Compuquest, Inc. Product & Support News

Instant messaging has enjoyed a well-deserved surge in popularity among business and professional users. It is more immediate and direct than email, is not plagued by the spa*m problem. And, its “presence” feature provides useful information on the availability and online status of users.

The AlphaSense AFN-100 product family has supported message delivery to W3C standard XMPP Instant Messaging (IM) clients for some time now, and that capability will be further expanded in future firmware releases.

If you have questions on how to use IM delivery from AlphaSense, please call, or use our feedback form.

The red LED on the front panel of all AlphaSense AFN-100 monitoring and messaging products provides useful visual assistance for the progression of startup sequences for both cold boot and restart, Here is what to look for:

Watch the red LED - it will come on steady for 1-2 seconds on power-up, and then go out.

About 10 seconds later, you will see a 2-flash of the red LED
About 10 seconds after that, a 3-flash
About 30-40 seconds after that, a 4-flash

When you see the 4-flash, all of the subsystems of your AlphaSense are fully initialized, communicating, and running. The browser management and reporting interface is then available.

AlphaSense AFN-100 product family uses industry-standard SMTP or ESMTP for outbound email delivery.

Often, installations where AlphaSense is installed want to make use of their Exchange Server to process outbound emails. Below is a very helpful link that covers what needs to be set up on the Exchange side, and an easy method of verifying that Exchange Server is properly configured and ready to accept messaging from Alphasense unit(s).

http://www.petri.co.il/smtp_pop3_and_telnet.htm

One of the most important and valuable features provided by AlphaSense, a family of unattended monitoring and rule-based immediate messaging products manufactured by Compuquest, Inc. is that AlphaSense is a “standalone” product — SEPARATE from that which is being monitored, whatever it is.

Products that have their own self-monitoring features built in, will FAIL at the most crucial and important time - when the product itself fails !!

Superior monitoring is performed by a device that is SEPARATE from that which is being monitored - and that device is AlphaSense monitoring and messaging systems.

As we come to the end of the year, many of us are concerned with data backups, record retention, compliance with data preservation laws, etc….

So, this is just a reminder that you can easily instuct all your AlphaSense units to email their daily logfiles to any email address.  They will be sent just a few minutes before midnight (AlphaSense time), so you may easily preserve and archive them.

Happy Holidays!

Virtualization on PC platforms is being used more and more. The concept of running different processes, applications, and even entire operating systems in their own private “sandbox” within a single hardware platform offers lots of benefits and enhances security.

AlphaSense connects and operates perfectly with virtual machines, and with applications running under any sort of virtual computing.

One of the most often-used connections between a PC and AlphaSense is a COM port, so we will use that for our examples and instructions below, but the same applies for USB connections, and others. First, it is important to remember that applications running on the virtual machine absolutely does have the ability to communicate with any the “actual hard” serial COM port(s) installed on the hardware - but, just like on a non-virtual PC, only one application can use the port at one time. Additional ports added to the hardware are automatically available to virtual processes.
Below are instruction examples using two popular Microsoft virtual machine environments describing how to assign and configure a virtual COM port, and map a virtual port (connect it) to a real hardware COM port on the machine.

There are two overall stems to be taken:

1) Configure a serial port on the virtual machine.

2) Configure a serial port on the virtual machine to connect to a “hard” COM port on the actual computer itself. Note that serial ports are also known as COM ports. This serial port will be a named pipe. To configure this serial port, follow these steps.

Virtual PC 2004

1. Start Virtual PC 2004.

2. Click the virtual machine that you want to configure, and then click Settings.

3. In the Setting list, click the serial port that you want to configure, click Physical serial port, and then click to clear the Wait for modem command to open port check box if it is selected.

4. Click Named pipe, and then type \\.\pipe\name that you want to assign to the named pipe in the Named pipe box. For example, type \\.\pipe\com2

5. Click OK.

Virtual Server 2005

1. Start the Virtual Server Administration Website program. To do this, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Virtual Server, and then click Virtual Server Administration Website.

2. Under Virtual Machines, point to Configure, and then click the virtual machine that you want to modify.

3. Click the COM ports link.

4. Under the serial port that you want to configure for debugging, click Physical computer serial port, and then click to clear the Wait for modem command to open port check box.

5. Click Named pipe, and then type \\.\pipe\name that you want to assign to the named pipe in the Named pipe box. For example, type \\.\pipe\com2

6. Click OK.

Once a mapped virtual port has been assigned, just connect AlphaSense as per its instructions for connecting to the host data port, and everything should work fine.

The information below should make it easier for AlphaSense product installers when attaching AFN to a network…

Like any device connected to a network (local office LAN all the way up to the public internet), certain information is required: the device needs its own IP address so that other network devices can reach it; it needs a netmask to quantify its subnet access; and it needs a gateway address to tell the device how to reach out to machines on other subnets and/or access the internet.

These pieces of information can be aquired two ways, and this choice is immediately presented to anyone using our free Initial Setup Utility software (ISU) when they are configuring and installing AlphaSense. The choices are:

1) DHCP — this stands for dynamic host configuration protocol. It is a neat and super-easy method because AFN is simply connected to the LAN or internet by plugging in the network cable - and somewhere else on the network, a piece of equipment called a “router” detects the new AFN being connected, and ASSIGNS the AFN unit all of the information needed — automatically !!

2) MANUAL — this is where the individual configuring AFN defines all the needed information, and enters them using ISU software. Some network administrators prefer fixed-address assignment……

I’m sure you can easily see that DHCP is the better and simpler choice… So, how can you be sure your AFN installations use it?

The network you install AFN on will be managed by someone - a systems administrator or network administrator… They may choose DHCP right away, in which case you are set, but what should you do if they indicate they want to use MANUAL? …make the following suggestions:

First, all the reasons a systems or network administrator might choose to use MANUAL — you might gently remind him/her that the same results can be achieved using DHCP! For example, if they want AFN at a specific (fixed) IP address, they can have it — just give the network admin the MAC address of the AFN unit - the admin can “tell” the router to “reserve” the fixed address of choice so that it is ONLY given out to the desired device - the AFN !! The router will “assign” it using DHCP, but it will be the desired single fixed address that the network admin wanted — a win win for all.

Plus, this kind of “reserved” IP assignment using DHCP gives the network admin increased security over the devices on their network - the MAC address restriction guarantees it. This security is often another reason that admin’s like MANUAL assignment — but the same identical result can be achieved using DHCP!

The other drawback to manual fixed IP entry is one of convenience - if AFN is guaranteed to be put onto the correct network, and all the given settings are entered right, AFN will of course work perfectly. BUT, if the info is wrong, or mis-entered, AFN cannot be accessed (networks are very exact about addresses, netmask, gateway, etc). This can cause problems and frustrations. AFN will have to be re-authorized with the correct info using the ISU software, etc.

So, to make your life easier as an installer of AlphaSense products, keep in mind that DHCP is your “preferred” network assignment method, and work closely with the network admin person so that both of you can achieve your desired goals.

Whether you are installing an AlphaSense for someone else, or you are your own “customer”, there are certain pieces of information needed that the “customer” must provide - and this document will help you know what you need and how to use it.

First, let’s review how AlphaSense can deliver messages:

AlphaSense (lets call it AFN for short) can deliver its messages 2 ways:

The first method is via network, using standard email protocol SMTP or SMTP with auth login, and with or without STARTTLS high-level encryption. This provides safe, known, and total customer-defined access and permissioning.

The second method is via modem dialout to POTS (standard telephone) line.

These 2 methods may be mixed, using both in any single ruleset, or one method alone. And, even more powerful, the modem dialout method can serve as a “failover” - where AFN monitors the network connectivity, and if it goes away (even momentarily), delivery is made by modem.

If AFN is to be connected to a network (local LAN all the way up to having AFN sit on a public IP), the customer needs to provide the AFN installer with certain items of info. First, AFN can obtain its network info “automatically” ( the local LAN router assigns everything using standard DHCP - just plug AFN in) or “manual”. If manual, customer network administrator needs to give the AFN installer the desired fixed IP address it wants AFN to have, its netmask, and gateway address. If messages will be delivered using network, customer needs to also provide the IP address (or machine name) of the SMTP relay server they wish for AFN to connect to when sending the outbound email. Finally, the customer should specify a preferred DNS server IP address. (Any valid DNS IP will work, but customers usually have their preferences of one closely associated with their own network).

If you are able to get the information you need in advance, AlphaSense can be set up in a very short time.

Installers of AlphaSense products may wish to provide the relevant network administrator with the MAC address of the specific AlphaSense unit being installed. This will make the network admin very happy!

The MAC address allows the network admin to enhance the security of the network by restricting the provision of AlphaSense’s IP address (either by DHCP or manually assigned) and guarantee that the designated address will be used ONLY by the desired machine. This can be further used to satisfy security needs when AlphaSense delivers messages using network methods.

If you do not know the MAC address for any AlphaSense which you own or have installed, just contact our support department, and have the specific AlphaSense model and serial number available.