When you setup a Controller Server or a Member Server, one of the critical settings in the FinePointe Control panel is the Server URI.  If this value is not set properly for your network, the Server will not be discovered automatically, and Clients or other Servers cannot contact it.

The Server URI is text which addresses this server on the network.  It is composed in the following way:

tcp://<host>:<port>

Where <host> is the network name of the computer, and <port> is the specific TCP port on that computer that the server is listening on.  A trailing ‘/’ character is optional.

The following are examples:

• tcp://dione:35000
  <host> is “dione”, the computer name
  <port> is 35000
  
  
• tcp://192.168.38.224:35000
  <host> is “192.168.38.224”, the IP address of the computer
  <port> is 35000
  
  
• tcp://buxco.info:35000
  <host> is “buxco.info”, an internet URL which refers to the computer
  <port> is 35000

In general, it is probably best to use a symbolic name to identify the Host.  So, tcp://dione:35000 or tcp://buxco.info:35000 might be better than tcp://192.168.38.224:35000. The reason is that if the computer IP is assigned using DHCP, using the IP address might change if DHCP assigns it a different IP address. This IP change will cause the FinePointe network system to fail.  

If you are on a network WITHOUT DNS (for example, a Windows workgroup may not have DNS), you must use the IP address.  For example, tcp://192.168.38.224:35000. In this case, you should ensure that the computer uses a static IP address so DHCP doesn’t reset it.

Ping Tests

It is useful to perform Ping Tests when diagnosing a network problem.  The following ping tests must succeed:

• Review Client (source) to Controller Server (target)
• Member Server (source) to Controller Server (target)
• Controller Server (source) to Member Server (target)

The ping test will test that the host portion of your Server URI is sufficient.  That is, you are testing if the source is able to reach the target.

Before you perform the ping test, you should either disable the fire wall on the source and target computers, or enable the ICMP protocols in the Firewall (they are disabled by default). To perform the test, go to the Source computer, and bring up a command prompt.  At the prompt, type “ping <target host>”.  For example, if I want to test if I can reach the host “192.168.8.1”:

C:\Users\User Name.BUXCO>ping 192.168.8.1

Pinging 192.168.8.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.8.1: bytes=32 time=397ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.8.1: bytes=32 time=379ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.8.1: bytes=32 time=377ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.8.1: bytes=32 time=371ms TTL=64 

Ping statistics for 192.168.8.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 371ms, Maximum = 397ms, Average = 381ms

The result shows that 192.168.8.1 is reachable from the source computer.  The following shows that the computer named “dq8373” is not reachable:

C:\Users\User Name.BUXCO>ping dq8373
Ping request could not find host dq8373. Please check the name and try again.

You should also keep in mind that the Controller must be “reachable” by every Review Client and every Member server.  That means that the address you choose must be good for all those machines.  If you intend to access the Controller from the internet and the internal network that the Controller is running on, then you must choose an address for the Controller that will work from both the internet and all desired internal network locations. 

Ping Requirements

• A Controller Server needs to be able to reach each of its Member Servers.
• Member Servers need to be able to reach the associated Controller.
• A Client needs to be able to reach the Controller, but does not need to be able to reach any Member Server.  
• The Controller does NOT need to be able to reach the Review Client.