Channel properties - network interface – IDEC WindSRV User Manual
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Report Comm. Errors turns the reporting of low level communications errors On or Off. When enabled, low-
level errors (such as parity, framing and overrun errors) are posted to the event log when they occur. When
disabled, these same errors will not be posted even though normal request failures will be.
Use Ethernet Encapsulation: Many serial drivers also support Ethernet Encapsulation mode, which uses an
Ethernet based serial port gateway instead of the normal PC based serial port. See Also:
.
Note: With the server's online full-time operation, these parameters can be changed at any time (including
communications port, baud rate and etc.). Utilize the User Manager to restrict access rights to server features and
prevent operators from changing the parameters. Changes made to these parameters can temporarily disrupt
communications.
Flow Control RTS & DTS
Flow control may be required in order to communicate with a specific serial device. Descriptions of the available flow
control options are as follows.
None: No control lines are toggled or asserted.
DTR: The DTR line is asserted when the communications port is opened and remains on.
RTS: This specifies that the RTS line will be high if bytes are available for transmission. After all buffered bytes
have been sent, the RTS line will be low. This is normally used with RS232/RS485 converter hardware.
RTS, DTR: This is a combination of DTR and RTS as described above.
RTS Always: The RTS line is asserted when the communication port is opened and remains on.
RTS Manual: The RTS line is asserted based upon the timing parameters entered for manual RTS control.
Channel Properties - Network Interface
With the addition of Ethernet Encapsulation, virtually all of the drivers currently available support some form of Ethernet
communications. Whether a natively Ethernet based driver or a serial driver configured for Ethernet Encapsulation is
being used, some form of a network interface will be used. In most cases, that interface takes the form of a Network
Interface Card (NIC). For a PC that has networking installed, this usually means that a single NIC is installed that
provides a connection to either the IT or plant floor network (or both). This configuration normally works very well for
typical network configurations and loading. While this configuration might be fine for normal performance levels,
problems may arise if data needs to be received from an Ethernet device at a regular interval. If the plant floor network
is mixed with the IT network, a large batch file transfer could completely disrupt the interval of the plant floor data.
The most common way to deal with this issue is to install a second NIC in the PC. Then, one NIC can be used for
accessing the IT network while the other NIC accesses the plant floor data. Although this may sound reasonable, simple
problems occur when trying to separate the networks. When using multiple NICs, users must determine the bind order
. The bind order determines what NIC is used to access different portions of the Ethernet network. In many cases, bind
settings can be easily managed using the operating system's tools.
When there is a clear separation between the types of protocols and services that will be used on each NIC card, the
bind order can be created by the operating system. If there isn't a clear way to select a specific bind order, users may
find that the Ethernet device connection is being routed to the wrong network. In this case, the Network Interface
shown below can be used to select a specific NIC card to use with the Ethernet driver. The Network Interface selection
can be used to select a specific NIC card based on either the NIC name or its currently assigned IP address. This list of
available NICs will include either unique NIC cards or NICs that have multiple IP assigned to them. The selection will
also display any WAN connections are active (such as a dialup connection).