Hi Ben,
Yes, the second diagram almost exactly represents what we want to be able to do but the ‘red’ network would also be connected to the internet so that we could use VPN to access the data remotely as well. The problem is our “blue” network is not one network but two (PAC Project Pro redundant) networks on two subnets - in this example they might be something like 172.168.0.xxx and 172.168.1.xxx.
The questions this this brings up for me are:
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What happens if we mix redundant (PAC-S2, PAC-R1s) and non-redundant (Groov) Opto 22 devices on this network? In other words, if we only have a Groov AR1 on one network of the “blue” networks, will the other ‘PAC’ nodes recognize this and automatically communicate with the Groov AR1 on this network (make it the active network between the ‘Groov’ and ‘PAC’ nodes) even if the other network is the active network between some of these other ‘PAC’ nodes?
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Will the above still work if we put a Groov AR1 on both networks?
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Has anyone come up with a elegant way to provide web access to both LAN / ‘PAC’ networks that automatically switches / arbitrates between the two networks or a particular node on the two networks? My weak understanding of the capabilities of bridges/gateways/routers is an issue here. Do some of these have the capability to ping nodes on two network ports and switch over to forwarding from one network to the other if the node disappears from one? Hopefully I’ve explained that in a way that makes sense. (In other words, both redundant / blue / PAC networks would be plugged into this special bridge/gateway/router which would arbitrate between the two and forward information (with the same output IP address / subnet either way) on a third port to a Groov AR1.)