Furuno uses TCP/IP according to their on-line FAQ, but the higher level
information is proprietary. They also don't use standard 10/100BaseT
connectors which aren't waterproof.

Question
Will I be able to connect my computer to the Navnet hub and
display NavNet information on the computer?
Answer
The Navnet system uses a TCP/IP computer protocol. This protocol is
a open architecture that allows for multiple ways of connecting the
NavNet system. The standard blue null cable(crossed input and output) or
10 Base hub are the normal configurations although other options have
been used. This allows the NavNet components to communicate together
using the existing, flexible and robust computer technology. However,
the protocol is only the transport mechanism, the actual information is
proprietary to Furuno. At this time Furuno has no software to translate
the information into a computer based program. The actual benefit of
such a program is suspect as it would prove difficult to map the
computer keyboard to conform to the NavNet controls. An additional
NavNet display is the optimal choice because it allows quick and
complete control of all NavNet functions and is waterproof.

See: http://www.pseaconcepts.com/

for a company which has a few items of interest.

A better way would be to asign "well known" IP address in the multicast
range to the diferent types of information. That way a listener could
subscribe only to those broadcasts that are of interest to it.

NMEA 0183 has one really good thing going for it. It is in human
readable ASCII which makes it a cinch to debug. ASCII is inefficient of
bandwidth at 4800 bps, however.

Joe Wood

Meindert Sprang wrote:

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...

How many network engineers are boat owners at your marina? I know of
2, here. The rest of them will be glad to let the DHCP server on the
router take care of their mundane networking details, allowing them to
simply turn on the new device hooked to the LAN and the router
autoconfigures it.


Like mentioned earlier: let all nodes send only broadcasts. That way, no
device on the net needs a unique IP address. Every device could be factory
programmed with the same IP address.

Meindert