lontunnel-LonTunnel

This is the server-side component required to support application tunneling of Windows Lon-based applications to Lon devices reachable in a station’s Lon network. It is found in the lontunnel module. A station running the Lonworks driver can provide tunneling access to its connected Lonworks devices. This uses a vendor’s Windows Lon-based application (via the Lon tunnel client) to perform device-specific operations. Examples include application downloads or other device configuration.

WARNING: While this module is available, you are strongly encouraged not to provide tunneling access to Lonworks devices. Tunneling is not a secure form of communication. If you use it, you provide an opening for malicious activity within your network.

The tunneling client is separate from Workbench—meaning that you can install it on various PCs. The key advantage is that Lon tunneling requires only a standard IP connection (to the station), yet provides access as if the client PC was attached to the target Lonworks network via a physical FTT-10 adapter.

NOTE: No special licensing is required to use tunneling features.

Figure 50. LonTunnel properties

Unless you have multiple Lon tunnels (one for each Lon port on the host), you do not need to do any further configuration, apart from defaults.

To view these properties, expand LonNetwork and double-click LonTunnel.

In addition to the standard properties (Enabled and Status) these properties are unique to this component.

Property	Value	Description
Connections	read-only	Shows the number of active tunnel connections ranging from 0 (no active connection) to the number of child tunnel components. WARNING: While tunneling is available, you are strongly encouraged not to use it. Tunneling is not a secure form of communication.
Identifier	read-only	Reflects the entered `Device Name` (below), used as the `Tunnel Name` when configuring the client-side Lon Tunneling window.
Device Name	LONn, where n changes based on the network	Identifies the device name (identifier) of the host’s Lon network to access. This is LON1 in most cases (any host with only a single Lon port). However, if the target host has multiple Lon ports (supports multiple Lon networks) you could enter LON2, for example.

Action

In addition, a LonTunnel has an available (right-click) action: Disconnect All disconnects any active connection through this LonTunnel (maximum of 1), causing removal of the TunnelConnection below it. On the remote (Lon tunnel client) side, the driver reports a popup message: Connection closed by remote host.

NOTE: Any TunnelConnection component also has its own Disconnect action, which effectively performs the same function.