I just ordered an SLB to replace the original that came with my longmill. I want to connect via ethernet instead of USB. I have an access point router in my shop I want to connect to. Does anyone know if I can connect it directly to an access point on my network?
A few questions for you
- Is the access point used to network other devices?
- Does your gSender computer have more than one network card?
Connecting your SLB to your access point will work but I don’t know if Sienci recommends putting it on a network with other devices, other than the gSender computer. I don’t know that they discourage it either.
If your gSender computer has more than one NIC, I would use one to hard connect to the SLB and the other (wired or wireless) to connect to your home network. The gControl from Sienci had two NICs and that is how I connect it.
I’m planning to run an ethernet cable from the house to the shop because wireless from the house is pretty weak, so once I do that I will add an access point, so I could connect the SLB directly to my laptop via ethernet and the laptop via wireless however I would prefer a wired connection to my laptop to take advantage of the faster speeds.
So if I use a wired connection to my laptop I would have the laptop and SLB connected to the AP. I only have one network card on the laptop.
@dbraz77 I don’t see a reason why it would not work if the SLB IP address is on the same network as your laptop. But like I said, not sure it’s recommended.
The good news is that if it does not work, you can revert to the other scenario with the laptop connected wirelessly to your home network and wired to the SLB. Again, that would be my preferred option. Wireless speed should be adequate for your gSender pc, unless you’re streaming a 4k movie on it while cutting (or doing other Internet intensive tasks) 
Another option would be to add a USB Ethernet dongle to give you a second wired connection.
It was my understanding that the SLB only connects directly to the computer with GSender and NOT to the network itself. That’s what my experience was. Fortunately my wifi computer connection seems adequate as it is closer to the modem.
@ArtPetch From a connectivity standpoint, it doesn’t matter if you have a direct connection from the SLB to the gSender computer or if both are connected to your home network. What likely does matter is the throughput. You would not want congestion on your home network to affect comms between gSender and the SLB.
The SLB Technical Manual talks about connecting directly, not via network. It also states that you lose the ability to flash the firmware via ethernet - you can only flash via USB. I would expect that any network traffic could cause communication issues - there is a lot of things going on in the background on a network.