Configuring ETHIP driver using RSLinx

I am setting a up some new work station PC's with Factory Talk and RSLogix 5000 software.

All of my PLC's are set up on a network. I have the PC's set up on the network correctly.

In RSLinx I go to driver configuration, I choose the ETHIP driver and click on the option to 'browse remote subnet' after entering in my IP address (1.16.61.0) and subnet mask I go to RSwho to browse the network for my devices, but nothing ever shows up. This configuration matches exactly with "already functioning PC's". Funny thing is I can ping every device individually on the network just fine, I just cant seem to get RSLinx to automatically find any of my devices using ETHIP driver. It will on the other hand let me communicate with the devices using ETH driver. what is the freaking deal with the ETHIP driver??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is it really a remote subnet?
If it is, most likely, you have a switch somewhere that isn't passing the EIP traffic, or forwarding the broadcast requests.

Yes it is a remote subnet. And like a said in my previous post I can PING all PLC's within my network, also I am able to communicate with all devices with other PC's using ETHIP driver. I am just having trouble getting the ETHIP driver to successfully browse for any my devices on the network. I can use ETH driver to communicate but I would prefer to use the ETHIP driver because all other PC's are already using ETHIP driver.

I'm running RSLinx Classic Lite v.2.55 with RSLogix 5000 v.19.01

Are you even able to use the ENTHIP driver with RSLinx Classic Lite?

Here is the procedure I follow when I have to access a clients remote site. This is after I've connected via VPN.

To access your PLC you will have to configure RSLinx as a bridge.
1.Browse to the XXX.XXX.XXX Ethernet card
2.Browse through backplane
3.Browse to slot 01
4.Right click on the “A, Ethernet” icon under Slot 01 and select Properties.
5.Add your devices IP address as required.

I could set it up as a bridge, but by not using the ethernet i/p driver like all of my other PC's which I believe plant wide we have 8 PC's set up to communicate with our PLC's which are all on a remote subnet, using Factory Talk to open up the saved programs. So by me using a different driver config on one is going to throw everything else off when i go in to RSLogix 5000 and set a new project path. I feel like a may have a version issue with RSLinx. There hasn't been any new ethernet i/p drivers added here in about 3 years.

The EtherNet/IP driver uses a broadcast packet to send out a "List Identity" service request, to which all the EtherNet/IP devices send back an identity packet.

If your Windows firewall is blocking those responses (or the broadcast itself), that would be consistent with the fact that the Ethernet Devices driver works, and with your description of other computers with the exact same configuration working correctly.

It's also possible that something in your IP network is preventing the broadcast from working correctly.

The term 'remote subnet' is causing a little confusion as well.

Earthscape is thinking of it in terms of a network that is accessible only by browsing from one network module to another across a ControlLogix backplane.

When you are setting up an Ethernet driver in RSLinx, the term 'remote subnet' is the traditional TCP/IP meaning, where there is an IP router in between your network and the remote network.

My guess is that either your working computers networking are not configured identically to your non-working computer, or that there is a firewall or router difference.

Thanks Ken, I'm by no means an expert at this. I'm a young guy straight out of college trying to solve the worlds problems. Ha The guy who set all of this up to begin with is no longer here so it's not like I can ask anyone for advice on how all of this was set up originally. But I am learning a ton by doing this from start to finish. Thanks for the advice I will try and look into the Windows firewall configuration and see if thats what is blocking my broadcast.

Welcome to the Forum, by the way.

Wireshark is an awesome tool; download it and play around. www.lovemytool.com (yes, really) is a good Wireshark user community.

Try doing a 'tracert' instead of PING to determine if there's really a router involved.

I agree it's very difficult to come in behind somebody else and figure out whether an unusual configuration is a mistake, or if it's actually a specific setting that keeps the whole factory running.

Ken we actually have a server that i guess kind of acts as the router. could there possibly be some security settings that apply to each client pc that i'm trying to operate? or some security settings on the individual drivers themselves?

I just tried to add a ethernet i/p driver to one of my PC's that is working just to see if i could successfully browse my devices by creating an identical driver and It never would find anything.

I've been working on this for several days. I hate to make any changes that differ that much from my other PC's because all of this is live of course, i do not want to shut the plant down or loose program files. lol

Ken,

The use of term such as "same subnet" and "remote subnet" still confuses me. For example,

198.168.1.0/24

is not on the "same" subnet as

198.168.2.0/24

right?

From memory I seen to recall that to do a produced/consumed tag the two PLC needs to be on the same subnet which doesn't seem right to me.

Back to the browse remote subnet topic, so if I'm on 192.168.0.1/24 and want to see PLCs on 192.168.1.1/24 I need to put down 192.168.1.1 and 255 255 255 0 as mask in RSLinx, right?

harryting,
you would need to put 192.168.1.0 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. by doing this you are browsing everything between 1 and 254 unless you specify otherwise in your configuration.

Got ya, it's asking for the network setup and not one specific IP.

Ken I did tracert and everything looks fine with my routing connection.

It's very odd to me that I can take a working PC add a new ethernet i/p driver, put the same config info into the driver and it not find any devices. Pretty much create a duplicate.

I'm having trouble finding any other options within the driver itself that might be misconfigured.

When I right click my driver in RSwho and click "security" it asks for username and password to log in to Factory Talk which i do not even have.

Help me understand something about your system.

You say there are existing computers with existing RSLinx configurations that can browse your network devices properly with both the Ethernet Devices driver and the EtherNet/IP driver.

But when you try to configure a new driver on a new computer, the RSLinx 'EtherNet/IP' driver will not discover the controllers on the network.

In addition, if you try to configure a new driver on an existing computer, the RSLinx 'EtherNet/IP' driver will not discover the controllers on the network.

If this were my system, I would be using Wireshark to determine if the browse packets are getting onto the network; you're looking for the CIP 'List Identity' service.