How do I connect to a device with hardcoded static subnet mask and ip?

Question

My home network has

subnet mask 255.255.255.0 my workstation has dynamic ip currently 192.168.1.117

I want to connect to a device (an old zebra printer) with static ip and subnet and gateway setup as follows:

ip 10.10.43.109 subnet mask 255.255.254.0 gateway 10.10.42.1

the device is connected to the same switch as my computer

the documentation says issue the following and you should be able to telnet to it:

route add "device ip" "workstation ip"

However, this is not working for me.

Is it because the subnet mask is different, or because it is a completely different subnet ?

Is there anyway I can telnet to it without having to buy a router or an additional network card?

In addition, I went to my isp routers settings and saw I could create a secondary "public" subnet, I guess for guests. However, it did not allow the 10.x.x.x range for that.

Answer 1

Is it because the subnet mask is different, or because it is a completely different subnet ?

It's because it is a completely different subnet – and more specifically, even though you now have a route to that subnet, the device still doesn't have any working route back to you. That is, it doesn't know that your computer is 'local' and will keep trying to reply via the nonexistent 10.10.42.1 gateway.

Meanwhile, the subnet mask is not a global parameter; each subnet has its own, and the mask only defines the size (i.e. the local address range) of that specific subnet.

Is there anyway I can telnet to it without having to buy a router or an additional network card?

The easiest way is to temporarily change your computer's IP address to one from that subnet, then reconfigure the printer to use the "correct" address.

You can also add an address from a different subnet while still keeping the existing one – that is, the computer can be on several subnets simultaneously.

• On Windows, if you're configuring network through the traditional control panel (ncpa.cpl > Properties) and if your current IP address is set statically, you can click the "Advanced..." button in the IPv4 settings and you'll have a list of IP addresses.

• In the past Windows didn't officially allow this when DHCP was in use, but in Windows 10/11 you can enable a hidden option, then add the additional IP addresses through CLI:

  netsh interface ipv4 set interface "Ethernet" dhcpstaticipcoexistence=enabled
  netsh interface ipv4 add address "Ethernet" 10.10.42.1 255.255.254.0
  

Windows will generally select the "closest" source address for each destination, so when you try to contact the printer, it'll send packets from 10.10.42.1 which the printer knows is local.