Power Broker Network Configuration

  A word of warning : Although attempts are made to make the information in these bulletins accurate and understandable, they are only a guide. Any time you are making changes to Power Broker or to Windows, there is a chance of things going wrong. If you feel something is beyond your abilities or your just not quite clear of what you need to do, get a professional computer technician to do work for you.
 
This document outlines the basic network configuration for all sizes of Power Broker user networks.  An office of two to twenty five users with new computers would efficiently run with this setup.  Other brokers have found that since their workstations are a few years old, and have many users on their network, that using the Running on a Large LAN setup has worked for them (Twenty Users and Over).  Terminal Server, Citrix and Remote Desktop Network Connections from off/on site network setups have streamlined and connected many larger offices from location to location.  Either way, if you call/fax/email in how many users use your Power Broker, the specifics of all of your workstations such as RAM, Processor Speed, Hard Drive size, and Operating System, someone will get back to you with the best setup for your office.		  

In this example, we are using drive J: as the mapped drive letter.
Popular drive letters are Z, P, or Q but you can use whatever drive letter that suites your needs.


SERVER:
Actual C:\APPS\BRO
Mapped J:\BRO
Icon Target J:\BRO\BROW.EXE

   Prepare and Install
Sitting at your server, open Windows Explorer. 
On the root of the C: drive of the server, make a new folder called \APPS. 
Share the \APPS folder out to the rest of the office with full read\write permissions.
Install Power Broker into this new C:\APPS directory so that when your finished installing, you should have a C:\APPS\BRO folder.

  Tricking the server to think it's a workstation
Sitting at the server, map drive J:\ back to it's own C:\APPS.
 Open Windows Explorer, choose Map Network Drive, choose the J: drive, click on browse, and browse to Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network, the domain or workgroup name, choose the server that Power Broker is loaded on, choose C: drive, then APPS, then OK.  (Check mark in the ' Reconnect at logon ' )

   Creating an Icon and Naming it
With a J:\ drive now in Windows Explorer, you should see a \BRO folder.  Find a file called BROW.EXE, right click on this file, and choose ' Send To Desktop, Create New Shortcut '.  Rename the icon to Power Broker with a capital P and B please and change the icon by right clicking, going to properties, click change icon, browse, and then browse to J:\BRO\GLOBE.ICO.

  Connecting your workstation
At the workstation, open Windows Explorer, click on Tools, choose Map Network Drive, choose the J: drive, click on browse, and browse to Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network, the domain or workgroup name, choose the server that Power Broker is loaded on, choose C: drive, then APPS, then OK.  (Check mark in the ' Reconnect at logon ' ).

   Setting up Mastercom
Later on, the Mastercom installation will ask you to browse to a location directory to install the software.  J:\EMAIL would be the location you would wish to choose.  You should probably install Mastercom at a the computer of someone who's actually going to hit the 'Send and Receive - Proceed' option on a daily basis.  Ensure that the operating system is Windows 2000/XP Professional/2003

  Planning Ahead with Digital Camera and Scanning Integration
Your local technician may also make a \IMAGE folder on the C:\APPS drive which would also be the J:\ drive too, but it's just a mirror of the C:\APPS drive.  This image folder will be used later for the Scanning and Digital Camera integration.

  Click here to view the Utilities, Define your Company Information, Software Directory example.
 

  The simple rule to remember is:

J: at the workstation and server = C:\APPS at the server


WORKSTATION
Mapped J:\BRO
Icon Target J:\BRO\BROW.EXE
WORKSTATION
Mapped J:\BRO
Icon Target J:\BRO\BROW.EXE
WORKSTATION
Mapped J:\BRO
Icon Target J:\BRO\BROW.EXE
WORKSTATION
Mapped J:\BRO
Icon Target J:\BRO\BROW.EXE

  When installing Mastercom, set your MV Variable to J:\EMAIL whether it's being installed from the Server or from a Workstation and reboot.

  If your using Windows NT Server, and you need to map back to itself, you would then follow these instructions:

*Substitute command:  (This procedure should be done by a trained technician)
Start, Run, type the word 'command', then click OK.
At the DOS prompt, get to the root of C:\ by typing <CD..> over and over until you get to the root.
At the C:\> prompt type edit autoexec.bat
In the 'edit' screen, type in a line that reads:

SUBST J: C:\APPS

J: represents the mapped drive that your workstations use.

C:\APPS represents the actual drive on the server.

Ensure you choose "File Save, and then File Exit" to save your changes.
Reboot your server but ensure you have your username and password information first, otherwise you may lock yourself out of the network environment.

When you open Windows Explorer, you should now see a new J: drive and be able to browse into the \BRO folder.

  Even if you plan on installing Power Broker on a partitioned drive, you would still follow the same procedure as we mentioned in the previous example but where ever you see a C: drive, just change it to the drive letter of your substituted drive.