It's a Client-Server design, where the cRIO actor would be the Server. A disconnect of the Client has no affect on the Server and it continues to run. The Client (on the main computer or another RIO) needs to detect the disconnection and attempt to reconnect. Nobody needs to shutdown, though the Client will need to go into a loop of trying to reconnect every few minutes until the network is back up. See the conversation starting here, where bbean was dealing with the issue of the Client not being able to connect to the server.