Desparetly need help with networking

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Shawna
Desparetly need help with networking

Post by Shawna » Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:19 am

Hi all, I pray someone can help me here. I need to link my 2 registers together but have no idea how to do it. I read the manual but its all greek to me (and i am not from Greece). I have a win98 and xp comuter and they are on a windows tcp/ip network. The machines communicate with each other, but not through the POS software. Could someone please be kind enuff to help me and explain what I need to do as simply as possible. I am very dumb when it comes to things like this. Thanking everyone in advance. Shawna.

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Jonathan Simpson
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Post by Jonathan Simpson » Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:02 am

Well, your on the right track. Networking between the machines is apparently setup, so you only need to do a few things.

First is to create a global folder for POS. To do this you need to pick one of the two machines to create a share on. It doesn't really matter which one, but for this example lets say the XP one.

It's pretty easy in Xp. To start, create a folder:
Open my computer, double click on drive C:
On the menu bar, select File-->new-->folder
name your new folder (I like to use "GPOS" for pos shares)
right click your new folder. Select "sharing and security"
Click the 'share this folder" radio button. You can leave the name as "gpos"

Now, you have a share created, and you can copy your stock table and other global files to it (see the POS manual for which files need to be global, or maybe Dale will be kind and mention it?)

For the next step, you need the XP machines computer name OR ip address. You only need ONE of the following. The computer name is prefered, because IP addresses can change on some networks. To get one...

For computer name: right click "my computer", select properties, and click "computer name" The item next to "Full computer name" is the one you want.

For Ip address: click on start, then RUN. Type in CMD and hit ENTER to get a command prompt. Type in IPCONFIG and hit ENTER to get your ip information. You want the number next to "Ip address...." It is usually something like "192.168.1.15" or similar.

Ok, now you have an address or name to reference your XP machine by. on the other machine, you need to map the share you just created as a drive for POS to make use of.

To do this, on the other machine, go to start, then run. Type into the box "\\computername" where "computername" is the name OR ip address you just found. An explorer window will come up with the share you created (and possibly others) in it. Right click on the share you want (gpos, if you used the name I suggested) and select "map network drive" You will need to choose a drive letter... it doesn't really matter which one, but make sure you remember it (G: is usually good)

Now, you should have a "g:" drive in my computer at this point. The next step is simply to go to the network option in POSCONFG and set your global folder to "g:\" This will tell POS how to find your newly created global share folder.

On the XP machine, you still have to tell POS how to find the folder, even though it's on the local drive. If you used "gpos" as the folder, all you have to do is set POSCONFG on the XP machine to use "c:\gpos\" as the global folder, and you should be good to go!

Well, thats about it. Any questions, send me an email at jsimpson@home-nets.biz. Make sure to use a nice subject line so I know it's not spam... like "POS questions"

Good luck!
Jonathan Simpson
Check out the Dale Harris chat room @ http://www.home-nets.biz/chat

Shawna

Desperatley needing help

Post by Shawna » Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:00 am

Thank you so much Jonathan.. you are the absolute best.. everything is working great now... nobody could have explained better than you MWAH... PS Thanks Dale for a really great piece of software... Its so good to see some people care enough about others to give them support even though they dont really have to. Dale you and your team are simply the BEST!!!!!!!

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Jonathan Simpson
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Post by Jonathan Simpson » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:44 am

I'm glad I could help. It bothers me that I don't have the time to contribute to the project that I used to, so I'm glad I can help in some small way.
Jonathan Simpson
Check out the Dale Harris chat room @ http://www.home-nets.biz/chat

jodrre
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Post by jodrre » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:03 pm

so basically, you can just set up a server, and every cash register can use the same folder... right?

like say the path to the global file is \\servername\gpos\pos.exe

so every register can point to that, and it will work fine... right?

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Andrew
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Post by Andrew » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:55 am

No, in a very small nutshell - you install the DHPOS application on every register and the server, then you configure each register copy of DHPOS to point at the location on the server where DHPOS is installed for the shared data files. You also need open the copy on the server and "tell" it that it's the "global" folder.

It's also recommended (but apparently not necessary) to map the server location as a network drive on each of the registers instead of using the UNC path (\\servername\path\to\dhposglobal) e.g. Z:\ maps to \\servername\path\to\dhposglobal , so you would set the server location on each register as Z:\

Have you checked out the network section in the manual, if not - it's here: http://www.dhpos.com/postip3.htm#network
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daleadmin
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Post by daleadmin » Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:00 am

For some reason the GLOBAL folder cannot be the root folder on the server so the PATH of Z:\ will not work. You would have to create a folder on the server and put the POS files there so a PATH like Z:\GLOBAL would work.

Dale

chriscast
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Re: Desparetly need help with networking

Post by chriscast » Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:59 pm

just a quick followup question,

when the global folder is shared in the network (i have windows xp units)
do you click the "allow network users to change my files" option??

toydept
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Re: Desparetly need help with networking

Post by toydept » Mon Jan 11, 2010 2:40 pm

Yeah

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