TotalAccess Connection Types dialog

Use the TotalAccess Connection Types dialog to configure Questra TotalAccess. From

Connection Types list

Here are listed the existing TotalAccess Connection Types.

To add a new connection type, click Add to open the New TotalAccess Connection Type dialog.

To edit a connection type, select it on the list to place the fields (defined below) into an editable mode.

To delete a connection type, select it on the list and click Delete .

Fields

Connection name

Type the name of the connection (up to 50 characters). In addition to containing free-form text, the field may contain several keyword values that will be substituted at runtime.

Device information keywords:

[Reg:MemberName] – The member name of the device.
[Reg:NetworkAddress] – The network address of the device.
[Reg:SerialNumber] – The serial number of the device.
[RegExt:<extpropname>] – The value of an extended profile property.

TotalAccess information keywords:

[TA:Port] – The port number used for the client-side tunnel.
[TA:DownloadDir] – The client-side directory where the TotalAccess control is downloaded.

Best Practice for
connection name

In general the connection name should follow the convention DeviceName#ConnectionTypeName. For a connection type "Telnet", this is accomplished by using the syntax [Reg:MemberName]#Telnet in this field.

Connection type

Type the name of the connection type (up to 50 characters).

Description

Type the description of the connection type (up to 200 characters).

On demand

If an automatic request to publish the connection should be made for this connection type, select Yes.

Best Practice for
the OnDemand feature

In most cases, devices poll frequently enough (e.g., every 5 to 10 minutes) that the OnDemand feature is the best way to connect to the device. Some devices may poll much less frequently than that (e.g., every 4 hours) and may not be configured to periodically publish the connection. For those devices, consider creating a per-minute scheduled task to request the TotalAccess connection-initiate property (or properties) at a specific time for a 15-minute duration. The connection associated with the requested initiate properties will be available at or around the start time for that 15-minute window.

Use the OnDemand feature rather than the "always on" model of TotalAccess to avoid unnecessary network traffic. This works especially well with devices that have a poll rate that is within the tolerable response time.

Contactable command

If applicable, type the command used to start the client program in a mode where it can establish a network connection directly to the device. Devices on the same LAN or accessible via VPN with a known IP address are considered contactable. The text in this field should be a valid command for most client computers. This value of this field may be overridden on the client computer using the "Local Settings" option if necessary. In addition to free-form text, the field may contain several keyword values that will be substituted at runtime. These keywords are the same as those for Connection Name above.

Best Practice for
contactable command

Leave this field blank if users will not have direct network access to the end devices. This is the most common case.

Non-contactable command

If applicable, type the command used to start the client program in a mode where it must establish a network connection to a TotalAccess tunnel rather than directly to the device. The text in this field should be a valid command for most client computers. This value of this field may be overridden on the client computer using the "Local Settings" option if necessary. In addition to free-form text, the field may contain several keyword values that will be substituted at runtime. These keywords are the same as those for Connection Name above.

Permission

Select the permission (default or custom) allowed to use this connection type.

Protocol

Select the applicable protocol used by the connection type, such as TCP/IP.

Is multi-connect

If the connection type requires a series of short-lived potentially concurrent network connection rather than a single long-lived network connection, select Yes. An example of a multi-connect protocol is HTTP (web browsing).

First port to try

Type the number of the first port to try when the client-side tunnel is attempting to be established. In general the number should avoid commonly used port numbers (e.g., 80, 443) to minimize conflicts. In some cases, the client program "hard codes" the port number. In these cases, the value specified in the client program must be used.

Best Practice for
first port to try

For TCP connections, use the client applications default port as the first port to try and provide a reasonably large number (e.g., 50–100) of "ports to try" for applications that can use any port number. This maximizes the likelihood that the TotalAccess client side component will find an available local port.

Number of ports to try

Type the number of ports to try when searching for an available port for the client-side TotalAccess tunnel. A typical value is 10, but it must be set to 1 if the client program has a hard-coded port number.