1756-ENBT to Ethernet Switch to Wireless Hub

I'm interested in purchasing a wireless hub to carry with me to customer sites when I do system start-ups. The wireless connection will give me a lot of freedom when I'm performing I/O checkout and working on specific sections of a system.

Are there any tricks (or gotchas!) I need to be aware of before connecting the hub to an Ethernet Module in the rack or to an Ethernet Switch attached to the module in the rack?

What about configuring the wireless hub?

DHCP?
Fixed IP Address in the same subnet?

Thanks for the help!

Nope

I use wireless all the time and it is quick and easy. Just make sure that your PLC and your wireless router are setup for the same subnet.

Unless you are trying to bridge through to another network, don't worry about using the Cable/DSL/Internet port. Most wireless routers have a four port switch and an "internet" port. That port is sometimes labeled cable/DSL. You don't actually care about the router functionality (the internet port), just the wireless switch portion. Hook up your physical devices to the four ports.

As for DHCP or static. I leave my router setup to be a DHCP server. That way if I plug in a new "out of the box" device, it is automatically assigned an IP. I can then talk to the device over ethernet and if need be set a static IP address. All of my devices use static addresses, but having the DHCP server functionality can be helpful.

OG

jcr said:

I'm interested in purchasing a wireless hub to carry with me to customer sites when I do system start-ups. The wireless connection will give me a lot of freedom when I'm performing I/O checkout and working on specific sections of a system.

Are there any tricks (or gotchas!) I need to be aware of before connecting the hub to an Ethernet Module in the rack or to an Ethernet Switch attached to the module in the rack?

What about configuring the wireless hub?

DHCP?
Fixed IP Address in the same subnet?

Thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

I use a Linksys wireless router all the time. You are right, nothing like being right by a device and toggling PLC bits to watch performance.

I usually disable DHCP on the router to avoid any unexpected IPs issued to other devices. Always hard code my wireless IP.

Ian

I have used a wireless router many times with no problems. The key thing is that everyone else is using it that it is a wireless router not a wireless hub. I always used a specific in address in the subnet range rather than DHCP.


Darrell