Communicating with BRX on Different Ethernet Ports

[RBPLC]

I've seen this issue twice now. The first time I thought it might be a switch issue, but this time I realized what the issue is. Problem is as follows:

My laptop has one built in Ethernet port. I routinely use a docking station that also as an Ethernet port. I set up an Ethernet BRX using the docking port Ethernet port. No issues with this. The issue is when I use the built in Ethernet port on my computer I cannot communicate with the controller. The addresses between the docking station and built in are different by one. When I run NetEdit using the built in port the controller is seen but the IP address shows all zeros and the Module type shows unknown. What's going on?

[ATU]

Are you selecting the correct adapter in NetEdit?

[RBPLC]

Yes. When using the built in port the docking station adapter isn't available in NetEdit.

[ATU]

Do you see 2 different adapters in the Select PLC Connection dialog? If you have 2 different adapters, I think you would have to select the other adapter to get a different list of  links. I am not sure, but you may still have to select the adapter even if the other one is not available? Is that the case?

[franji1]

From a cmd.exe prompt, type ipconfig /all to get a list of all your PC's IP Addresses and subnet masks.
Please list those here.  You can just dump it to a text file, e.g. from the command prompt type

ipconfig /all >%temp%\ipconfig.txt

You may need to do this twice - once when connected to the docking station, and once when not connected (give the ipconfig.txt a different name than the first time you ran it, e.g. ipconfig2.txt)

Then in Notepad, open %temp%\ipconfig.txt (and %temp%\ipconfig2.txt) and copy/paste the contents here.

Also tell us your PLC's IP Address.

If your PC cannot distinguish between its two networks (i.e. they are both enabled and both on the same subnet, e.g. both are 192.168.x.x), you definitely could have some Ethernet comm issues since your laptop does not know which "wire" a connection to 192.168.99.99 should go out.  But if only ONE is enabled at a time, it should work (the ipconfig /all will tell us something).

[RBPLC]

As I was getting the info as requested by fraji, I realized what was going on. Recently, there were some network changes and these controllers got put on a different subnet. As  I was working off of my docking station at the time, I changed its subnet mask at that time. I forgot to change the subnet mask for the built in port. I noticed this discrepancy when I ran ipconfig with both plugged in at the same time (I typically don't have these plugged in at the same time). As soon as I changed the subnet mask on the built-in port I had no issues. Thanks for the help.

[franji1]

As I was getting the info as requested by fraji, I realized what was going on. Recently, there were some network changes and these controllers got put on a different subnet. As  I was working off of my docking station at the time, I changed its subnet mask at that time. I forgot to change the subnet mask for the built in port. I noticed this discrepancy when I ran ipconfig with both plugged in at the same time (I typically don't have these plugged in at the same time). As soon as I changed the subnet mask on the built-in port I had no issues. Thanks for the help.

Glad you figured it out!!

I've been working in that area of Designer, and the next release "Connect to PLC" dialog in Designer's Communication Server will support multiple subnets on a single NIC (not just multiple NICs).  Hence, I've been utilizing "ipconfig" at the command prompt a bunch to understand my settings (both good and bad), and ensuring any/all subnets are mutually exclusive.

Here's my current NIC's ipconfig:

Code: [Select]

d:\> ipconfig
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::6556:161b:ee6d:bfbc%7
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.1.26
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.26
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.2.1.26
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1
Note it has 3 different, mutually exclusive subnets, basically: 10.0.x.x, 10.1.x.x, 10.2.x.x

Then in Designer's Pic-A-NIC dialog (Select Ethernet Adapter Networks dialog) below the Select/Create Connection dialog (see attachment).  Hence, I can now pick specific SUBNETs within a SINGLE NIC, NOT JUST MULTIPLE NICs.  It works great.  It will be in the next release.