Requirement for the local computer:

• STEP 7 V5.1 or higher installed on the local computer
• Softnet-PG V6.x (integrated into STEP 7 from V5.3 of STEP 7),
• Locally installed ISDN card (supports only internal PCI or PCMCIA cards).

Procedure on local computer:

• Install STEP 7 and Softnet PG and then open the system project in STEP 7. 
• Set the access point of the PG/PC interface in the STEP 7 SIMATIC Manager under "Options > Set PG/PC interface" to your local ISDN card.
• ISDN cards are proposed as "NdisWanIp" by Win 2000 and Win XP.

Fig. 01  
 

Requirements for the online segment:
To set up an online segment with STEP 7 via ISDN router you must ensure that Port 102 on the ISDN router is release on the system side. If you go online with STEP 7 via TCP/IP, only the RFC1006 is used. More information on TCP/IP ports is available in Entry ID 8970169.
For detailed information on how to release the TCP ports please refer to the manual of your ISDN router.

Activating the online connection:
To set up the online connection you select "View > Online" in the STEP 7 SIMATIC Manager. Activate the "Online" option and the ISDN card dials the telephone number that you have set beforehand as standard data communications connection (telephone number of the ISDN router on the system side). More information on how to set up a data communications connection is available in the Windows Help. When you close the Online view, the data communication connection is cleared down automatically.

Note:
As from STEP 7 V5.3 + SP3, before making the connection each Ethernet node is first addressed with a ping to see whether it actually exists. This must be done because Windows XP SP2 only allows up to 10 connections to be made simultaneously. Only if a positive check-back signal is received does the STEP 7 set up an online connection.

If a ping request is returned as "not successful", STEP 7 V5.3 + SP3 can no longer set up an online connection via Ethernet (TCP/IP) under the new operating systems (e.g. Windows XP Prof. + SP2 and Windows 2003 Server). One possible reason for this is that ping requests are blocked by firewalls as standard.

Remedy:
If you want to access the controller all the same, you can change the firewall settings so ping requests are no longer blocked. This is only on condition that the controller is not accessible via Ethernet.

Note:
With STEP 7 V5.3 + SP3 + HF1 and higher the situation described above was remedied.

If necessary, you can request Hotfix 1 from Technical Support for Automation and Drive Technology .