basiCommunication consists of three programs. The first is a client program, which is used to connect to the second program, also known as a server. The organization that wants to host their own discussion network is in charge of setting up this server. The third program is a utility that helps an organization manage their server connection settings with the client program.
If you need help configuring a server for your organization, please skip to the section below entitled "Setting up a Network". Otherwise, if you just need help connecting to a server, continue reading.
If you have not already done so, please download the client program. Go to the "Download" page and then click on the appropriate link for the client program, based on the operating system you are using. Once you have downloaded the program, locate it on your computer and double-click it. It should bring up a dialog box prompting you to install the application. Continue on with this process and finish the installation.
Once it has been installed, run the program. It should ask for some login information, and perhaps more importantly, which server it should connect to. By default, basiCommunication is configured to connect to the Bartlesville network. If you are interested in testing your connection, you can use this network and proceed to create an account on it. Creating an account is very simple:
- Click on the "Create Account" button.
- Type in your desired username and password
- Select the server to create this account on
At this point, you can click the "Create Account" button and the program should then proceed to create the account for you, on the server you specified. Once it has done this, go ahead and type in your username and password in the login dialog box. Also, make sure that the server it displays at this login prompt is the server you just created your account on. Otherwise, you are likely to receive an "invalid username and/or password" error when you try to connect.
If you need to connect to a network that basiCommunication is not currently configured to connect to, you will have to use a different servers.bc3 file than the one that came with the program. The organization that you belong to should have provided you with either a link to, or a copy of, their servers.bc3 file. Download this file and place it in the same directory as the basiCommunication client program. If you are asked if it is okay to overwrite the existing servers.bc3 file, click "yes" (however, it might be a good idea to back up the default servers.bc3 file just in case).
In order to set up a network for your organization, you will have to first download the server program. Go to the "Download" page and click on the link to download the server program. If you do not have Windows NT, 2000, XP, or Vista, you are out of luck, as the server uses what is known as an I/O completion port model for handling client connections, and this is only supported by the Windows NT platform.
Once you have downloaded and installed the server program, you should first find out what your public IP address is. Essentially, there are two kinds of IP addresses; a public IP address is one that others can use to connect to your computer from the outside world, and a private IP address is one that can only be used within your internal network. You want to know what your public IP address is, and to do so, please click on the following link to find out:
Find out your public IP address here
The web page should indicate, in bold letters, the public IP address of your computer. For example, this might be 66.139.34.145. Now that you know this address, it is time to enter a new server entry into the servers.bc3 file, which you will give copies of later on to those who want to connect to your network. First, open the "utility" folder (this can be found within the server folder). Double-click on the "bC3 Servers" program. You should see a new window appear, with no entries. Click on "File->Load servers" and specify the location of the servers.bc3 file you wish to modify. This could be the servers.bc3 file that resides within the same folder as the bC3 Servers program; what is important is that you remember which file you modified so that you can use it later. You can even start with a new file by simply typing in a new entry and then saving that entry. Either way, create the new entry as follows:
- Type in the name of your network (up to 15 characters)
- Type in the public IP address of your computer
- Specify the directory on a remote server where files can be uploaded (leave blank if you do not have a directory)
- Type in the port number that you are hosting your server on (typically 4200)
- Click the "Add" button to add the new entry
Having done this, you should save the servers.bc3 file. Do this by going to "File->Save servers" and specifying where to save the servers.bc3 file. Important: you must save the file as "servers.bc3" (no quotes). If you do not save it with that name, the client program will not recognize it, and your clients will be unable to connect to your server. Now, you should try to test if your network is running properly:
- Download and install the client program if you have not already
- Replace the default servers.bc3 file with the one you just created
- Run the client program
- Login with the username "joe" and the password "admin" (no quotes)
If all went well, you should now be connected to your server! If not, please review the steps in this guide to make sure you did not miss anything. If after having done that you are still experiencing difficulties, feel free to email me and I will try to assist you in setting up your server. My email address and other information is available on the about page.
At this point, you should delete the default administration account on the server, as it is universal and others who know about it could log in and assume administrative privileges. This can be done by clicking on the "Edit Accounts" button on the server window, and then selecting the account and pressing the delete key. Feel free to experiment with the server as you like, and when you are comfortable with it and have tested connecting to it with computers outside your network, go ahead and share the servers.bc3 file with others who want to connect to your network.
If you are interested in allowing clients to share files, save discussions, and use the virtual chalkboard feature on your network, you must have file access configured on your server. The first step is to email me with a short description of your network. I will then create a directory on basiCreations.com and provide you with a username and password associated with that directory. When you receive this information, you should then enable file access on your server:
- Go to "File->Virtual Chalkboards"
- Click on "Enabled"
- Type in the username and password that I have given you
- Update the "directory" field for your server entry in the servers.bc3 file
- Redistribute the updated servers.bc3 file
* Make sure that you keep the username and password private, as it is used to access files on your network
Copyright © 2008 by Daniel Parrott