I have two questions to toss out to anyone who'd care to speak up.
When interfacing one or more PLCs with one or more HMIs or operator interface devices, isn't it usually necessary to have additional software to manage the network communications (on the computers where the HMI is resident)?
The next question is: what kinds of features does most communications software have in common? (protocols cannot be one of them, for the most part, as they are specific to PLC manufacturers.)
The reason I post this question is because the subject of networking is often abstract, "out there in the ether."
Thanks in advance,
mh