I understand. Networking is unfortunately something that is really important to learn - I bet you never expected so much network IT support when you were dreaming about becoming a superstar laserist huh? 
IP addresses need to be on the same subnet
For your computer and laser to talk to each other they need to be on the same subnet. That’s just a fancy way of saying that their IP addresses need to have the first three numbers matching. So :
192.168.1.100 and
192.168.1.52 are both on the same subnet.
Whereas
192.168.1.100 and
192.168.0.52 are not, because the first three numbers don’t match.
How do the devices get an IP address?
It depends on how your network is set up. The options are :
1 - Add a router to your network
If you have a router on your network, it will likely be set up as a DHCP server, and this DHCP system gives out IP addresses to devices on the network that ask for it.
This is my preferred set up as you don’t have to worry about any IP conflicts and it’s flexible. You will need to make sure that all your devices are set up to use DHCP, this is the default with Ether Dreams, and LaserCube “LAN client” mode will do this.
2 - Use fixed static IP addresses
Without a router on your network (or other DHCP server) then nothing is giving out IP addresses. (Note that a switch is not the same thing as a router but if you have enough ports on your router, you don’t also need a separate switch.)
For this to work, you need to make sure that every device on the network has a fixed IP address on the same subnet. (I’m not sure you can even do this on LaserCubes and on Ether Dreams it’s fiddly)
You will also need to set up your computer with a fixed IP address. (And then remember to disable that when you try to connect to another network!)
This set up is very common in the events industry, and if it were easier to change the static IP addresses on Ether Dreams I would be happier about recommending it. But I personally find it error prone, and I just have less trouble by bringing a cheap router.
3 - Use one of your LaserCubes as a DHCP server
If you put one of your LaserCube in ‘LAN Server’ mode then it does the job of issuing IP addresses to all of your devices, even your computer. So this is why it worked for you when you didn’t have a separate router.
I don’t think there’s anything really wrong with this set up, but I haven’t tested it much. I guess there are a few possible pitfalls with this set up, if there’s already a router on your network then there could be conflicts. And you need to make sure that only one of your Laser Cubes is the LAN server, and all others are LAN client.
But let me know how it works for you!
They are separate things. On Mac you can set the network priority list and I think Liberation uses the top network on this list when it starts up. On Windows, I’m not really sure, sorry!
I hope this is helpful.
Seb
