Rockwell Software BOOTP/DHCD Server Problem

[Bob A.]

Ken,

I can't tell you how many times I and my IT buddies have looked for Win2K licenses with out finding that site. Does my red face show ?

Thanks much,

Bob A.

 

[Alan64]

Bob,
I use Vmware to run Linux on a virtual machine. It works very well. During the install, VMware add a virtual NIC that you can use for communication between VM's or your windows machine using Ethernet.
Problem was that the Rockwell RSLinx used the IP address of that NIC instead the real card address it was originatly set ut for...
Specialy in the source address part of the frame. As the Destination address was OK, the device received the frame but did respond to the VMware NIC address instead my physical NIC...
In RSLinx, I browsed the network using RSWho but I can't get any Ethernet devices attached.

It seems that some software do not like multiple NICs.

In the case of BootP, as the protocol uses Level 2 adresses, if your computer has multiple NICs, the way to investigate is to be sure that the source Mac address in the sent Frame is the good one.
The Server could receive the requests from the device (as multicasted), may respond (because it knows the Mac address of the sender)
But the device can't respond to server.

I don't know if my explanation is very clear... it may not exactly apply to your problem if you have nly one NIC.

Alan

 

[Bob A.]

Alan,
I understand your message. I'm working on the installation of a new server that has two NIC cards and I have seen some of these issues also. DHCP seems to accept the first card to register as the only one that counts. However, for some reason, the server thinks that it should use both NICs. The result has been that some transactions of the server are "official" through the registered NIC, and some are "unofficial" through the unregistered NIC which sometimes leads to lost communication.
Right now, I have one disconnected and that tamed the problem until I learn enough to fix the system configuration.

In the case of my BOOTP problem, I have a small system with a private Ethernet on a small switch. There is a single CompactLogix PLC, a PanelView Plus MMI, a PowerFlex 40 Drive and Three PowerFlex 700 Drives. And of course, my laptop when I am there.

Each time that I added something, I needed BOOTP and each time I attempted to get the Rockwell piece to work. After all it really is not that complex, I have been doing this for close to 40 years.
When I open the BOOTP server, it never get any requests. I tried a second BOOTP server that I peuchased for a few dollars of the net and it did the same thing. I then took the Rockwell piece and installed it on an old NT notebook and in a blink it is done. Just like we precticed, the request comes in and the IP stuff goes out. You turn off the BOOTP function in the new device and the IP address is permenent.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Bob A.

 

[TimWilborne]

Disclaimer - Advertising...but it fits perfectly

Why not look into the IP X-Press?
http://www.plctools.com

Or you can get in on GIT's site
http://plctrainer.net/AutomationSupplies.htm

 

[geniusintraining]

Disclaimer - Advertising...but it fits perfectly

Why not look into the IP X-Press?
http://www.plctools.com

Or you can get in on GIT's site
http://plctrainer.net/AutomationSupplies.htm

I look at it as helping... they have an issue and this is a very good fix

The reason I did not suggest it earlier was... to be honest , I know nothing about DCHP nor BOOTP but thats the nice thing about the IP X-Press you don't have to know anything about it at all... it does all the work

But I have enjoyed reading this thread and I have learned a lot... Thanks

 

[surferb]

That's legit. Answering a specific question with a relevant product.

That IP X-Press looks useful. I'm a bit skeptical of the "Unknown IP Address detection" that "may require a power cycle of the device". I wonder how it works? Maybe something with ARP or reverse ARP...I'll look into this one...

Disclaimer - Advertising...but it fits perfectly

Why not look into the IP X-Press?
http://www.plctools.com

Or you can get in on GIT's site
http://plctrainer.net/AutomationSupplies.htm

 

[Bob A.]

TW,

I looked into your BOOTP appliance suggestion and it looks quite well suited for the task to which I am referring in this post.

Thanks for your input!

Bob A.

 

[mclark]

Have you tried running in "safe mode with networking"? I have had a similar situation with xp sp2 and bootp 2.3.2.

 

[Bob A.]

Actually no, that had not occurred to me. XP has some really troubling communication habits that require significant effort to address. I find it so experating that I have never spent the months to figure it out.

I have been networking PCs since the advent of Networking for DOS became available (prior to Win 3.0) and very successfully, I might add. Now, I have a XP desktop and an XP notebook that I can sit side by side and no matter what I do, they cannot see each other.

There are a number of other NT, Win 2K and Vista machines on the network, and the XP can usually be made to see them, but never each other. I remember seeing something about a special disk that can be created to take from one XP machine to another to make them visable to each other, but never anything about what to fix manually to make it work. I'm sure that it's possible, but what a pain!

 

[mclark]

Basically what I was trying to say is that you don't have to jump through huge security loops in order to stop a firewall from blocking the lines of communication the BOOTP Protocol uses to assign an IP address.

In the past I used this to assign IP Addresses to SLC 5/05 Ethernet cards and IP modules for Powerflex drives flawlessly rather than get our IT department on board to open up the UDP ports the third party firewall was blocking.

If you want a step by step let me know

 

[Bob A.]

Well it is not the XP firewall because it was turned off on day one. Rockwell gave me a routine to setup the DCOM and kill the firewall and that did not do anything either.

I took the BOOTP and put it on an old NT notebook and it worked instantly. I gave the PC to the local Rockwell Software Manager and he gave up saying that I should call tech service. Since I no longer spend tens of thousands of dollars on TSAs, they are useless. So basically, every time I have to set up something new, I drag out the NT machine.

The biggest problem is that I'm really ashamed of the fact that I never got it to work because it is the only thing that I never got to work!

I'm willing to try anything that you care to suggest so long as I don't have to risk too much on everything else that is on the machine.

Thanks for your interest!

Bob A

PS Where are you in Ohio?