Remote access to an Allen Bradley PLC without RsLinx Enterprise

[Dayvieboy]

Besides a $3,000 license to purchase a RsLinx Gateway License for every remote computer network that I work on.

Is there another way to get to a PLC from a remote computer.

The computers all have 2 NIC cards,
(1 corporate network & 1 PLC network)

Is there any other software?

Or is having IT route them (when possible) the only way?

I am trying to be a bit more dynamic then filling out IT tickets
& taking 1 month for the approval of a special request.

We do install Studio5000 on the ~ 15 remote PC's
but that has issues and keeping them up to date & synchronized stinks.

. Licenses always get moved & you have to go find them.

. Maintaining Studio5000 instances stinks as you have
. to keep up on the Revisions, Firmware, EDS, AOP, drivers, etc.

. Programming remotely is no fun window in a window.

. Studio will crash & require reinstall that takes hours.

. We have one remote PC Rockwell cannot get studio to run on
. despite literally days of work.

. You take over the remote PC that people need to use.


Any ideas ?

 

[AlfredoQuintero]

Dayvieboy, hi. Since you have Studio 5000 on some 15 computers (and I understand you are not happy about their maintenance), have you thought about using TeamViewer? With TeamViwer you can use the remote PC without taking over as in remote desktop connection. I have used TeamViewer for many years. The licensing is reasonable and the performance is very good, lets you do video conference with the p@erson at the remote PC, etc. Just a suggestion, not sure if this fulfills your expectations.

 

[TheWaterboy]

Not sure this is a good fit or not, but I have 35 remote locations I connect to all the time and I have cell modems at those locations. No software needed on the far end and there are secure configurations that can be configured for them.

If its only an occasional connection you need you could have one you send to the location preconfigured for their subnet. They just plug it into the network (or even the PLC is there is cell access) and then when done they send it back.

For obvious reasons their IT dept would need to be made aware of this arrangement. And they wont like it any more than any other remote access, but if you are only connecting to a single PLC they can arrange to restrict you to that to make them feel better.

With all security concerns, any remote option, Cellular, TeamViewer, AnyDesk and their like are often a tough sell. SecOPS always want everything run though their IDS/FW and for good reason so asking them for a solution they are comfortable with is a good start.

 

[Ken Roach]

You need a router to connect two networks.

RSLinx Classic Gateway gives you a sort of specialized, limited, protocol-specific router that runs in Windows on the PC you already have.

If there's only only one PLC on the "internal" network, the simplest way to get access to it from the enterprise network is a Port Proxy, created in Windows with the netshell command, something like this:

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress= 10.10.1.30 listenport=44818 connectaddress=19*.168.0.10 connectport=44818

Netshell a little too low-level for you ? You could try a GUI-based port forwarder like Verigio's Multi-Port Forwarder.

Or you could configure those PCs as VPN servers, to allow an encrypted and secure way to access their internal networks. I assume your IT department would want to control and supervise and approve something like an OpenVPN Server on each of those PCs.

Or you can install VPN appliances or NAT appliances or routers configured to connect these networks, separately from the PCs.

 

[Dayvieboy]

Some pretty good ideas!!
Thank you all

Dave