Can't CRio through VPN, but I can ping the rest of the network

[EMCCi]

Working from home I connect through a VPN to the VPN server of the office configured on top of ClearOS.

From home I can ping all the office except the Compact Rio.

If I connect to my office workstation with remote desktop, then locally I can ping all the office, including the Compact Rio. So it's online and responding.

What can make the CRio to respond to ping requests only from local mates and ignore my home computer through the VPN? What's the difference if connecting through VPN is the same as being locally?

Thanks for your time,

EMCCi

[oscarfonseca]

[Disclaimer: Networking is not my forte, but I'm happy to share my experience]

Hey EMCCi,

I also work with VPN and cRIO devices across the network (both using remote desktop to a local machine, as well as from my home computer). I have not had problems pinging the devices when remotely. Some things that might be worth considering:

1. Is the cRIO connected to the company's network or directly to the computer to which you remote-desktop? If it's the latter, it will not be visible but to the computer that has it connected.
2. Can you ping the device using its IP from your computer by VPN? My understanding from your post is that the remote machine (local in the office) can ping it but your VPN cannot. I wonder if your IT infrastructure is blocking that specific address or request.
3. If you do can ping it, I do not expect NI MAX to find the cRIO automatically because the device is not in the same subnet, but you should be able to add it (right click on Remote Devices) by IP and have it recognized properly from VPN.
4. You can find more possible steps here: NI CompactRIO or Network Device Doesn't Show Up or is Missing in MAX 

All that being said, I think your IT support is the best bet to get this solved. You can find the common ports used by NI software here: Configuring Software and Hardware Firewalls to Support National Instruments Products 

All the best,

[EMCCi]

Hello Oscar,

Sorry for my late response:

1. To the company's network

2. From home I can ping my workstation at 192.168.100.26 and another computer at 192.168.100.33 but I can't ping CRio at 192.168.100.32. So you can see that is the same IP type & range. Our IT service isn't blocking anything because we don't have one 😄 We are a very little company. And yes, locally in the office I can ping the CRio.

3. MAX doesn't detect anything even directly writting the CRio IP because it is inaccesible from VPN due to some obscure reason.

[oscarfonseca]

Interesting, I've never seen that specific situation with our VPN. 🤔

I guess that depending on how the VPN and internal network are setup, they will require of different settings to "make then visible". Some other ideas I can think about:

1. Is the VPN connected to a server or modem in the internal company's network, or each computer has its VPN setup and connected to it? If each computer is running its VPN client and the cRIO is not, even though it's in the local network 192.168.100.XX, it will not know how to communicate with something external because it's nut running the VPN. However, if the VPN is in the network router/switch level, I guess this should not be an issue.
2. Is the cRIO configured with a Static or dynamic DHCP IP address? If it's static, it might be missing the default gateway or have the subnet mask wrong.
3. Maybe the VPN provider company has some insight they can share with you about how the system works and best recommendations to troubleshoot the situation?

All the best,

[jed255]

I've had some issues with VPN on our corporate network as well. I don't have the same situation as you do but maybe the same solution will work. I've been forcing the connection to my cRIO by adding the route to go through a certain network interface on the computer. To do this you need to open a command window as administrator and use the command:

add 192.168.100.32 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.100.1

You might need to figure out what the red IP address should be, it should be whatever the VPN is using as a network adapter. Ours creates a virtual network adapter but you should be able to figure that out with ipconfig /all or going into your adapter settings.

[EMCCi]

@oscarfonseca

1. VPN is in company's router. So if you connect to the company VPN you can reach the whole (and unique) company LAN (192.168.100.x)

2. Static. And gateway and mask are ok, I have rechecked. But I have the two ethernet ports configured as static. The primary with 192.168.3.3 (for client applications) and 192.168.100.32 for office. But this shoudn't be a problem

3. We are our own VPN provider. It is configured on clearOS. (Operative system oriented to work as router)

@stillwaiting255

add isn't recognized as internal or external command...

Anyway I can access ALL the other VPN IP's. So I don't know why this one should be different. It seems something from the own CRio... Because all the other things work good when CRio isn't present.

Thanks for your time guys!

EMMCi

[jed255]

My apologies, forgot to add the most important part at the beginning, should be:

route add 192.168.100.32 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.100.1

[l.bigi]

I have exactly the same issue.

Trying with "route add" does not make any difference.

Have you been able to solve the problem? How?

[EMCCi]

Sorry for the late response, I haven't read you until now. I will answer because it could be useful for future readers too.

I don't remember it perfectly right now, but if you are in the same situation as me where I could ping all the local network devices unless the cRIO, and the cRIO was pingable from the local network too, it probably indicates that the cRIO gateway isn't properly configured, so it can answer to local ping requests with their physical MAC address, but it can't respond to outside requests that are resolved through IP, the gateway IP.