The SIMS NetSentinel Software Security Device allows concurrent access to the SIMS program by multiple SIMS users from any workstation on the network that has access to the SIMS program and data files. The maximum number of simultaneous users is controlled by the SIMS NetSentinel Software Security Device, which is can be configured for 1,2,3,5,7 or more users. Different configurations can be obtained by combining 2 or more devices, such as combining a 1 user and a 3 user to obtain a total of 4 users.
The advantage of the NetSentinel over the single software security device is that any workstation on the network can use SIMS as long as the number of concurrent users does not exceed the software license. The single software security device must be attached to the workstation being used by SIMS.
Connecting Software Security Device to the Server PC
Attach the SSD to your parallel port. If you have a printer attached to your computer, connect the SSD to the parallel port on your computer and then plug your printer cable into the SSD. The SSD acts as a pass-thru for printer jobs. If you have more than one parallel port, you may attach the SSD to any of them if they are logically "LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, or LPT4".
If you have more than one NetSentinel, you can connect them together. The total number of licenses available to SIMS will be the total of the licenses for all NetSentinels attached together. For example, if you have a 10 user NetSentinel and a 2 user NetSentinel, you can connect them together for a total of 12 licenses.
You must make sure that each NetSentinel is from a different “family”. There is a 2 letter family code such as “AF”, “AG”, “AH”, etc. Each NetSentinel that is connected together must have a different “family” code.
Driver Installation
The driver allows SIMS to communicate with the SSD via Windows and the parallel port. This should only have to be done once for the server when SIMS Server is first installed. The Driver installer is included with the 6.12 Installation.
The SIMS Server 6.12 setup installs the appropriate driver for you if you were logged into NT with Administrator privileges. If you need to install the driver manaually, follow the instructions in Driver Installation.
Installing Software for NetSentinel
The NetSentinel Server software is an application that runs on the machine running NT and processes requests made by client workstations to communicate with the NetSentinel. It must be running on the machine the NetSentinel is attached to. When you install SIMS Server 6.12, it creates a shortcut called “NetSentinel (SIMS)” in the SIMS 6.12 Program Group and the Windows Desktop. Double-click the NetSentinel shortcut to start the NetSentinel Server.
Alternatively, you can copy “NSRVGX.EXE” from the CD-ROM “SSD\NetSentinel\Win32” folder to your computer hard drive. Then create a shortcut for it similar to below. Add the parameter /dt:50. If you had the “/st” parameter from a previous install, you need to remove it. For example:
“C:\SIMS6\SSD\NetSentinel\Win32\nsrvgx.exe /dt:50”.
Starting NetSentinel automatically when Windows Starts
You can have the NetSentinel software startup automatically when the server is booted 2 different ways:
Put a copy of the “NetSentinel” shortcut in your Windows NT Startup folder.
Use the NetSentinel NT Service. See the NetSentinel - Run as a Service topic for instructions to setup the NetSentinel to run as a Service. Be sure to remember the /dt:50 parameter.