late to change anything, but it pains me every time I have to enter that sync code.

It should have been a..p encoding instead of hex, so you won't have to flip to numeric keyboard in the middle.

On a side note, get all your PS devices within +/-50 ip address range and it should find them faster if they are within +/-50 ip range. Anything outside, adds another 20 seconds for each 100 of ips, so worse case should be within 60 seconds. I fixed some issues in 1.2.13 android version to get it work better when device ips are not at the beginning of subnet.

[NMBOpen]

Is there a tutorial somewhere so a non-network person can make it happen (we also use ZyXel portable router)?

[wgnoyes]

Question. I've never seen a dhcp router that, in its default factory state, didn't start handing out addresses at either 192.168.1.nnn or 192.168.0.nnn. Does practiscore start looking from the 192.168 range or from something less usual?

[euxx]

On android 1.2.13 version - the first batch of 100 is from the current device ip +/-50 ips all run concurrently with 20 sec timeout.

I could probably check if device is not a Nook and run them all in the first batch...

[wgnoyes]

So if i understand that correctly, if the searching device is 192.168.1.50, then you first look from 192.168 .1.0 to .100? Makes sense. Problem i always had was that the nooks couldn't find anything while ios could on the same network, but that issue has since disappeared.

[Graham Smith]

So if i understand that correctly, if the searching device is 192.168.1.50, then you first look from 192.168 .1.0 to .100?

I need to check and see what range my device is using. I set it up to use a high range so that it wouldn't interfere with my network but it looks like it might be better to use a completely different value in the

It sounds as if it might make sense to use a different value in the 3rd octet than what I use for my network and just let the addresses be completely separate. That would allow me to move everything down into the lower address range. Certainly worth a try.

<time passes>

Well, that didn't help me. In fact, now the Master doesn't see the stage Nooks at all.

<more time passes>

Just for giggles, I connected the Nooks to my network WiFi router and everything works full speed ahead. The stage Nooks show up on the Master instantly. Now, the big question is, why? What makes them work better with this router?

<still more time passes>

I cannot say for absolute sure that all of the assumptions I am making are correct so you can skip over them if you want. But I have the Nooks working quite well with my ZyXel Travel Router now. Here is what I did.

My office network is 192.168.10.xxx so I changed the router to 192.168.1.1 and the DHCP to 1.2 to 1.20. When I did this, as noted above, the master could not see the stages at all.

I then changed the router from being an Access Point to being a Router and I went into the advanced settings and change the channel from 6 to Auto (which scans for the best) and the Preamble from Long to Short. I shut down all the Nooks, rebooted the router, and restarted the Nooks.

After doing this I discovered two things. One is that they now sync much faster - not as fast as with my office network but not bad either. Two is that the device codes went from being 37A0 type addresses to being 0102 type addresses. This is where my first assumption comes in - I'm not convinced that changing the IP range on the router caused the Nooks to change their device code, which may have kept them from communicating.

There is one more thing that stands out and is clearly connected but I'm not sure which change is responsible. Previously, when I checked the router to see what was connected, it was only showing an active DHCP connection for the master device, but it now shows them all. This indicates that once they connected and got an IP address, the Nooks were not maintaining a connect to the router.

Anyway, you can take this all for what it is - some knowledge about networking and some luck and some lingering questions.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Graham Smith

[wgnoyes]

So if i understand that correctly, if the searching device is 192.168.1.50, then you first look from 192.168 .1.0 to .100?

...

Just for giggles, I connected the Nooks to my network WiFi router and everything works full speed ahead. The stage Nooks show up on the Master instantly. Now, the big question is, why? What makes them work better with this router?

...

That's a damn good question. When I was using an old link sys wrt54g router as my range router, nooks would take minutes and minutes to find the first damn device anywhere on the range. Take the exact same nooks and iOS masters home and let them connect to my apple time capsule and the nooks saw the iPad in fairly short order. Now we have a different router/dhcp server at the range and everything works well there now.

[Graham Smith]

I'll have some more time later but I've got three different setups I can experiment with and I rather expect that the answer lies within those setups. It's just a matter of systematically testing things and that's right up my alley.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Graham Smith

[euxx]

Please make sure to use android ver 1.2.13 for your tests.

[wgnoyes]

Wheres 1.12.13? 1.2.12 is on the website.

[euxx]

You know where it is. Will be posted as soon volunteers are done playing with it. Hopefully this week.

[wgnoyes]

No, I didn't know, but thanks.

[Graham Smith]

Please make sure to use android ver 1.2.13 for your tests.

As soon as it is out.

[Mark R]

I ran a test on my pocket router (Ken's recommended) and put my tablet in DHCP reservation with IP of .1 and Nooks .10-.17 and the Nooks now show up in sync page fairly fast now. When tablet was above the range, they seemed to show slowly...not sure why, but it works for me now.

Device Name Sync IP Address

Tablet1 RCPST 0001 192.168.0.1

Nook #1 RCPS1 000B 192.168.0.11

Nook #2 RCPS2 000C 192.168.0.12

Nook #3 RCPS3 000D 192.168.0.13

Nook #4 RCPS4 000E 192.168.0.14

Nook #5 RCPS5 000F 192.168.0.15

Nook #6 RCPS6 0010 192.168.0.16

Nook #7 RCPS7 0002 192.168.0.17

Edited March 18, 2014 by Mark R

[Graham Smith]

I ran a test on my pocket router (Ken's recommended)

Which one is that?

[Mark R]

I ran a test on my pocket router (Ken's recommended)

Which one is that?

D-Link DAP-1350 wireless-N pocket router and access point

[Graham Smith]

I'll give the D-Link a try.

[RadarTech]

For what it is worth with the 13 release I set up a dhcp pool so it had 2 ips from below 10 and the rest above 200 and it still found the others pretty quick...... I can time it if you want. But the difference from 1.2.7 to .13 is night and 2 days later.

Edited March 20, 2014 by RadarTech

[Graham Smith]

Here is another question. Is there any reason to think that a Nook set up with Root-n-Scoreit would deal with this any differently than one setup with the older NST rooting method?

[wgnoyes]

I shouldn't think so. rootnscoreit is based on ctay's graphical nook manager system, with scripts added to tweak all the under-the-covers settings that you would otherwise have to plod through yourself. As far as I know, it's still the B&N wireless code that is controlling here, because that's where you go to select your wifi network.

[Graham Smith]

As far as I know, it's still the B&N wireless code that is controlling here, because that's where you go to select your wifi network.

I've got 8 Nooks that are (or should be) identical but I can't be 100% sure about that since they were not all purchased together from the same place - and even if they were that may not be a guarantee.

If I connect all of them to the travel router and then turn it off, it doesn't take long before the wireless icon disappears. If I turn the router back on after a couple minutes then it seems that they almost all reconnect shortly. But sometimes one won't reconnect for a couple minutes and sometimes it won't reconnect at all. If I leave it off for 30 min then I can be pretty sure none of them will reconnect.

It's possible that this has to do with what the Nook is doing - how often it tries to reconnect and what happens if it doesn't. It's also possible that they are conflicting with each other trying to connect all at the same time. It's also possible that they are trying to reconnect using the same IP that they got before and running into conflicts if another Nook has it.

IOW, there are a bunch of possibilities. What I'm going to try is just working with a single Nook for a while and see if any of them behave differently. Also, work from a written test protocol and record all the results. The D-Link router arrives today and I'll add it to the test protocols along with the ZyXel and my office Linksys routers. That's a lot of variables to test so this is going to take quite some time.

[wgnoyes]

Well, I know this is completely non-helpful, but all I can say is our stuff works with common and un-common routers, and I don't have to do anything to convince a nook to auto-reconnect after it's dropped off the air.

EXCEPT for one router I tried. I bought a TP-LINK TL MR-3040 pocket battery-powered router/AP. I took it to the range for a monthly match and turned it on and used it at check-in to network everything together, do all the initial syncs, etc, etc, and send everyone on their way. The thinking was I could wander around to those stages far enough away, from time to time and get scores more often than I was. Nope. THAT router, whenever a nook fell off the air, it STAYED off the air. I turned it off, out out the old linksys wrt54g router I'd been using before and fired it up, and everything popped back up onto the master sync list. Then I found out they'd had to do the same thing with this model of router at GA State. If I'd known, I never would have bought it. Oh well. But everything else, the nooks we have all seem to do fine for auto-connect.

[Graham Smith]

I've already run into my first problem. Got the new DLink router and took it out of the box and powered it up and can't connect to it. I've been doing this stuff for over 30yrs now and it just doesn't seem to get any easier <sigh>.

I'm putting this aside until the weekend when I have the time to screw with it.

[RadarTech]

Well, I know this is completely non-helpful, but all I can say is our stuff works with common and un-common routers, and I don't have to do anything to convince a nook to auto-reconnect after it's dropped off the air.

EXCEPT for one router I tried. I bought a TP-LINK TL MR-3040 pocket battery-powered router/AP. I took it to the range for a monthly match and turned it on and used it at check-in to network everything together, do all the initial syncs, etc, etc, and send everyone on their way. The thinking was I could wander around to those stages far enough away, from time to time and get scores more often than I was. Nope. THAT router, whenever a nook fell off the air, it STAYED off the air. I turned it off, out out the old linksys wrt54g router I'd been using before and fired it up, and everything popped back up onto the master sync list. Then I found out they'd had to do the same thing with this model of router at GA State. If I'd known, I never would have bought it. Oh well. But everything else, the nooks we have all seem to do fine for auto-connect.

Interesting..... I've not tried this with a nook but some devices have issues with the mac address of the AP changing...... I'd be curious if the Linksys or the battery powered can change the Mac on the wifi interface. And is so make it the Mac of the other, and see what happens.

Just a thought.....

[Greg Bell]

Wish I had seen this sooner, I just ordered this exact router. Its the only battery powered router I could find.

Well, I know this is completely non-helpful, but all I can say is our stuff works with common and un-common routers, and I don't have to do anything to convince a nook to auto-reconnect after it's dropped off the air.

EXCEPT for one router I tried. I bought a TP-LINK TL MR-3040 pocket battery-powered router/AP. I took it to the range for a monthly match and turned it on and used it at check-in to network everything together, do all the initial syncs, etc, etc, and send everyone on their way. The thinking was I could wander around to those stages far enough away, from time to time and get scores more often than I was. Nope. THAT router, whenever a nook fell off the air, it STAYED off the air. I turned it off, out out the old linksys wrt54g router I'd been using before and fired it up, and everything popped back up onto the master sync list. Then I found out they'd had to do the same thing with this model of router at GA State. If I'd known, I never would have bought it. Oh well. But everything else, the nooks we have all seem to do fine for auto-connect.