- Setup Workstations over LAN?
LAN is the short form of Local Area Network. In this section of the manual, we will see how we can have our installation of MySQL on a server machine and allow clients (workstations) to connect to that installation of MySQL. Prerequisites are given below:
- A working installation of MySQL on a server machine in the network.
- One or more client on the same network, with or without a local installation of MySQL.
In this section, it is assumed that you are one of the client machines and there already is, as one of our prerequisites, a server machine with a working MySQL installation. Please follow the steps below to be able to connect these machines together. Note that this process could also be carried out for other client machines connecting to the same server:
- MySQL, when installed on a server machine, will attempt to open 1 port on usually 4 services. This port number is 3306. You have to make sure that this port number is already open on the sever machine. In order to make sure that port 3306 is open on the server machine, you have to perform the following actions:
- On the server machine, go to Start Menu.
- Choose the Run menu-item.
- In the Run window, type "CMD" if using a Windows 2000 compatible machine or type "Command.com" if you are using either Windows 95, 98 or ME.
- Once in the command prompt window, type NETSTAT -N and hit the enter key, at the end of the list, you must see almost 4 services running on port 3306 as shown below:
- If the above port numbers are not open on the server machine, make sure that MySQL is up and running and given enough privileges to access the network. Also make sure that MySQL's service is not blocked by the local firewall (if any) on the server machine.
- Please note that if the server machine is behind a hardware firewall, the firewall must give the server an access to port 3306.
- If the server machine is behind a router, you can use a very easy-to-use VPN (Virtual Private Network) software called Hamachi. Please note that Hamachi has a free license; in other words, it is a freeware software that you can easily use without worrying about paying for a license. Please also bear in mind that the Hamachi software has an intuitive GUI and the website includes a very useful system of documentation and a getting-started page. You can read this page to get to know about the aforementioned software, more.
- On the client machine (the workstation), execute our Mekashron Call Center Software.
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- In the Login window of your installation of Mekashron Call Center Software, make sure that the Show database options check-box is ticked.
- In the MySQL Host / IP edit-box, enter the IP address of the server machine. You can also enter the name of the server machine and our software will resolve its IP automatically for you (if in the same network and accessible).
- For example, if the IP address of the destination machine is "10.0.18.126", enter this IP address in the MySQL Host / IP box and press the Login button.
- You also have to make sure that the username and the password boxes indicate accurate and correct username and passwords on the server machine.
- If you have completely and thoroughly followed the above steps, you must now be able to get connected to the MySQL installation that you have on the server machine. Congratulations!
- Allowing Network Updates?
People that are using Mekashron Call Center Software over a network can, as explained before, have either a Client or a Server installation. This is our distributed plan for our software. In this plan, a server will keep updating its database but the clients will only update required information. In this section of our manual we will show you how you can allow such updating of Mekashron Call Center Software over the network. Below, it is assumed that you are using Windows XP or a Windows NT compatible version of the Windows Operating System such as (XP/NT/2003/Vista/etc). (Remember that these steps have to be performed on the host computer that is hosting the version of Mekashron Call Center Software)
- On your desktop, find the My Computer icon and double click on it. If you are more comfortable to work with your keyboard, press WIN+D to show Desktop, find the My Computer icon, navigate on it and press the Enter key on the keyboard.
- On top of the My Computer window, find the Tools menu and then click on Folder Options; as depicted below:
- In the Folder Options window, find the View tab and click on it.
- In the View tab, in the center of the screen you will see a list of check-boxes. Navigate to the bottom of this list and find the check-box Use simple file sharing (Recommended). Make sure that this check-box is not checked as shown below:
- When you are done, click on the OK button to close the Folder Options window.
- Now find the "Mekashron" folder in the "C:\Program Files\" folder. Please note that at the time of installation, you might have changed this folder. Find the folder that is the source installation of our program.
- Right click on this folder and choose Properties. If you are more comfortable with your keyboard, navigate on this folder's icon and press ALT+ENTER simultaneously.
- In the Properties window, find and navigate to the Sharing tab. The contents of this tab is shown below:
- As you can see, by default this folder is not shared. Please select the Share this folder radio-button. At this time, the Share name edit-box should be filled with the name of this folder. If you believe there are Permissions that have to set on this folder, click on the Permissions button and change these permissions so that users across the network will be able to access this folder.
- Press on the OK button in the Properties window as shown below:
- You have now successfully shared the Mekashron Call Center Software folder over the network. It is time to start updating the clients. Please note that from this step on, we are going to change some settings on the Client machines. Follow the steps below in order to modify the required settings.
- Find and execute the Mekashron Call Center program to show the Login window as displayed below:
- To the far-bottom left of the screen, find the icon that displays a computer with wireless rays. This icon is given below:
- After clicking on the above icon, the Update window will pop up. Now in this window, instead of attempting to update from the Internet, choose the Local Network radio-button as shown below:
- Please note that network folders, under the Windows Operating System, can be viewed and explored using two backslashes followed by the computer name (or the IP address) followed by the folder name. For example, to explore the "Mekashron" folder that is shared on the computer with an IP of 10.10.18.126 on the network, you could provide \\10.10.18.126\Mekashron as the source folder. This is shown below:
We have provided a convenient way of looking for the source-shared Mekashron Call Center folder on the server machine. Simply click on the browse button that has 3 dots as its caption. This button is depicted below:
By clicking on the above button, you will be presented a window that gives you an option to navigate and walk through available network paths that you have access to. Since there could be various names for such networks, we wont provide any specific name in this manual. This window however should look like the one given below:
- After you are done selecting the network, click on the OK button and then click on the Next button in the update window. At this time you will be given another window such as the one shown below. Simply click on the Finish button.
- Congratulations! You have successfully updated your client's required files through a network update.
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