VMware Workstation 10 to RSLinx - wireless

chavak

Member
Join Date
Jul 2002
Posts
750
Hi,

This is new to me -
I used to connect Rockwell software thru Ethernet cables, now we got a router attached to the PLC. Having hard time to configure my PC/VM to make it work. My VM settings is bridged, with Replicate physical network connection state selected. It works fine with wired connection. I can connect to internet thru my VM using company network. But I can't get connected to the PLC when I change the network connection to the PLC router. The applications on my host works fine thru wireless. [like servo configuration programs]. But nothing get connected to the VM

My host is Windows 10, running Windows 7 on VMware workstation 10.

Please share how you guys do it.

Thank You
 
Hi,

This is new to me -
I used to connect Rockwell software thru Ethernet cables, now we got a router attached to the PLC. Having hard time to configure my PC/VM to make it work. My VM settings is bridged, with Replicate physical network connection state selected. It works fine with wired connection. I can connect to internet thru my VM using company network. But I can't get connected to the PLC when I change the network connection to the PLC router. The applications on my host works fine thru wireless. [like servo configuration programs]. But nothing get connected to the VM

My host is Windows 10, running Windows 7 on VMware workstation 10.

Please share how you guys do it.

Thank You

Is your router assigning IP addresses via DHCP? If so, your host and guest OS's network adaptres need to be set to DHCP. Your wireless router will need to assign both your host and guest adapters an address. Of course, the assigned addresses must be of the same subnet as your PLC

If you are not getting an IP address via DHCP (statically assigning them), both your host and guest adapters will need to be configured with a unique static address on the same subnet as our PLC.
 
Personally, I prefer to add one adpater to my VM and leave it in NAT mode. I don't like fiddling with 2 network adapters. When in NAT mode, you leave the guest adapter DHCP and it will automagically route the traffic to the correct host adapter.

The dowside to NAT mode is that the Ethernet IP driver doesn't work. You have to use the older ETH1 driver.
 
Thanks dmroeder for the reply,

I was trying to configure the switch to Static mode, but I'm a bit confused as which is the right way to do it, as there is 2 items to assign IP address, the LAN and WAN. The switch do not allow both LAN and WAN to be on the same subnet.

I tried individually. With the WAN on the same subnet as PLC, I am able to ping the PLC and all the other devices from my VM. But I am not sure how to configure it in RSLinx to let my Ethernet IP driver to work. In the configure driver for RS Linx, it only displays the physical ethernet ports in it. How should I go about linking it to the wifi?

Thank You
 
could you sketch the connection layout? and which boxes are routers, switches/hubs, hosts, plcs, etc.


also, if possible, the ip, netmasks and gateway(s?) for each, including the VM.
 
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Attached is the network image. What I am in doubt now is how to link the wireless connection to RSLInx, as it doesn't appear as a connection option in it.
I am able to ping the devices from my VM as well from my host

Network.png VM.png
 
Attached is the network image.


So the VM host is on subnet 192.168.1.0/24; what are its connection parameters?

And the VM guest is also on subnet 192.168.1.0/24, and so are the PLC cards?


And the VM and the PLC cards are all on the WAN side of the TPLink router?



What is on the 192.168.0.0/24 LAN? Does it even matter?


If you enter the command
Code:
ipconfig /all
into a CMD window in the VM guest and the VM host, what output do you see?
Also, do some pings and then do the command [arp -a] in the CMD window.



The wireless connection probably only exists for the VM host; the VM guest takes that connection and treats it as (emulates?) a wired connection, with its own MAC address.
 
We might be digging too far into the weeds on this.....As far as the VM is concerned, it doesn't distinguish between wired and wireless networks. It basically treats all networks like they are wired.

Have you gone into the Virtual Network Editor from the VMware Edit menu and assigned the wireless adapter to a specific VMnet adapter? That is the picture we are missing. You typically would have multiple virtual adapters. One would be dedicated for Host-only, one for NAT, and then additional adapters for Bridging.

On my machine I have three as you can see in my picture below. VMnet0 is for Bridging. VMnet1 is for Host-only, and VMnet8 is for NAT. Currently my VMnet0 is set for my wired adapter. To change this, I click on the "Bridged to" drop down menu and select my wireless adapter. My VM will then be disconnected from the wired network and connected to the wireless network. If my guest (VM) O/S is using DHCP then I will receive a new IP address.

By changing this Virtual Network Editor setting I would only need one Network Adapter in the virtual machine (instead of four like yours has). The VM simply uses whichever adapter is configured as the bridged adapter. If I change back to the wired connection, the VM will switch too. I'm wondering if you are using the "Connect" check box as your way to switch. I notice the "Connect at power-on" is not selected.

If I did need the VM to talk on more than one network at the same time, I typically use NAT. This setting makes all networks on the host accessible to the VM. Your computer acts like a virtual router. As stated by others, the guest must use DHCP. You can actually still use the RSLinx EtherNet/IP driver, but you have to change the subnet setting from local to remote and tell it what IP range to browse.

If I wanted the VM to have access to some but not all networks on the host, then adding additional adapters can make sense. Then you must confure multiple bridged adapaters in the Network Editor. Then, in the VM select Custom and specify for each adapter which VMnet it should be connected to.

OG

Networking.PNG
 
Last edited:
We might be digging too far into the weeds on this.....As far as the VM is concerned, it doesn't distinguish between wired and wireless networks. It basically treats all networks like they are wired.

Have you gone into the Virtual Network Editor from the VMware Edit menu and assigned the wireless adapter to a specific VMnet adapter? That is the picture we are missing. You typically would have multiple virtual adapters. One would be dedicated for Host-only, one for NAT, and then additional adapters for Bridging.

On my machine I have three as you can see in my picture below. VMnet0 is for Bridging. VMnet1 is for Host-only, and VMnet8 is for NAT. Currently my VMnet0 is set for my wired adapter. To change this, I click on the "Bridged to" drop down menu and select my wireless adapter. My VM will then be disconnected from the wired network and connected to the wireless network. If my guest (VM) O/S is using DHCP then I will receive a new IP address.

By changing this Virtual Network Editor setting I would only need one Network Adapter in the virtual machine (instead of four like yours has). The VM simply uses whichever adapter is configured as the bridged adapter. If I change back to the wired connection, the VM will switch too. I'm wondering if you are using the "Connect" check box as your way to switch. I notice the "Connect at power-on" is not selected.

If I did need the VM to talk on more than one network at the same time, I typically use NAT. This setting makes all networks on the host accessible to the VM. Your computer acts like a virtual router. As stated by others, the guest must use DHCP. You can actually still use the RSLinx EtherNet/IP driver, but you have to change the subnet setting from local to remote and tell it what IP range to browse.

If I wanted the VM to have access to some but not all networks on the host, then adding additional adapters can make sense. Then you must confure multiple bridged adapaters in the Network Editor. Then, in the VM select Custom and specify for each adapter which VMnet it should be connected to.

OG



I always used the mantra with my junior that for PLC's if you cannot ping then no point in trying PLC software. Diagnose the network problem first. In the Vm set it to bridged, Set VMNet 0 to WIred/Wireless. In the VM set a uniquie IP on the same network as the PLC and try PING .


Come to think of it if your using wireless that may be you problem in bridged as where is wireless security being handled and what IP's is the Wireless network on? Better plugging you laptop into the router using a cable, bypassing wireless security.
 
Perhaps this is too obvious of a solution and you've tried it already but perhaps not. Have you tried turning off DHCP and just setting up static IP addresses on everything (both the router and your laptop)? Perhaps the problem isn't with your Virtual Machine settings but with your adapter/router.




All the PLCs I've come across at my job site have static IP addresses.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies, especially OG, now I understand how the wireless is linked to the VM and to RSLInx.

I yet to try it out, busy with the project. I will definitely update the status once I get it to work.

One more question regarding the router, my network knowledge is weak. On the router, does the LAN have to be on the same subnet as the PLC, or the WAN. The router don't allow both to be on the same subnet. [ the LAN is connected to the PLC thru the Stratix switch]. My first thought is, the LAN must be on the same subnet. I could be wrong.

Thank you guys
 
The router don't allow both to be on the same subnet.


Yes, that is why it is called a router: routers "route" data between two different subnets. Subnets cannot have any overlap in their address ranges.



The definition of a subnet is the four octets (32-bits) that are the bit-wise AND result of

  • the subnet bitmask (e.g. 255.255.255.0)
  • with any IP address that can be on that subnet
    • e.g. say an IP addres is 192.168.1.123:
      • 255 AND 192 => 192
      • 255 AND 168 => 168
      • 255 AND 1 => 1
      • 0 AND123 => 0



A subnet is designated by that ANDed result plus the bitmask e.g. in the example above


  • 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 (also 192.168.1.0/24)
    • This subnet covers addresses from 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.255, but that means 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1.254 in practice*
* addresses that cannot be used are 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.255 because binary addresses with a host portion of all ones and all zeros are invalid. The zero address is .0 because it is used to specify a network without specifying a host. The .255 address is used to broadcast a message to every host on a network.


All hosts know two, and sometimes three things:

  • their own IP address
  • their subnet bitmask
  • the IP of the router(s) to other subnets

The point is that, if a host is told to connect to a destination IP, and the bitwise AND of its own source IP with its subnet mask is the same as the bitwise AND of the destination IP with its subnet mask, then it knows the destination IP is on the same subnet, and it can communicate directly via ethernet ("link layer" - MAC address**) to the host that owns that destination IP via tricks (ARP - address resolution protocol) that can be performed on the local subnet.

If the masks do not match, then it can pass the packet to be sent to the router, and the router will figure out the next step (probably another router on the next subnet).


** Another name for the local subnet is "ethernet broadcast domain," although that phrase probably dates me. Because any ethernet packet that is sent by an ethernet card on a local subnet is seen by every other host on that local subnet; in other words, all ethernet packets are broadcast***. All ethernet cards looks at every ethernet packet in its "ethernet broadcast domain" that comes by and chooses, based on the destination MAC address of the packet, whether to pass that packet up to its host.



*** although that does not mean they use a broadcast MAC address; and yes I know switches can muck with this, but logically it can be treated as true.


N.B. THIS EXPLANATION IS ***EEXXTTRREEMMEELLYY*** SIMPLIFIED, AND THERE ARE MANY SPECIAL CASES, BUT IT WILL COVER ALMOST EVERY ETHERNET OR WIFI CONFIGURATION MOST OF US WILL EVER SEE.


So maybe now you understand why I asked for all of that information, because the IP addresses you are showing have all of the devices on the same subnet (192.168.1.0/24) and nothing on the other subnet (192.168.0.0/24), so the router would seem to be irrelevant, because all of the addresses would have to be on the same side of the router.


We use the acronyms LAN and WAN, but really both of those are subnets, with the distinction that the WAN is usually closer to "The Internet," and the LAN has only one router i.e. the one that routes packets to the WAN and beyond.
 
Last edited:
Thankyou drbitboy for the detailed explanation, appreciate it.

Finally, today I got the wireless router working properly.

My settings goes like this,

On the router

WAN - Dynamic IP
LAN - 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask - 255.255.255.0

There was checkbox on the router "Enable IGMP snooping. This was checked by default. I can only connect with this unchecked.

With the above I was able to ping the PLC and other devices from the host.


On the VM

VMnet(0) set it to link to my wireless card, bridged. This gives me connection to the RSLink thru wireless. But when I go thru wired link, there was no connection, so I tried to set it automatic. That worked for both wired and wireless. Just need to disconnect the wireless, to get it work with wired.

Thank you everyone for helping me out on this.

Best Regards
___________
 
Thankyou drbitboy for the detailed explanation, appreciate it.

Finally, today I got the wireless router working properly.

My settings goes like this,

On the router

WAN - Dynamic IP
LAN - 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask - 255.255.255.0

There was checkbox on the router "Enable IGMP snooping. This was checked by default. I can only connect with this unchecked.

With the above I was able to ping the PLC and other devices from the host.


On the VM

VMnet(0) set it to link to my wireless card, bridged. This gives me connection to the RSLink thru wireless. But when I go thru wired link, there was no connection, so I tried to set it automatic. That worked for both wired and wireless. Just need to disconnect the wireless, to get it work with wired.

Thank you everyone for helping me out on this.

Best Regards
___________

This is exactly what I do with my TPLink nano router and VMWare. I have the VMNets set to bridged and I have two of them, one for my internal laptop wireless card and the other for a USB wifi adapter that I have. Then the TP Link router is set to a static IP and within the VM I set the whichever VMNet im using to a static IP as well within the subnet range. Then i plug the TP Link into a port on the Stratix and i have wireless access to anything thats on there from my laptop. I have noticed that my VM likes to only have ONE of the network connections enabled at a time though for it to work properly. If I say have VMNet0 and VMnet1 both enabled within the VM, it seems to have issues.
 

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