How do I connect my Linux laptop to my Stellarmate via ethernet?
I've been having a lot of connection trouble when trying to communicate with my laptop in the field with my Stellarmate. I transferred the Pi to a new cooled metal case, because the Pi gets quite hot at times; the metal case apparently increased wifi connection issues, so I added a wifi antenna. That improved things, but not much. I still get frequent dropped connections, frozen connections, etc. And the connection speed is so slow that it seems like every time I try to focus or redo alignment is another 30-60 minutes of wasted time.
The connection issues are bad enough that I bought an ethernet cable and an ethernet adapter for my Linux (Linux Mint) laptop, hoping to get a solid, fast connection that way. I cannot, however, figure out what actual settings to use to connect to the Stellarmate via ethernet. What are all the netmask, gateway, etc. etc. etc. settings I need to use? What Method do I use -- Automatic (DHCP), Link-Local Only, Shared to other computers, or what? What Additional DNS servers? There are so many different connection settings... I don't know which ones to use. And it seems like almost all sources on the web about connecting a laptop to a Raspberry Pi assume the laptop is running Windows.
The documentation on the SM website is somewhat contradictory, making it hard to know what to follow. I wrote to Jasem to get support, and he suggested I set the laptop IP to 192.168.100.2 and gateway to 192.168.100.1. I can do that, but if I'm on the laptop and ping 192.168.100.1, I get "Destination Host Unreachable". When I log into the Stellarmate via wifi, it shows the same info in the ethernet connection window: address 192.168.100.2, netmask 24, gateway 192.168.100.1. I don't know what to do next. I wrote back to Jasem, but apparently he's away from his computer, and I'd really like to get this working before this weekend (a new moon, after all).