How To Connect to Gateway using Telnet

The Gateway configuration menu can be access both by telnet using the ethernet interface or from a serial console using the RS-232 port and 57600,8,N,1 serial port settings.  This post describes how to connect to your OmniSense or GE HygroTrac gateway using the ethernet interface and telnet.

1.  first make sure your computer has a telnet client installed.  By default, Windows XP has a telnet client.  By default Windows 7 has a telnet client but you have to manually enable it.  To manually enable your Windows 7 telnet client got to your search box and enter "turn windows features on or off" then click on "turn windows features on or off" which pops up a box of windows features.  Scroll down and check the "Telnet Client" box and click OK.

2. connect your gateway directly to your computer with an ethernet cable.  Connect the gateway to power.  The LAN Link LED above the gateway's Ethernet jack MUST be on or blinking.  If the LAN Link LED is not on then either your ethernet cable is bad OR your computer does not support "Auto MDX".  To solve the bad cable problem, try another cable.  To solve the "your computer does not support Auto MDX" problem either find a ethernet crossover cable OR connect both the gateway and the computer to a ethernet switch or hub.  The LAN Link LED above the gateway's Ethernet jack MUST be on or blinking or you will NOT be able to connect to it.

3.  To telnet to the gateway you MUST know its IP address.  The default IP address of the gateway is 169.254.1.1.  BUT if you previously set a static IP address then you MUST use that address and your PC's IP address MUST be on the same IP subnet.  In other words if your gateway has a static IP set to 192.168.1.50 then your PC MUST have an IP address of 192.168.1.xx or in other words the first 3 numbers of the IP MUST be the same, ie the "192.168.1" portion of the addresses MUST match.  If your gateway does not have a static IP set then you MUST communicate with it on its default IP which is 169.254.1.1 and your PC must NOT have a static IP set on its ethernet interface and you must disbale ALL other network interfaces on your PC, typically this includes your PC's WiFi interface.  Optionally you can look up the gateway's DHCP assigned IP address in your router's DHCP clients list but how to do that is beyond the scope of this how to.

4.  Open a command window on your PC.  To do this enter "cmd" in your search box then hit enter.

5.  If the gateway does NOT have a static IP then read this.  Both the PC and the gateway use AutoIP to assign themselves a 169.254.x.x IP address.  The way AutoIP works is the PC and the gateway first try to get an IP address from a DHCP server.  If no DHCP server is found (and it wont be for what we are doing) then they default to a AutoIP address.  This process takes about 30 seconds.  That means you MUST wait 30 seconds after you power up the gateway before trying to telnet to it.  If your PC was connected by ethernet to another network and you simply pull the cable from the network and connect it to our gateway then you MUST force the network interface to reset its settings in order to get it to use the AutoIP address.  At the command prompt enter the following two commands:
  ipconfig /release
  ipconfig /renew
After the second command completes (sometimes this takes a while) you should see the following message:
  An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.
Which is expected.  To verify your computer properly assigned itself a AutoIP address enter the following command at the command prompt:
  ipconfig
and you should see something that looks like this with the most import thing being the line bolded below showing the PC used a AutoIP address.

continued in next post ....

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-25-64-E9-F8-23
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.203.120(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 71.2.28.14
                                       63.162.197.99
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

5.  At the command prompt enter the following command.  In the command example below we assume you are using the gateway's default IP of 169.254.1.1 but if you have previously set a static IP then you MUST use it instead
  telnet 169.254.1.1 9999

6.  you should now see the following welcome message (will say OmniSense or GE HygroTrac depending on your model):
Welcome to the GE Sensing HygroTrac(TM) Gateway
For product support please visit www.gehygrotrac.com
Gateway Firmware Revision : 0135 Aug 23 2012 14:53:49
Radio Firmware Revision : 0135
Radio Configuration Revision : 1000
Gateway ID : 0C730005
MAC : 00-16-F1-00-00-08
10-18-2012 13:10:14 GMT
Press space bar for setup menu at any time.

7.  Press the space bar and you should see a full menu like this:
Setup Menu
(a) Set LAN static IP(000.000.000.000)
(b) Set LAN default gateway IP(000.000.000.000)
(c) Set LAN subnet mask(000.000.000.000)
(d) Set Remote Server IP(216.16.214.15)
(e) Set Wireless Network Address(DEFADEFA)
(f) Set dialup number()
(g) Set dialup username()
(h) Set dialup password()
(i) Set MODEM custom AT command string()
(j) Set dialup time interval in minutes(720)
(k) Set dialup retries(2)
(l) Use LAN connection(N)
(m) Use MODEM connection(N)
(n) Use Auto Detect Connection(Y)
(q) exit and discard changes
(s) save changes to FLASH and reboot
enter selection>

8. Make your changes, enter "s" to save them.  Note that if you change the IP settings from the default 0.0.0.0 which means use DHCP then you will have to use the new static IP you set the next time you want to access this menu.