What do I do with a new registration code?

You have been running WebDrive or Titan for a while now – at least a year or more. You have gone through the “Check for Program Update” a few times over the past year to keep your version of the application up to date, but now you find that it’s time to purchase a maintenance renewal. You make the purchase either online through our web shop or through one of our world-wide reseller partners. You have just received the new registration code. What to do next?

The process is as simple as deactivating the application with your current registration code and then reactivating with the new registration code. Once reactivated with the new reg code, perform the “Check for Program Update” to download and install the latest version of your software.

The deactivation / reactivation process is slightly different depending on if you are running a server application or a client application.

For WebDrive, you will take the following steps, with the program running:

1. Right-click the WebDrive icon in the systray and select “Open WebDrive”.
2. Navigate to the HELP menu and select “License >” option.
3. Select “Registration and License Information”.
4. Click the “Deactivate” button and select “Yes” when prompted to confirm.
5. You will return to the license splash screen.
6. Select “Reactivate License”.
7. Enter the NEW registration code into the dialog box and select “Next”.
8. Click the “Activate” button,  followed by OK and FINISH.

For Titan or GroupDrive servers, from the admin PC you perform the following steps:

1. Right-click the server administrator icon in the systray and select “Open Administrator”.
2. On the Welcome tab, select “License Details”.
3. Follow from Step 3 above.

After you complete these steps you will be able to perform the “Check for Program Update” function to download and install the latest version of the program. It is not necessary to uninstall the current version.  All of your current configuration settings will be maintained in the new version.

Be sure to visit our knowledge base for more information regarding license questions, cache settings, protocol configuration, and multi-seat deployment, to name a few topics.

Tell Me How…

…A Note about Technical Writing and Help Documentation:

“Technical writing is the art, craft, practice, or problem of translating
that which is logical into that which is grammatical. Technical writing
forms a bridge between the logical (the primarily binary concepts understood by computers, robots, lawyers) and the illogical (the haphazard, inconsistent concepts misunderstood carbon-based life forms, highly intelligent computers, lawyers) via the medium of the grammatical, the haphazardly logical system incomprehensible to both. The practice of technical writing presupposes that you, the illogical, actually want to learn about the logical subject, which of course is in all cases false. This basis in a false presupposition makes technical writing a pursuit typically favored by those with arts degrees from obscure universities.”

–The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Of course, being a Technical Writer, I found the preceding quote to be very entertaining! And while this quote may strike a chord, here at SRT, we’ve tried very hard to make sure that using our products is a breeze, whether you’re configuring LDAP, ODBC, SFTP, or FTP/S. We have a large repository of help documentation and add to our Knowledgebase frequently. If you need help connecting your WebDrive FTP client to a Sharepoint server, or want detailed information about how to configure Microsoft clustering services, we have step-by-step guides available on the South River Technologies’ website. If you have a unique Titan MFT Server configuration, you can find troubleshooting tips in our Knowledgebase. And we want to hear from you! Please tell us how we can serve you better.  We want to get you up and running as smoothly and stress-free as possible. We love our products. We think they’re easy to configure and use. And, if we can do anything to make it easier for you, please, let us know.

By the way, I have a B.A. degree from SUNYA, double major in Communications & Theatre. Very funny, Doug Adams, very funny.

Checking for updates…

In today’s fast paced, highly competitive technology environment, applications need to adapt (let go of old technologies and embrace new ones) and overcome (address and improve shortcomings ) in order to stay viable.  South River Technologies has done an excellent job keeping pace with the market by adding features (such as 64 bit support and FIPS compliance) to its products and the product Road Map promises even more of the same.  SRT also makes bug fixes a high priority by addressing, testing, and releasing new product builds within a very small time frame.  The time from inital issue discovery to final build release has been as short as one day.

That being said, what’s up with the title of the blog?  Well, SRT products all have a “Check For Updates” feature built into the application.  This function will go out and determine if you are running the most current release of the software.  In Webdrive,  you will find it under HELP, License, Check for Program Updates. In Titan Server it is under Online, Check for Program Updates.  The process will tell you what version you are currently running and let you know if a new release is available.  The release notes are available on the SRT website (http://www.southrivertech.com/products) – click on your product icon, then click on Release Notes.

What does that mean to you?  In a nutshell, the Check for Program Updates feature is a fast, effective way to leverage not only SRT’s tech knowledge, but the experiences of our entire user base.  Put simply, it is entirely possible that if you have a specific issue or require a specific functionality, it has been identified or addressed via an update or fix.  This can save precious  researching and troubleshooting time. If you require technical support, our staff can very easily identify issues through log files and/or streaming support sessions at no cost, which is another benefit of keeping current  – sorry, phone support is still gonna cost you.

So, definitely take a moment to check for updates.  It is the first step in the troubleshooting process and the benefit dramatically outweighs the effort.

The Perfect Help Desk Ticket

Perfect – accurate, exact, or correct in every detail. As a society, we are always striving for perfection. The perfect date, the perfect car, or shall I dare say it, the perfect application. We strive for perfection because we believe it will make life easier. Here at South River Technologies, we strive for perfection every day. In my role as Technical Support Engineer, I want to provide accurate and correct advice to resolve your issue, but in order to do that, I need accurate and exact information.

In order to provide the best customer service, here is a step-by-step guide on creating the perfect Help Desk ticket. If you follow these steps, you will probably get your tickets resolved much faster, freeing you up to handle other technical issues. But before I show you how to submit the Perfect Help Desk ticket, let me give you an example of a bad Help Desk ticket, so you can see the difference.

Bad Ticket:

“I came in this morning and everything is down, so no one can log in even after a restart. Please help.”

There are so many problems with this ticket. Let’s start with the introduction. It’s imperative that you always open a Help Desk ticket with your name and contact information. What operating system are you using? Include Service Pack level and if it’s 32 versus 64-bit. What software?  Is it our Titan product, or maybe WebDrive? Include the version, for example, “Titan MFT ver. 7.11 build 879 with the WebUI.” This type of information will help narrow down the scope so I can begin to focus on what the issue could be. Now,  let’s get to the heart of the ticket: the description of the problem. “No one can log in even after a restart” is too vague. For example, if this is a Titan issue, did you restart the service or did you restart the Windows server? How do your users log in? Are they using  Active Directory accounts? Or are Native accounts maintained in the Titan database? This will allow us to focus more accurately on the problem and to quickly find a solution.

Here are the steps:

1) introduce yourself,

2) include as much information as possible about all of the equipment involved in the problem, for example, “Titan MFT ver. 7.11 build 879 on Windows 2003 (32bit) server SP 2 with latest Microsoft Security patches behind a Cisco ASA 5500 firewall”,

3) a clear description of the problem, for example, “after a power failure in our building, our Domain server rebooted and now the Titan service doesn’t appear to be loading,” and

4) include your location; SRT has a presence all over the world, so please include your location and time zone and good contact information, so we know when it’s best to reach you.

Now that we are armed with our 4 steps, let’s re-submit the ticket.

Perfect Ticket:

“I’m John Smith with Widget World in Wichita, Kansas and last night a Lightening storm came through and knocked out the power to our building. Unfortunately, our UPS failed and we were unable to gracefully shut-down our LAN. This morning upon arrival, all 200 of our Domain users (we are running Windows 2003 AD server SP 2 32bit with security patches up to May of 2009) could not login to our Titan MFT server with WebUI, it is version 7.11 build 879. We have an FTP (in PASV mode behind a CISCO ASA 5500 firewall) and a SFTP server configured both using ADSI Authentication, and they both appear offline as well. We did restart the Active Directory server but still no one can log in. For your convenience, I have attached a Titan debug level log taken after the server came back online for you to review. This is urgent and you can reach me on my Blackberry @ (222) 555-9033 (CST). Thank you.”

We may not have the perfect car, the perfect commute, or even the perfect kid, but we can have the Perfect Ticket!

Time to Call the Exterminator?

It’s been particularly rainy out here in the muggy Mid-Atlantic this spring. And unfortunately that means one thing: ants and other insects invade our dry homes trying to escape the deluge. So as I was pouring my coffee this morning and thinking about what to write for my blog post, I was watching ants scouting for food on the counter and a topic came to mind:

BUGS!

No, not the 8 legged kind. The software kind. Most bugs in software are the result of a well intentioned programmer (like myself) trying to improve the software. Inevitably one feature or improvement will lead to an inadvertent oversight or the breaking of some formerly working code.

I think the key to good programming is not only to get it right, but to care enough to fix the bugs found in the software quickly. To be responsive, not defensive.  How a software company responds to a bug report says a lot about the company and how much they care about their product and ultimately how much they care about their customers. 

At South River Technologies we take great pride in our suite of software solutions and we care about our customers. We’ve enhanced our technical support offerings by hiring two new very capable support engineers and increasing the support options to include paid phone support so that we can be more responsive than ever to the needs of our customers. Our engineers are top notch, and we work diligently, sometimes very late into the night, to offer the finest quality software.

We all make mistakes, in software we call them bugs, in business it matters how we choose to deal with them.

Oh, and honey, if your reading this, yes, please call the exterminator.  🙂 

Benefits of 64 bit Server Software

Most computers these days ship pre-loaded with 64 bit Windows operating systems.  This had led to some compatibility issues with some 32-bit software either not working at all, or running with limited functionality.  The primary issue many users face is driver incompatibility for their peripherals which require 64 bit drivers.  Most 32 bit application software will still install and run on 64 bit Windows platforms; however, there are usually configuration issues that can frustrate users and leave them wondering what benefits, if any, there are to a 64 bit operating system.

The primary benefits to running native 64 bit software on your 64 bit operating system are the ability to allocate and use more memory and speed.   When running 32 bit applications on a 64 bit OS, Windows will run them in a subsystem called “Windows on Windows (WOW64)” which is a transition layer to map all Windows calls from their 32 bit to 64 equivalents.  The WOW64 layer also intercepts registry calls and uses a special tree in the registry to store settings to not interfere with native 64 bit software.  Using the WOW64 transition layer will have a negative effect on performance and will not give 32 bit applications the increased memory space that native 64 applications enjoy.  A 32 bit Windows application can use/address at most only 2 GB of memory, even though the computer system may have 16 GB of memory installed.   Even when running on a 64 bit operating system, 32 bit applications still can only address 2 GB of memory.   A native 64 bit application can access/allocate 8 terabytes (TB) of memory.

You may be wondering if any application really needs to address more than 2 GB of memory.  If you are running file server software, then the answer is yes.  To be highly scalable, your server software should be able to make use of all available system memory.  File server software, such as FTP/SFTP/DAV servers, are designed to handle many clients and sessions simultaneously and generally interact with database servers at the same time.   The more users accessing the server at the same time the more memory that it requires.  If your file server software only supports 32 bit operating systems then you are limiting its scalability.  When choosing a file server solution it is a good idea to look for servers that natively support 64 bit operating systems to get the benefits of increased memory capabilities, scalability and speed.

Going Viral with Scalability

About 18 months ago, I joined Facebook. I befriended a handful of colleagues and then began using the Find Friends feature to see which adventurous souls from my high school had made the jump. To my surprise, there were only two. Over the months, friends would trickle in and I’d get an occasional friend request, then two, then three. The trickle quickly became a stream and now it’s a flood. Each friend has their own space, some info, and the inevitable portfolio of 20 year old photos that have been scanned in at 300dpi, 24-bit color, and uploaded to yield petabyte after petabyte of data.

The viral phenomenon of Facebook, and its ability to stay responsive, is a classic case study in scalability and architecture. To build such a system, you need to start with components that have the ability to scale and expand in capacity as the needs of the end users increase. One web server must become two, two database servers must replicate and become four, and disk after disk must accommodate the growing amount of information.

Social Networking aside, this same logic is critical in your organization. Your IT group has been given the task of deploying a new Managed File Transfer solution. Initially it will service one or two departments as a pilot. Over the coming months, just as more friends joined Facebook, so too will more departments be brought online with your new offering. Finally, you will reach a point where your entire organization is managing files and collaborating with a scalable, secure, and manageable solution.

To be successful, choose a Managed File Transfer vendor that not only provides an entry level solution capable of handling your pilot without breaking the bank, but also has the ability to scale exponentially with your organization. One server must seamlessly become two, then four, databases must replicate, and data storage must expand. With 64-bit architecture being standard issue today, this all must be done in a true 64-bit multithreaded environment because you may not need to handle a million users today, but it sure is nice to know that you could.

Yep, I Facebook, do you?

Sneak Peek: WebDrive for Mac

Dear Mac Users,

Do you need an easy, secure, and reliable way to access and edit your files stored “in the cloud” or on a remote server?  I’m excited to say that we will soon release WebDrive for the Mac!  WebDrive for Mac offers an easy-to-use interface that allows you to mount a remote FTP server and access and edit your files as easily as you do on your local computer. You can work from within your favorite applications with no additional steps to upload or download!

WebDrive for Mac will offer multiple protocol support:

• FTP
• SFTP
• FTPS
• WebDAV
• GroupDrive
• Amazon S3

…And you can connect to multiple servers at one time, using different protocols. Once you have configured your site profiles, they’ll show up on your desktop:

WebDrive for Mac

…Just double-click on the WebDrive icon and navigate as usual.

Configuration is a breeze. Just launch the WebDrive for Mac Site Manager, click New Site, and the Site Wizard will walk you through the steps to connect to your remote server. You can configure new site profiles within minutes.

Site Manager

…Once you have configured your site profile, just click Mount, and you’re good to go!

If you’d like to try WebDrive for the Mac, and I highly recommend you do, contact sales@SouthRiverTech.com!

How About Your Language?

Parlez-vous français?
Sprechen Sie Deutsches?
日本語を話すか。
당신은 한국어를 말하는가?

Would you like to use our products in your native language? WebDrive and Titan FTP Server are both available in Japanese, German and French from our international distributors. In addition, WebDrive is available in the Korean language. Our international distributors have localized the purchase process to allow our customers world-wide to order software in their local currency. In addition, our distributors can offer product support, in your own language. Please take a moment to stop by their web sites for product information, pricing options and support questions, they are ready to help.

For our Japanese speaking customers, AdD Co. Ltd., offers complete product support for both WebDrive (http://www.marroncraft.com/webdrive/),  and Titan FTP Server (http://titanftp.add-soft.jp/)  through their web site.  

For customers who prefer to use WebDrive or Titan in their native German language, MECO Systemhaus provides help. http://www.meco.de/cms/index.php?article_id=77

Web-Business-Center, our French distributor, currently offers WebDrive (http://www.webdrive-france.fr)  direct from their site, with French version of Titan FTP Server in the final stages of translation.

Our Korean distributor, iOrchard, offers both WebDrive and their branded drive mapping utility UbiDrive. Please contact their sales department for more details: http://www.iorchard.net/aboutus/aboutus.php?idx=2

We are expanding our localized product availability, so check back often for updates about new languages.

Virtual Landscape

The landscape here at SRT is an everchanging one.  I’m not talking about the construction outside to reroute a water drainage pipe.  I’m referring to the network landscape.  At any given time, there are multiple customer environments duplicated on our corporate network for both testing and troubleshooting purposes.  When we encounter an issue that can’t be solved using log files or a streaming session into a customer’s site, or we need to test a new build or release, we reproduce the scenario in-house using our test facilities. 

Our virtual computing environment includes all versions of Microsoft Server and Desktop OS, both 32 and 64 bit, and several flavors of Linux as standard builds.  We load, unload,  build and rebuild as required.  This allows us to easily configure, for example, a customer’s application on a Windows Vista 64 bit desktop (because the XP machine works perfectly) to use Webdrive to talk to a Sharepoint server running on a Microsoft Windows 2003 box. 

We can then monitor and log every aspect of the process and pinpoint the error.  This makes troubleshooting easier and therefore, faster for SRT and the client (since we don’t have to interupt other aspects of their production).  It also puts us in a unique position to be able to troubleshoot and assist our customers with more than just SRT software issues.