SilhouetteStar 2 Firewall Rules and Networking

The SilhouetteStar 2 in wired mode uses RNDIS drivers to communicate. This means that when the SilhouetteStar 2 is connected to a computer using the USB cable, the device is seen as a IP Network interface with an Ethernet device appearing in the networking section of windows.

The IP Network interface gets assigned a known IPv4 address by the SilhouetteStar 2. By default this address is a link-local address, 169.254.0.2. The addresses used can be changed, see the Administration User's Guide for details.

The SilhouetteConnect installer inserts firewall rules into the default Windows firewall to allow the SilhouetteStar 2 to connect to the computer on TCP port 9874. If a firewall other than the default Windows firewall is being used then the user must manually add a firewall rule to allow connections on TCP port 9874 for all network profiles (domain, public and private PCs).

The SilhouetteStar 2 appears to the computer as a wired network with no internet access.

Some third party network management software can offer network adapter switching features, either turning off Wi-Fi if there is a wired connection present or not allowing a wired connection if also using a Mobile connection. Care must taken to determine the correct compatibility and configuration to allow both a network connection and a SilhouetteStar 2 connection.