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kaiser_will

Remote RSLinx connection through internet

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I have been working up a brainchild idea that should not be unique. I want to connect to have the ability to connect to any of our machines out in the field, in customer plant locations, with wireless cellular modems. My strategy is that if a machine Allen-Bradley PLC has an Ethernet port, that RSLinx on my desktop should be able to communicate with it. I do not think I need a handling PC in the remote machine panel to be a communication gateway as the wireless cellular modem should take on this responsibility. My theory is that the wireless cellular modem will have an IP address, that I will define in RSLinx, which drilling down should show the PLC processor. Has anyone done this or can point me to a white paper on such? I don't want to invest in a test modem and sample a service plan to find out that another device is needed, such as a gateway.

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Check th AB Knowledgebase. If the Wireless modem has an IP address and when you plug your laptop into the local LAN you can ping both PLC and Wireless modem then you should be able to do this. You'll need to make sure the wireless modem doesn't firewall the ports linx needs {22818 and 44717 I think, but that is my rusty memory}. Personally I'd plug the wireless modem into a VPN Router and then into the LAN. I'm skeptical enough to want the security of VPN.

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Thank you, Bob. I figured if I can establish an internet connection from the remote PLC to our network, via the internet and wireless modem, then RSLinx should be good to go. We will have to setup the security on the wireless modem end and do some idiot testing to make sure nothing bad can happen if the customer hooks our sub-network into their network (thus allowing anyone with wireless modem access rights to see the customer's whole network). This bi-lateral security issue may require us to add a VPN router. We do put Ethernet switches in many of our systems, thus upgrading from an unmanaged to a managed (Hirschmann or Cisco) switch should give us the VPN routing ability, and also to block out devices not in the switch table (outside intruders).

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Look at Multitech's cellular modems. I have used them successfully in both serial, MTCBA-G-F4-NAM, and Ethernet, MTCBA-E-EN applications. These two should cover most of your Ethernet and DF1 applications. I have done quite a few of these lately. On most I have installed a Red Lion G3 HMI or a Data Station as a gateway between the PLC and the modem. Not only does this allow me to connect multiple PLCs to one modem, I can also use the G3s web server to make information on the systems viewable from the web. Red Lion makes it very easy to route between ports on their systems so there is no complicated network configuration.

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This isn't to comment on the wireless portion. One of our customer took the initiative to have a VPN connection to the installed machine available, This was such a treat that, with our own technician on site, to be able to work out problems from my desk. This made final commissioning a few minute task instead of many days. While I still don't know how to set up such a link I recommend it to all.

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I have been using a program a lot from logmein.com The free version will allow you remote control of another computer. You can use this troubleshoot or anything else you want. It is really easy to setup.

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