** TSMan 2009 Portable Edition Release **

[lilgeekshop]

Introduction
Here it is, the brand new TSMan 2009 Portable Edition Client that will install on a flash drive, SD card or what ever kind of media you like. It works with PortableApps program to make a entire portable tech station. This version of TSMan 2009 Client has been redesigned to work perfectly with PortableApps and is a great edition to the TSMan family of Products.

What do I use this for?
You can use this version for onsite customer entry, updating or just checking what is going on in your shop with out the need to install TSMan Client on the customers PC or any other PC. It runs directly from the flash drive with no worries!! Plus with the power of PortableApps, you have a complete tech repair suite of applications on your flash drive. It's like taking the repair shop with you, only lighter.

How much is this TSMan add on?
NOTHING!!! When you purchase a license for the TSMan 2009 Version you use the same License for this one. How cool is that!!

How do I get TSMan 2009 Portable?
All you have to do is find a flash drive (2GB Recommended) and download the PortableApps program and install it to your flash drive:
http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sour ... _1.5.2.exe
Then download the TSMan 2009 Portable Version and install it:
http://www.lilgeekshop.net/e107_files/d ... e1.2.2.zip

After your done you are ready to be a mobile tech. Please follow the README.TXT file for help with activation issues.
Have fun!!

[pchelp]

How does this cope with several users, please?
- if the usb is plugged into a customer's pc onsite, can we print an invoice on the customer's printer?
- how does it synchronise with the main copy on the office server, especially when there are several technicians out & about, each with a portable edition on their usb stick?

[admin]

How does this cope with several users, please?
- if the usb is plugged into a customer's pc onsite, can we print an invoice on the customer's printer?
- how does it synchronise with the main copy on the office server, especially when there are several technicians out & about, each with a portable edition on their usb stick?

What you have on the USB stick is the client user interface. You will have to connect to the database back on your computer wher Firebird Server is installed. The portable version does not contain the database file.
For more info how to configure your network and router to have access to your database over the Internet, donwload and read the user manual: http://www.blanchesoft.com/files/Manual.zip

Printing: Yes, you can print to the printer which is installed on the computer you are in front of (regardless of where in the world you are).

Synchronization: because you can only connnect to the main database, that means everyone is connecting to the same database over the Internet. TS Man is a true client-server database application, and it can handle multiple users simultaneously, synchronization (in fact there is no synchronization involved as all users log in to the same database file) record insert/udate/delete actions are being made via SQL and database transactions.

Edit:
I probably need to give more info about the transaction model to those who are interested.
Every dataset (table) on the client application uses 2 separate transaction models simultaneously. One for reading and the other one for writing.
This gives maximum reliablity and avoids data corruption.

Read transaction:
write
isc_tpb_nowait
rec_version
read_committed

Write transaction:
write
nowait
rec_version
read_committed

[pchelp]

Thank you for your prompt reply. I've tried the remote connection from home to office beforenow and I found it slow to connect, too slow to make it viable. It is faster to leave TS Man client running permanently on an office PC and then login remotely to that PC (eg via LogMeIn); this is fine from home, but it is a problem from a customer's site where neither we nor our customers want to leave a LogMeIn trail from their PC to ours. We don't (and probably won't) have a an expensive T1 (or T2 or whatever superfast line) into & out of the office, only 2048/384 (the base standard in our country) which is OK for emails and research.

TS Man has the potential to be a *great* program for our repair & troubleshooting business. I've researched many online helpdesk programs but I've not yet found an affordable one that is any good for us; I found a few very expensive programs that do what we want, but their prices start at ~£5000 for corporates and they are too costly for a small PC repair business.

Although we do sell repair-spares and order the occasional new PC for customers, we are not a shop so POS is not a priority for us, TS Man in the office is quite sufficient to produce an invoice on the spot for a customer who has walked in with a PC or has collected a PC. Our business is built mostly on being out & about visiting customers, and this is where we need a viable browser-based online access to the database via phone &/or laptop. I hope you can schedule this into your product as soon as possible...

[lilgeekshop]

Hello there,
If you need remote access to your server other that LOGMEIN you can setup a VNC server and do it that way without leaving a trail on your customers computer. Their is several OSS programs available on the PortableApps platform for your USB stick to connect to your VNC server. I use UltraVNC http://www.uvnc.com/ for my VNC server end. And its free too.
As far as the web interface, you have to wait on costal to build it or you can design a PHP or whatever platform interface yourself with firebird. From what he has told me, it might be a little while before he begins on the web interface part. I'm slowly working on my own web interface with PHP and AJAX but I'm not the best of programmers..lol so it might take me a little while too.

[pchelp]

Thank you for your response. I tried using VNC & Kaboodle years ago but abandoned them because the VNC server work seemed to require a static IP address. Can it reside on a computer using a dynamic public IP address?
VNC usually requires installation and thus a trail on the PC that is connecting into the server, but not when using PortableApps?

[admin]

Thank you for your response. I tried using VNC & Kaboodle years ago but abandoned them because the VNC server work seemed to require a static IP address. Can it reside on a computer using a dynamic public IP address?
VNC usually requires installation and thus a trail on the PC that is connecting into the server, but not when using PortableApps?

Well. you do need a static IP, but you can get yourself a free dns name . Yes, absolutely free. Of course there are premium options but that is up to you.
Check this out: http://www.no-ip.com
Is the same as if you had a static IP.

For some feedback, ask lilgeekshop. He is using it as far as I know.

[cyabro]

Yea we use No-Ip.com for most of our customers to give us access to their servers.
Just create an account on the No-Ip.com website, choose a name that you will remember like work.hopto.org, then download and install the free app on the machine you want to be able to access remotely.
The app keeps the No-ip.com servers up-to-date if your IP address changes.

Then all you need to do to access the machine remotely is use work.hopto.org (or whatever name you made up) instead of an IP address.

[lilgeekshop]

And also don't forget to PORT FORWARD to your server in the router config. The default port for UltraVNC is 5500.

[ClickRight]

What port do we have to open on our firewalls to allow access to TSMan remotely?