Desperate request for help with setting up and VPN connetion with ADSL to and Omron PLC equipped with ethernet card (CJ1W-ETN11)

Any form of reply is greatly appreciated.

Our client is using an relatively new Omron PLC, the CJ1W. Equipped with an Ethernet Card CJ1W-ETN11 which is connected to an ADSL router,he wants to approach it through internet using CX-programmer (Omron's programming software) on his local PC.

Although both our local Omron dealer and we have very poor (to none) experience with ADSL,it has been confirmed that the concept should work.

I've looked a little bit into the mattter. As far as I understand it, we have to set up an VPN connection to the remote ADSL router, on which the PLC's ethernet card is connected.

When defining the VPN connection, we have to enter the ADSL router's IP adress, and when connecting we have to enter the routers username and password. And then we should be connected ?>?

I know (but not by experience) that communicating with an PLC through ethernet with CX-programmer should be as easy as entering the IP adress of the Ethernet card at the communication properties in the software, and then connect.

So when I add these two actions it should work?

 

I don't know about your ASDL router, but mine doesn't exactly work that way. It doesn't allow anyone from the outside to connect to it, but rather passes all traffic directly through to the PLC, which is a *very* bad thing. To set up a VPN, you would likely require a host running windows to be connected to a switch/router and also have the PLC connected to the switch/router.

The windows machine will be required to do the validation for the VPN, at which point it would assign the remote device an IP on the local network, at which point it could talk to the PLC. I use this same setup at my home, and while it is more expensive than plug and go, you really can't get much cheaper than this. The PC would only be doing the validation, so it doesn't have to be a powerhouse, just the bare minimum requirements for running the VPN validation software. Here's how my setup works:
(Sprintlink.net)->(chrisbuckley.nailed.org)->(192.168.10.1)
ASDL -> ASDL Router -> Linksys Router/Switch
-> PLC ENET Interface (192.168.10.2)
Linksys-> VPN Validation PC (192.168.10.4)
-> Web Server (192.168.10.5)
-> 802.11b Gateway (192.169.10.6)

 

The Omron Ethernet card does not have a VPN service in it. You should be able to connect to it without the VPN connection, provided the route
to map the PLC IP address through the router exists.

For a VPN connection to work the device on the far end must have a "service" which listens to the assigned VPN port for connection requests. The Omron card has a FTP service available but not a VPN service.

The ADSL should be transparent to the connection. The router should be setup to pass traffic on a certain port to an assigned address behind it.

Jeff LeBlanc

 

I have used VPN a few times. I have been successful with a CISCO router. Using a Windows 2000 server with two NIC as the VPN server also worked well. However, the ADSL router in my office does not allow VPN to pass (perhaps unless I open some ports - which I refuse to do). So the answer is, not all ADSL routers like VPN.

Jonas Berge

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