Networking Information

This appendix is intended for any person responsible of maintaining the system hardware and installation.

IP Protocol

The CAN-8 system communicates with the server using the IP protocol. This is the native protocol of the Internet. In the simplest case of a network, the system requires 1 computer that is designated as the server and another that is designated as the client. Each computer must have a unique IP address. The IP address or host name of the server must appear in the SV.INI file that is installed in the \WINDOWS directory on the client.

The server and client communicate using UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets. This is a connectionless protocol allowing the server and client to perform their own error handling. In order to communicate, the following ports must be available on the server for the client to attach to:

Ports 17180 to 17190

In the case of networks which may contain firewalls or other security measures, these ports must be made available so that the server and client may communicate.

The system will work with most network address translation (NAT) schemes and has been tested with them. In most cases, proxy (true proxy) servers will not work unless they simulate NAT in their operation.

Bandwidth

In order to run in a satisfactory manner, a minimum required bandwidth must be available between the server and client. This is approximately 64 Kbits/sec. If there are more stations than one, then the total required bandwidth would be 64Kbits/sec times the number of stations. In the case of 4 stations, 265Kbits/sec would be required.

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