AB remote connection

Hi Guys,

I'm a bit stumped on this one. After setting up my programming laptop with a vpn connection via Teamviewer using the "AB_ETHIP-1, Ethernet" driver I am able to remotely program and service a recent scada application which I'm still working on. I now want to setup an identical system on my work desktop as a 22" screen is much easier to program and work of than a small laptop screen. Following the same process as I did previously and using the guide posted by JesperMP (thanks by the way, really big help ) I can remotely connect to the plc using the AB_ETH-1 ethernet driver but not the "AB_ETHIP-1, Ethernet" driver. Can anyone offer any light on the subject?

The difference between my laptop and my desktop is that the RS Linx version on my desktop is 3.70.00 and the laptop is 2.50.00.20 so setup is slightly different.

My guess is its the RSLinx version. Do you have the same OS on both machines?

I am posting from my phone so I will be brief.

The two drivers use a different technique to browse for devices.

The EtherNet/IP driver uses broadcast packets, which will not go through a router or a VPN.

The simple solution is just to use the Ethernet Devices driver when connected via that sort of network.

I didn't think you could use the ethernet/IP driver through a VPN at all. So my question is not "why doesn't the desktop work", but "why DOES the laptop work?"

Doesn't help you at all, but I'm gonna watch this space out of curiosity

[edit]: even on his phone, Ken is faster than me

"why DOES the laptop work?"

Click to expand...

Great question, and the basic answer is "because it's been on the remote site LAN before".

The broadcast packets are used by the EtherNet/IP driver to detect devices and put them into the network schema that you see in the "RSWho" window.

Once the devices are discovered, it uses ordinary TCP/IP connections to talk to them.

If the OP were to delete the EtherNet/IP object from the RSWho window on his laptop, he would lose the connection over the VPN with that driver and be unable to browse on the remote network again.

Ah. That makes sense. Thanks!

Hi Ken,

That is a great help and makes perfect sense. I was pulling my hair out to make it work. At least now I know to leave it and move on to something else.

Thanks for all the help

Jonny

Ken Roach said:

I am posting from my phone so I will be brief.

The two drivers use a different technique to browse for devices.

The EtherNet/IP driver uses broadcast packets, which will not go through a router or a VPN.

The simple solution is just to use the Ethernet Devices driver when connected via that sort of network.

Click to expand...

You can send broadcast acrosss a VPN as long as it's a GRE tunnel and not IP Sec. Setup a GRE Tunnel VPN and it will work. OPen VPN with a TAP adapter is one way to do this.