Not really sure if this question belongs here or in hardware, but here goes, anyway :-
Using “Realport Technolgy” and a DigiOne SP, I can ‘pretend’ that I have a direct connection from my PC to my serial port device. OK, I am actually connected over Ethernet, however does this mean that I can connect to any two Ethernet ports in the world, and still work. Or do I have to be on the same LAN/hub/switch.
If it is any 2 Ethernet ports globally, I presume there would have to be a setup procedure, to allow various firewalls and/or routers to be tunneled through ? Or worse still VPN’s having to be setup.
Is this global setup a reality, as this is part of the requirement, or am I hoping for the impossible ? It would be a consumer that would need to set this up, not an IT dept/person.
Thanks for any help, even if it’s saying this cant be done
This is possible globally, and is in fact in use that way by a number of our customers.
The DigiOne really only cares about a few things. It has its own IP address, it may have a destination IP address programmed into it, and it needs to know how to get to that destination (called the Gateway IP address, typically the LAN-side address of a router).
That’s all there is to it really. The DigiOne assumes that the network layer is already in place, and the various addresses you program into it just tell it who it is, who it should be talking to, and how to get to that destination. There’s a number of higher level parameters that can be configured into it such as netmask, keepalive, auth tables, etc., but that’s it in a nutshell.
There is computer server, ‘field’ LAN and two PortServers 4 installed. Server periodically polls field devices connected to a PortServers through RealPort driver.
There is another (higher level) computer server and another LAN segment. Segments are connected through dial-up networking, the first computer server configured as dial-in server. Higher level computer server had to obtain occasional access to a field devices through ‘field’ LAN PortServers.
Questions is:
Can PortServer serial ports be shared in the same manner?
How to install and configure RealPort driver on temporary available interfaces, such as dial-up networking?
We have 3 of these now (Digi One SP) to ‘play’ with, and very easily got them all working with legacy comm port code (using realport), and also serial tunneling using genuine ports.
This was all done on our LAN.
Now, we have to get this to work over the Internet. We will be using 2 separate LAN’s both of which independently connect to the internet. You say we can still connect the two ‘things’ together but I’m slightly confused as to how. Is there anything in the FAQ or knowledgebase that you could point me to, to help me out.
Can PortServer serial ports be shared in the same manner?
Yes in varying degrees, depending on the model and firmware level. The modern Portserver TS line with current firmware can actually share a serial port between multiple hosts. An older Portserver would be able to share the serial port between multiple servers, but a server would only be able to connect to a serial port if no other server is using it at that time.
How to install and configure RealPort driver on temporary available interfaces, such as dial-up networking?
Please refer to the Realport installation guide for whatever operating system(s) you intend on doing this for. Understand that the serial ports will only be valid when the network connection is established, and that the driver will need to know how to get to that Portserver. When the network connection is not valid, any processes enabled on a serial port will generate errors due to the non-existence of the Realport device.
… but a server would only be able to connect to a serial port if no other server is using it at that time
Hmm… Modern PortServer TS can provide simultaneous access from multiply hosts to one serial port??? I’d like to nave more traditional behavior - one host at one time…
Understand that the serial ports will only be valid when the network connection is established
It’s quite clear, but the question is - can I install the driver w/o interface up under Windows 2k?
… but a server would only be able to connect to a serial port if no other server is using it at that time
Hmm… Modern PortServer TS can provide simultaneous access from multiply hosts to one serial port??? I’d like to nave more traditional behavior - one host at one time…
It can be configured either way, to either allow or reject multiple host connections to a single port. By default, it will operate the traditional way, only allowing a single socket connection per port. The difference is with the current firmware, this can be changed to allow multiple socket connections per port, whereas with older models/firmware, no such option existed.
…It’s quite clear, but the question is - can I install the driver w/o interface up under Windows 2k?..
I don’t understand this question. What do you mean by “install w/o interface”?
I don’t understand this question. What do you mean by “install w/o interface”?
I mean installation procedure while interface is down, and target ip address not available. For example, dial-up networking connection while not connected.
As long as the network layer is in place and one Digi can talk (ping) the other, its no problem. If you can’t ping, network layer (routing, firewall issues, etc) is not in place, so that would need to be resolved first.
As far as tutorials for setting up auto-connections, the users guide has some info on this, as does our knowledge base.
