RSLinx 2.56 in VMWare Player with XP Host

Our new member Eric posted this to an old thread that unfortunately contains a bit of name-calling, so I'm reposting his query as a new thread. To paraphrase:

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I am using RSLinx Classic 2.56 in VMWare Player with a Windows XP Host

When I do an RSLinx/RSwho Autobrowse I only see an EIP Driver that I have on my host machine and not the ENBT module I have on my network.

From My host machine, I can see the ENBT module.

( I can also ping it from the VMWare session)

Any thouhgts on what I may need to change in my network settings on either the host or the xp guest vmware machine

Thanks,
Eric.

The EtherNet/IP driver in RSLinx Classic uses a broadcast packet that may not pass through the VMWare network interface that you're using; VMWare can do bridged networking and NAT and Host ID spoofing; there are quite a few options.

I can think of three approaches:

1. Use the Ethernet Devices driver and list the IP address of the target in its host table. This uses a direct TCP connection to the listed hosts and doesn't depend on a broadcast packet.

2. If you have RSLinx Classic Gateway on the XP Host, use that for all the "real" drivers and then let the guests use the "Remote Devices via Linx Gateway" driver. My host OS has only RSLinx Classic Gateway and it manages all the serial ports and USB devices and PCMCIA cards, and even the Ethernet drivers. The guests only have the one driver.

3. Troubleshoot the VMWare networking. Start by posting details about how the VMWare Player networking is set up (Bridged ? NAT ? Host-Only ? Are you using DHCP ? Any firewalls ? Any VPNs ?).

I'm currently using the Ethernet devices driver and I get a error with the device I added.

If I look at the packets with wire shark I get messages going to and from the ip adress I expect but, the messages don't look right compared to what I get from my host machine (i'm looking into this now, it could be a routing thing)

As for vmware I have the network set to Bridged + replicate.

I Do have VPN software on my machine but currently I'm in the office, I will check to see if I have some extra services running that may be blocking the packet from geting to the vmware quest.

I turned off as much of the Firewall stuff as I could.



Thanks,

Does your computer have more than one ethernet option (wired and wireless)? If so and you are connected to two networks then it is likely automatically bridging to the wrong network adapter. I know how to fix this in Workstation, but I don't see anyway to tie to a specific host network adapter in Player. Perhaps shut down your wireless and just used your wired connection.

Just a hunch.

OG

It looks like this is mostlikely a firewall problem.

I'm unable to send some TCP packets but UDP packets work just fine. My Firewall network policies are not letting me exclude vmware?

I talking to our IT department to find a solution.

Thanks,
Eric.

I think what Operaghost refers to is a program in the wmvare folder called "wmnetcfg". It is installed by default with workstation but it is an optional install for the player. A very useful program.

I use the EIP driver all the time in vm ware workstation running a xp guest on a win 7 64 bit host.

I use briged networking and i can use the nic or wireless connection as log as the ip addresses are set correctly.