Alien Reader, Crossover Cable and Windows 7, 8

Post date: Apr 18, 2013 1:28:08 PM

A have now been through two situations where folks got their Alien reader, connected it to their computer with the enclosed crossover cable, and CrossMgrAlien did not work.

By default, Windows 7/8 does not recognize a network consisting of a crossover cable. It will then refuse any communication over it.

There are two solutions:

The first is to forget about the crossover cable, use a regular cable, and plug everything into a DHCP wired network router (like this one). The router will assign an IP address to the Alien reader. You can then look up what the IP address is by logging into the router and checking the LAN DHCP Client List.

Although using a router is slightly more complex than just a cable, you might wish to do this anyway if you have a network printer, want to connect to the internet, or otherwise need a communication network at your race (perhaps a wireless one to publish results in real-time).

Windows 7/8 easily recognizes a router and will allow you to configure it as a Private network.

The other solution is to configure Windows 7/8 to recognize the crossover cable as a network.

The following are the best instructions I could find, however, there are many reports from people that have had trouble getting this to work:

  • Verify that you have a crossover Ethernet cable. A crossover Ethernet cable is required to connect computers with Windows OS; whereas a standard Ethernet cable will only establish a connection between a computer and router.

    • Plug each end of the Ethernet cable into an Ethernet network port on each computer to connect the computers together with the cable.

    • On the Windows7/8 computer, and click on the "Start" menu. The "Start" menu often resembles the Microsoft Windows logo.

    • Select "Control Panel," then type "network" into the search box provided to you within Control Panel.

    • Select "Network and Sharing Center" from the options displayed in the window.

    • Select and open the icon labeled "Unidentified network" from the network map at the top of the Network and Sharing Center window. This icon may display as "Multiple networks" if you have more than one network.

    • Click on the message that prompts you to change the network discovery and file sharing settings, then click on the option that reads, "Turn on network discovery and file sharing."

    • Type the administrator password for the computer if prompted to do so, then press "Enter" on your keyboard. The reader should now be visible in the Network and Sharing Center window, and you will have the ability to communicate with it.

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