When performing a NiagaraNetwork discover from a Supervisor or an engineering workstation PC, your Windows firewall needs exceptions for UDP port(s) as well as TCP port(s), as UDP multicasting is used by Fox in discovery. Otherwise (with only a TCP port opened), your discovery may come up empty.

Therefore, if using only the “standard” port (1911) for station (Fox) communications, your firewall needs two exceptions:

If a Supervisor host using the “standard” port for platform connections (3011), you might also add an exception for this port too (TCP port 3011)—or for whatever TCP port is used by the platform daemon. Note that UDP multicasting is not used in platform communications.

If using “non-standard” ports for station (Fox) connections, note similar firewall exceptions may be needed for those TCP and UDP ports.

Starting in AX-3.7, when performing a NiagaraNetwork discover and one or more remote stations are configured with Foxs (secure Fox), the network’s Station Manager view recognizes this (Figure 74).

As shown above, such discovered stations show a icon by Station Name and show “foxs” for Scheme. Note that it is possible for a station to be listed twice—once with this “foxs” scheme and another with the regular “fox” scheme (and icon without padlock). However, typically you choose to add the “foxs” one.

When you double-click such a station for the Add dialog (or click to select, then click the Add button) the Add dialog will show the port used by that station for Foxs, for example 4911 (Figure 75).

In addition, the “Use Foxs” property is true by default. After entering the station username and password (used for client connection to it), and clicking OK, the station is added to the database pane in the Station Manager view. The status of the NiagaraStation is ok, providing a “trusted root” or “allowed host exception” is in the local station’s platform (for validation of that host’s server certificate).

Again, such a station shows a icon in the database pane. Note that some jobs may include a mix of JACE types, some of which can support AX-3.7 or later SSL (JACE-6 series, JACE-7 series, any Win32-based JACE models), while other JACE types do not (JACE-2 series, or JACE-4 series, JACE-5 series). Stations running on the latter types lack the ability for a Foxs connection.

When configuring any AX-3.7 or later station using SSL (for example a Supervisor station) that requires station communications between a JACE that is not configured for (or does not support) 3.7/3.8 SSL, you must set its FoxService property “Foxs Only” at a false value. Otherwise, the remote JACE will be unable to make a client connection back to the station. For related details, see Fox Service properties.

For more details on adding a discovered NiagaraStation, see Station Add notes.

By default, a station discover uses IP address (vs. host name). Typically, this is the recommended method. However, if Niagara hosts are installed on a network using DNS, you can toggle the discovery method to use host name instead. Do this in the table options menu (click upper right small control) of the Station Manager, as shown in Figure 77. You can also select other columns for display, and sort on any column. See Manager table features for more details.

Depending on the chosen discovery method, discovered stations appear listed with either an IP address or a DNS name in the Address column. By default, discovered stations list showing an IP address. If a station uses a Fox port other than 1911 (default), address includes the port number appended, for example: 192.168.1.112.1912.