# Connect Allen Bradley through port forward

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/connect-allen-bradley-through-port-forward/7338>\
**Category:** Archived Topics\
**Created:** [September 27, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/connect-allen-bradley-through-port-forward/7338 "2013-09-27T17:36:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cacordova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@cacordova](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/cacordova)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/connect-allen-bradley-through-port-forward/7338/1 "2013-09-27T17:36:33Z")

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How can I connect to an Allen Bradley SLC PLC via port forward through a Public IP?

Thank You!

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**Author:** ![dale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecd19e/32.png) [@dale](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/dale)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/connect-allen-bradley-through-port-forward/7338/2 "2013-10-07T21:54:37Z")

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There are probably more elegant ways to do this, but for the IT novice (like myself) here is one possibility:  
Create a VPN tunnel using hardware firewall devices (I’ve used SonicWall).  
I am assuming you have an internet connection available on both ends (SCADA server and PLC).  
Hope this helps.

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**Author:** ![Kyle\_Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kyle\_Chase](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kyle_Chase)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 7:35am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/connect-allen-bradley-through-port-forward/7338/3 "2013-10-17T07:35:56Z")

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This is a horrible idea. With sites like shodan, you could get hacked quite quickly.

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**Author:** ![PeterThornton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@PeterThornton](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/PeterThornton)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/connect-allen-bradley-through-port-forward/7338/4 "2013-11-26T16:12:54Z")

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Hi Kyle,

I’m curious as to why you think this is such a bad idea. I agree simply forwarding the relevant port through the firewall to the PLC would be a bad idea, but surely a VPN setup with SonicWall devices will be impervious to Shodan.

Peter