Remote Desktop Software Alternative

Hello Everyone,
We are working on a project for monitoring and controlling temperatures of chillers and motor speed of AHUs.. I am planning to use either Peak HMI or Advance HMI, and AB ML1400.. Another requirement is the system must be able to be monitored remotely(e.g., the system is in the Philippines, and to be monitored in Singapore), and my first option is to use remote desktop software.. I know this will work and the presence of a PC on the area where the system is located is needed. I want to know if there is a way to do something like this, but without putting a PC on the area? It'll be a lot of saving if I can eliminate the PC.

Correct me if I am wrong but peak or advanced HMI has to run on a pc right? I assume you will be using a touch screen and pc or a panel pc unit.

This is still a pc and RDP will work as wel as data apples,logmein,and other remote software packages.

Choose a panel pc with a windows os and not windows CE and you can do whatever you want with it.

I'm having trouble understanding your question: are you trying to omit putting a PC at the local end or omit putting a PC at the remote viewing end?

If you are trying to omit the PC on the local end (where the PLC is located), you can put a router with VPN on the 1400 and connect it to an Internet connection.

If you re trying to omit the PC on the remote end (in Singapore), what device would you want to view a remote PC with - other than another PC?

Thank you for the answer sir nwboson. Yes I am omitting the PC at the local end. I have heard the VPN already, but i haven't reviewed the concept yet.. Will research on that or if you have known a site to read about it can i have it? thanks much!

Use a screen with a built in web server. I communicate all over the Australia to Omron screens with web servers just using Internet Explorer or Nightly (64 bit version of Mozilla).
you can select either view or control.

Hello,

to use web browser capabilities of a PLC without VPN means the configuration needs to be opened (Firewall needs to allow ports with incomming traffic). Many IT people simply dont allow that.

With a VPN device the connection can be configured to be initiated from the remote site. Default there is no way to connect to the system.

Devices I know you can find e.g. at

http://www.insys-icom.de/MoRoS-gprs/?lang=2

although there is many other companies (e won, mGuard, ....)

br
bb

If you're exposing any automation system to the internet (and you will be, unless they're dialing in via a PSTN modem... please no!) then at the very least you should be utilizing a VPN connection (with L2TP/IPSec protocol and strong pre-shared keys) and some strict firewall policies, especially if there is going to end up being a PC at the local end. I like to have no DNS server configured and most outgoing ports / hosts blocked.

We use PCAnywhere on a number of our sites, however personally I find it a bit buggy at times. It does have built in encryption, so you could possibly flag the VPN if you wanted. TightVNC or RealVNC are good free / low cost alternatives but I'd personally only use them on a VPN network as they don't have encryption yet I don't think.

If the PLC / Panel does have an in-built web server that allows remote monitoring then that's OK, provided it has some security and login challenge to prevent just any old joe soap jumping on and messing with your process or stealing intellectual property.

I know it probably sounds a little paranoid, but just look at those poor Iranians and their buggered plutonium enrichment centrifuges! There are plenty of clever, malicious people out there with way too much time on their hands...

Coulombboy,

Thanks for the cordial response. Regarding learning about VPNs: they are notoriously difficult to set up since they involve a lot of networking concepts. And tough to troubleshoot when they don't work. Its probably one of the most difficult things I do when configuring a customer site: PLCs, HMIs, SCADA seem much easier to me than the VPN routers

A primary decision you need to make when setting up a VPN between sites (as others said, be sure to use a VPN because otherwise your site is highly susceptible to intrusion) is "which end of the two Internet connections (Phillipines or Singapore) do I have the most access for me to change setups"? If one end (say, Singapore) will be connected directly to the Internet then that will be where you need to control your VPN from. Frequently you will find that at least one end is controlled by an IT group that has already setup their own routers - and that will complicate the router setups you need to configure.

So I suspect the easiest setup will likely be that you can install your own router at the Phillipines PLC site. I would set it up with L2TP/IpSec so you can connect to it from any Internet location - and it will be highly secure since it will be protected by multiple levels of password and 'preshared keys' for authentication. If you do so, I would HIGHLY recommend a Zyxel USG100 router since it has easy-to-understand and debug setup of an L2TP/IpSec VPN (server). You could save money using a Mikrotik RB450G router, but it will be more difficult to setup.

There have been other suggestions here, but some have ignored the fact you will have no PC on the Phillipines end. RealVNC, PCAnywhere usually require PCs on both ends - which is of course what you are trying to avoid.

You could also consider putting an inexpensive HMI on the Phillipines end that has Web or VNC support in the HMI. Then you could put a router in that simply 'punches a hole' though one port. For example, the Weinktek 8070iH HMI (or KEP or Maple Systems equivalent) all contain a built-in VNC server (very cool). But this is quite insecure in today's Internet (if you skip the VPN): you will have hundreds of attempts every hour trying to break into your machine!

This is the FUN stuff. Good luck,
King