Red Lion Remote Communications

ERCfarcontrol

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Join Date
Apr 2015
Location
Fresno, Ca
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63
I've searched a bit about this topic but they are older threads that I suspect might not cover the tech that's available today.

I have a client that has a 15" graphite and wants to be able to send sms or emails with the possibility to remote view. The client wont allow it on their network because it isnt a "fully vetted windows device". I don't know what that means and I do not know much of anything outside of small standalone ethernet networks. Is using a hotspot with a LAN port a possibility? How reliable is the hspa+ module for the graphite? Is there any sort of intermediate device between the hmi and their super secure network that would satisfy their requirements? What is a cradlepoint that has been suggested?

In the past I have set up email from a graphite for a different client so I know most of the crimson side of things. Initially I tried setting this up with gmail but I could never get it to work. We considered AUTHsmtp but we ended up using their internal email server. I just do not know how to approach this.
 
I use AuthSMTP and Stridelinx VPN routers for secure remote access and email alerts for a variety of Red Lion HMIs. There is a version of the Stridelinx router that uses a cellular data plan that would allow it to bypass their IT system, but would require a paid data plan. They also make a wifi version and I have one of those in the field. The customer wireless network is weak at the HMI site, so I had to add an external antenna to get decent results.

The rest of my Stridelix routers are using a wired WAN (Internet) port. If their IT group would allow that one port to find its way to the internet, then you can use that. Most likely they will find fault with it even though you can track all of the authenticated users who access the router and can even require 2-factor authentication.

None of my water systems customers have an IT dept. so I have not had to do anything more than configure the ports and plug in some cables to make this all work.

For emails, I think we pay about $80 a year for AuthSMTP and I have 6 HMIs and two SCADA systems using that one account to authenticate and redirect emails. It also has been very trouble free. There have been a couple of times where a system went nuts and blasted out tons of alerts that caused me to hit my AuthSMTP plan limit, but the service sends me email alerts before the limit is reached and I think for a couple of months I bumped us up to a higher data limit until the issues were fixed.

I had one or two of the systems I support working with gmail, but Google will change stuff and kill them and you will find out weeks later...that happened twice before I started the AuthSMTP service which has been running flawlessly for us for about 4 years now. Initially, I had to send them an email to request a fixed mail server IP address which I enter in the mail setup fields on our HMIs, but they have never changed that IP address (knock on wood), so I have not taken the extra step of making it editable in my applications.

I have two HMIs that are connected straight to the internet and those have Crimson security as their only protection. They replaced EZTouch screens and the customers already had static IP addresses for the purpose of remote access. I would not do this for any new installation...
 
I've got around to setting up an authSMTP account, but I'm a little confused about authorizing a send from address. Is this a fake address or a real address?
 
I've got around to setting up an authSMTP account, but I'm a little confused about authorizing a send from address. Is this a fake address or a real address?
It must be a real address. It cannot be a gmail account and probably none of the other "free" types. (at least not the last time I added one a couple of years ago). I had my boss create a couple of generic email accounts on our domain that I have used and reused on multiple different customer sites as the "from address" which will appear in any email alerts or SMS messages sent to the recipients. Since we're in the water industry, I think one of them is "[email protected]" I don't recall exactly and don't want to publish it exactly here in public anyway.

Also, I have found that you will need to contact them (AuthSMTP) if you need to use a fixed IP address for the SMTP server host name in your HMI or SCADA system.

Years ago, I tried using a "Fixed Name" and ran into issues (with DNS maybe?) that were easiest to resolve by simply requesting a fixed IP address to use for the mail server host name in my Red Lion HMIs. I just emailed them and asked and a day (or two) later they responded with the IP address and set my account to make it stick to that address.

The IP address they gave me has never changed in five+ years, although there's no guarantee it won't someday.

Hope this helps,
Paul
 
Before continuing setting up the authsmtp account we decided to try using one of our office365 accounts directly and it has not worked. Has anybody had ANY consistent results in doing so? If I cannot use our office 365 account with authsmtp for security reasons (are there any?), do you have any recommendations for email providers?


Regarding authsmtp's static ip address, they list it in their FAQ's...


https://www.authsmtp.com/faqs/faq-47.html
 
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I know you say you know the RedLion side of things, but I wondered if their help file might be useful. It has settings for Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and AuthSMTP.

https://support.redlion.net/hc/en-u...mson-Using-Mail-Manager-to-Send-Email-and-SMS

As for Gmail, they can be a pain in the backside, but it mostly seems to work. The one setting you have to get right is to enable 'access by less secure devices'. If the email is used for a month, Gmail 'helpfully' switches that off again.
 
I've tried all the free providers a few years back, with no luck. I was able to talk the customers IT department into providing us an address on their internal server and have had zero issues with that.


I need something reliable, with my own domain. I'm looking into Zoho, with or without authsmtp.
 
I have a bit of success, and learned a little bit about domains and email! Our administrator would not or could not change the SPF record for our domain, so I purchased a zoho mail account along with a domain they are hosting. I then purchased an AUTHsmtp account, and used the zoho email account for its send from address. To be able to verify/send from the zoho account I had to update the SPF record of my domain to include authsmtp. Took me an evening and 8 hrs of sleep to figure out what an SPF record was and how/where to go about changing it.



After all that, I was still having an issue with the red lion sending the messages. I was using their ip address instead of the name as you have been doing, and had all of the other information correct. The one setting that was holding it up was the "use secure connection" I was using SSL/TLS, after setting to no authentication, emails are now being sent successfully.
 

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