Computer Name instead of IP address

[russ]

Ralph once mentioned it was possible to use the computer name on your network instead of the IP address when setting up Air Manager. He siad he'd do a video when he returned from vacation ( aside: Is it me or do the Dutch seem to have a lot of vacations ), Instead of waiting I decided to give it a try myself. It was really EASY.

I had used the Sim's IP address but my DHCP router will often reassign them (thats why the D stands for dynamic) and with a new IP addresses it break my connection with the Sim. In X-Plane I can go to the network menu and get the sims IP address. On Windows I have to start ipconfig in the command prompt to get the IPV4 address. I got tired of this ritual.

So tonight I tried figuring out my computer name. In Windows 10 just go to Startmenu -> Settings->About and the computer name is show as below (circled in red here). You can rename it there too.

(click image to enlarge...back arrow to return)

Then just replace the IP address with that computer name as shown below and Voila! It works. I am told it will continue to find the sime as IP addresses are reassigned.

Hope I am not the only one who didn't know you could do this...if so sorry to waste your time.

[WillemijnL]

This works fine when both computers are Windows computers. I have tested it with Air Manager on a Windows computer and the flightsim (X-Plane) on a Linux computer and unfortunately it didn't work. In this case you can use another solution: reserved ip adresses in your router. DHCP gives "random" ip adressen. But every network card (ethernet or wifi) has a unique MAC address. It looks like 54-A0-50-40-72-8C or 54:A0:50:40:72:8C. In DHCP you can link an ip address to that MAC address. Log in into your router and go to the DHCP-settings. Go to the DHCP clients list, search for the flightsim computer and copy the MAC address. If you don't know which one it is in the list, you can also look at the networksettings on the flightsim computer and find it there. Next go to the DHCP address reservations and add a new reservation. Fill in the MAC address and the desired ip address and save it. Most routers should be rebooted now. See your router manual for how it works in your router.

This solution works when the DHCP ip range is greater then the total number of devices (pc's+laptops+tablets+smartphones+other devices) connected to your router. DHCP is always dynamic, but If there are enough ip adresses in the range, the reserved addresses will not be used for other devices and it will act as a fixed ip adress. You will be save when the number of ip adresses in the range (end address minus start address) is at least the number of devices + 20.

Example of DHCP settings:
Start ip address: 192.168.1.50
End ip adress: 192.168.1.99
Flightsim MAC adress: 54-A0-50-40-72-8C
Reservation: 54-A0-50-40-72-8C, 192.168.1.50

Now you flightsim computer will get ip address 192.168.1.50 every time it connects to the router. If you have 20 connected devices you are save. The ip range is from 50 to 99. That are 50 ip addresses and that's enough for all your devices. In Air Manager you can now use the ip address 192.168.1.50. I'm using this solution and it works very well.

[russ]

Thanks. I am only using windows but your info will be helpful for others. This has made life so much easire with AIr manager not worrying about changing DHCP ip address changes. Wonder if it will work with Mac OS?

[Glenn]

Fantastic this helps me immensely thank you.