Hi Heinz,
Given you’ve run into issues with other hardware, this does sound like a unique scenario that is triggering for your network. It could be a number of things, though given direct IP works, you have plenty of options to work with.
It would be best that both your computer and Laird are connected by Ethernet via a router (not directly together).
You should then be able to access the dashboard via (note, https protocol and the “xx” between rg1 and MAC address - as shown in the setup guide):
https://rg1xx123456.local/dashboard
Where “123456” is the last 6 digits of the MAC address of the Ethernet interface as shown on the Laird engineering plate.
If you can’t (which is where you depart from how this naturally works for everyone else with functioning DNS / DHCP), assuming you are using Windows, open cmd.exe
In the terminal, run this command:
arp -a
You’ll get something like this:
Interface: 192.168.86.38 --- 0x3
Internet Address Physical Address Type
192.168.86.1 70-3a-cb-14-11-7a dynamic
192.168.86.45 98-90-96-B9-9D-61 dynamic
192.168.86.255 ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff static
224.0.0.22 01-00-5e-00-00-16 static
224.0.0.251 01-00-5e-00-00-fb static
This is every device on the network. Somewhere in the list, will be your familiar Dragino (if it is connected). Likewise, so will the Laird gateway.
You can tell which one it is by looking at the engineering plate on the Laird, each network interface on the Laird (Ethernet/WiFi) has a unique MAC address (the Laird Ethernet MAC address will be listed above in the arp results).
If it is not listed in the arp results (but IS connected via Ethernet to the same router as your Ethernet connected PC) then there is something up with your network config, well outside the normal. Often caused by an old/annoying router that doesn’t bridge Wireless and Wired correctly (hence use Ethernet for both PC and Gateway during setup), though there could be other reasons. You’ll be able to retrieve the IP address from your Router’s LAN settings (there’s usually a couple of status pages that list both IP addresses and MAC addresses for all connected devices).
From your computer, you can test the network path to the Laird by running this in cmd.exe (where 12.34.56.78 is the Laird IP as noted in arp or router status pages):
ping 12.34.56.78
If no ping results, then the issue is with your network and should be resolve there first. While not likely, it could be a bad ethernet cable or a bad port, etc.
If ping does get replies, then you can access the dashboard via:
https://12.34.56.78/dashboard
Once in the dashboard, update the Laird firmware first (as all settings are dropped).
Upon Laird reboot, setup LoRaWAN & WiFi (Ethernet isn’t needed once WiFi backhaul is setup). With that said, a lot of people prefer Ethernet, the choice is yours.