RSLinx and TCP/IP port forwarding

[Transistor 3]

Just wondering ... I have a machine with several three PLCs, HMI, temperature controller and two Cognex cameras all communicating over IP with addresses in the range 192.168.201.xxx. I want to connect them to the company LAN so I need to do some network address translation or port forwarding. NAT Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced NAT router to allow me to translate (for example) 10.52.100.71 <--> 192.168.201.1 10.52.100.72 <--> 192.168.201.2 10.52.100.73 <--> 192.168.201.3 ... or can I use ... PORT FORWARDING Some of the cheaper NetGear routers allow one to do something like: 10.52.100.71:2901 <--> 192.168.201.1 10.52.100.71:2902 <--> 192.168.201.2 10.52.100.71:2903 <--> 192.168.201.3 This has the benefit of economy of LAN addresses. (It can be hard to get blocks of them from the IT department.) Question 1: What is the default port for RSLinx? 2222? Question 2: If I want to try this how would I set up RSLinx? Can I tell it to use a specific port? If I try to configure an "Ethernet Device" (not an "Ethernet/IP Driver") it won't accept the :port syntax. Thanks.

[Nathan 7]

I have a DGL-4300 "gaming" router that works pretty well. It's "Virtual Server" feature is a port forwarding option that's like your alternative, but also allows you to specify the destination port. You might also check out "hacked" firmware for common routers like the Linksys WRT-54G. 10.52.100.71:2901 <--> 192.168.201.1:80 10.52.100.71:2902 <--> 192.168.201.2:80 10.52.100.71:2903 <--> 192.168.201.3:80 Home/cheap routers call your first function a "DMZ host". I don't know of any that can support this for a range of addresses. Cisco gear can. Wouldn't you be better off asking your IT department for that capability (instead of asking for the addresses and trying to figure it out)? 1. Apparently RSLinx requires both TCP and UPD Port 2222 and Port 44818. 2. It depends what you mean by "connect them to the company LAN". A better design would be to connect to a "gateway" computer that can communicate with the PLCs. This might involve using RSLinx Gateway or an OPC Tunneling program. Better yet, it would be a server that could distribute your HMI directly. Edited 1 Feb 2008 by Nathan