Dynamic IP, can Cumulus be configured to accept a DNS name?

[drizzle]

HI,
Sorry if this is answered already but I could not find an answer fro my dilemma.

I have a vantage vue weather station with the IP logger and would like to send the data to a server directly over the net without the need of having a PC connected to the station but rather mobile connection using a 3G router. The 3G connection obviously do not have a fixed IP address but can be connected to e.g. DynDNS to get a DNS name.

Is there a way to configure Cumulus to accept a connection from a DNS name rather than an IP address?

[steve]

The spec for the command to connect to the IP logger doesn't mention being able to use a host name, so it looks like it wouldn't work. You could always just try it.

short int OpenTCPIPPort_V (const char *TCPPort, const char *IPAddr)
Description
Use this function to open the port of the TCPIP WeatherLink IP device. Example:

OpenTCPIPPort_V(“22222”, ”00:1D:0A:00:00:4A”);

OpenTCPIPPort_V(“22222”, ”172.16.24.12”).

The software automatically detects the 2nd parameter as either a Device ID or an IP Address by looking at the format of the string.

[drizzle]

Thanks for the reply Steve,

A thought occurred to me (it happens rather seldom thats why i felt obligated to write it here

How much trouble would it be to make Cumulus support a dns query?
E.g. You could add the DNS name to the UI but what it would do in the background would be finding out the IP of the name and use that to connect to the IP logger...

i would just love to NOT have to put a PC in the place where the weatherstation is.

[steve]

Yes, I could add a DNS lookup to Cumulus for the IP logger. If you want to create an enhancement request, then it won't get forgotten.

[gemini06720]

...would like to send the data to a server directly over the net without the need of having a PC connected to the station...

That is exactly the purpose of the Davis Instruments WeatherLinkIP adapter (ie: model #6555) - the adapter has been designed to send the data captured by either a Vantage Pro or a Vantage Vue weather station directly over the Internet without the use of a PC.

The only problem is that the WeatherLinkIP adapter can and will contact and send data to only one site, the Davis Instruments WeatherLink Network and nowhere else!

Trying to get (capture) data from the WeatherLinkIP adapter by directly accessing its IP address is very unreliable at best ... unless the adapter's option to automatically uploads to the WeatherLink Network is de-activated.

[drizzle]

It is disabled yes, I have now had it on for quite a while and it seem to work flawlessly. Tomorrow it will be installed to its intended location and then the traffic will be over a 3G link. The IP is the same as long a s the router does not boot or experience any other problems.
Very happy when/if the DNS lookup is being coded. Meanwhile I can check the IP address from the no-ip.org account and change it accordingly...

[oh6hfx]

Well I have had VP2 with Ip datalogger connected now with ADSL and dynamic dns 10km far away from my home and
Cumulus connects with my dyndns address without problems. 4th day going without any connection problems.

Johannes

[steve]

Cumulus connects with my dyndns address without problems.

I had a feeling that it did work, despite what the spec says, which is why I suggested to "drizzle" that it was worth trying.

[drizzle]

I'l be damned, it really does work!

Then this is an easy improvement Steve, just change the topic from "IP Address" to "IP address or URL"

Cheers
Tom

[drizzle]

I forgot...

If you need a translation to Finnish i just did that for this site of mine http://www.efnu.fi I'm happy to provide it for you.

-Tom

[oh6hfx]

Thanks for your offer Drizzle, I was searching for a ready Finnish template two weeks ago, but did not find, so I did it myself

Last night two minutes outage in connection, have to look if it was ADSL going down or up there.

My site http://www.ohtakari.com

Johannes

[drizzle]

A little update to the DNS issue...

If I close Cumulus and start it again it fails to connect to the weather station when there is a DNS name instead of the IP address.
If I then ping the name, get the IP address and add it, it works. then if I change the Newly added IP address in cumulus back to the DNS name it seems to be working...

Can you think of any reason for this behaviour?

[steve]

Some kind of name resolution issue, I guess. I've just tried experimenting putting various host names in, while running Wireshark, and I can see that it successfully did a name lookup each time, and then attempted to connect to port 5511 at the address that the name resolves to. The connect failed, of course, as there isn't actually an IP logger to connect to.

[mcrossley]

A little update to the DNS issue...

If I close Cumulus and start it again it fails to connect to the weather station when there is a DNS name instead of the IP address.
If I then ping the name, get the IP address and add it, it works. then if I change the Newly added IP address in cumulus back to the DNS name it seems to be working...

Can you think of any reason for this behaviour?

Were you just restarting Cumulus or rebooting the whole PC? If the later the network may not be ready when Cumulus starts?

[oh6hfx]

Now I remember also, that when I had the dyndns name in Cumulus and started it again, it was hanging in
"loading data" for minutes, then I gave up. So far "catching up" the logger has not been working, I have restarted Cumulus maybe two-three times but
as it is anyway running 24/7 it is not really issue until adsl line in either one end fails for some time...

By the way, when Davis IP logger was here in my local network, I experienced that the data rate from the logger is incredible slow. When I access the logger with HTTP
the front page loads slowly as well.. Maybe there is no need for gigabit ethernet to transfer simple weather data

Johannes