mayeska

Hi. Let me start by apologizing for my total lack of expertise in this area -- I'm not a programmer, I'm a webmaster with limited php experience. I'm coming here because I'm sincerely hoping someone will take pity on me and help me out. ??? My problem is this... My company builds industrial equipment. This equipment can relay information to remote users through a web modem. The modem outputs data in the form of a small table, which it updates in real time. At any moment in time, I can access the system's data via the modem, using a secure VPN connection. The data, when accessed, looks something like this... "TagId";"TagName";"Value";"AlStatus";"AlType" 2;"LEL_Alarm";0.000000;4;0 3;"HHL_Alarm";0.000000;4;0 4;"Vacuum";674.000000;0;0 5;"Flow";14.000000;0;0 As you can see, the table gives each "tag" an ID number, a name, a value, an alarm status, and an alarm type. This particular system has four tags -- four parts of the equipment which spit out data. Here's where things get interesting. Due to VPN restrictions, only one computer at a time can access this data -- and this doesn't work for us. There might be five people across the country who all want to see the data at the same time. So, here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to connect our webhost computer to the VPN (which I've done successfully) and then have the webhost pull the data through the secure VPN and post it on the nonsecure internet. I figure, if the webhost can pull this data, it should be able to display it to anyone. The trick is that the person viewing the webpage will NOT be an authenticated member of the VPN. The webhost is the ONLY machine which will be allowed to reach through the VPN tunnel and grab the tag data. I can't just hyperlink to the data -- if I do that, non-VPN members will get an error because they aren't qualified to view the resource. I need the webhost to reach through the VPN tunnel, lock onto the modem's IP address, log into the modem, grab the tags and then throw them out for those viewing from cyberspace. Is there a way to code this?? A specific example of this hypothetical code would be GREATLY appreciated. At this point, I'm willing to bribe potential helpers with chocolate if it will help my cause. Thanks ahead of time, Karen