Author Topic: New Setup  (Read 7309 times)

stuartwildig

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New Setup
« on: August 01, 2017, 12:25:22 »
First - thank you for such a wonderful system; we've been using at Lingwood for a number of months now and it's been very successful, allowing players who aren't necessarily the most technically literate to electronically add scores and track how they're doing online.

Up until now we've shared the PC, the router and the phones between Lingwood and Danbury - now we would like to split it so each club has their own laptop and router but still use the same set of phones. This appears to present an issue - everything is installed correctly on the new laptop without issue and we can bring the data across without issue. We have setup the new router to assign the new laptop the same IP address as the old PC and had hoped this would allow us to connect without issue. However whatever we did, the phones did not see the server.

To further test this, I deleted the app from a phone and then reinstalled it from Google Play. This then detected the PC and connected to the wireless scoring as normal. So my question is really - do we need to have a different set of phones for Danbury or is there something I'm missing with the connection (e.g. it detects the laptop's WiFi by its MAC address).

Many thanks

johng

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2017, 12:43:16 »
Hi Stuart,

No, you don't need a different set of phones to use with Danbury. I note you say you are assigning the same ip address to both PCs. Have you checked the ip address on the second PC just to make sure ? You can do this by opening a command window on the laptop and entering the command "ipconfig". This will list details of the various network adapters. Look for the IPv4 address of the wireless adapter. If you do have the same ip addresses for both PCs then there is no reason why the BridgePals would not be able to contact the PC (unless both PCs are connected to the same router at the same time with the same ip address !).

However, you can quite easily use the same set of BridgePals for both clubs without using the same ip address for the PC. Just make sure that you start the application bridgepalBroadcast.exe on the PC (this is in the folder C:/Apache24). The BridgePal app listens for these broadcast messages and autoconfigures itself to talk to the PC that is transmitting the messages. Versions of the app prior to v1.5 used to listen for messages for 20 seconds after app startup. However, the latest version v1.5.1 listens for messages all the time that the screen is on with the BridgePal app on display.

Let me know if this fixes your problem.

John

stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2017, 12:48:03 »
Thank you for your quick reply - I will try that tonight and let you know how I get on. I know they are definitely the same IP address but I wonder if we might need to install the software from the Play Store on the phones rather than the download. I shall see!

johng

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2017, 12:59:35 »
It shouldn't matter whether you install from the Play Store or the website. However, I do recommend that you install the latest version v1.5.1 which I uploaded only yesterday. It fixes a problem with the Galaxy S3 mini which was not detecting broadcast  messages. It is possible that some other models of android phone had the same problem though no-one has reported it. If you are using Alcatel Pixi 4 they would definitely be ok.

You can check whether broadcast messages are being received by selecting "Find BridgePal Server" from the BridgPal app menu. This will display an onscreen message, containing the ip address of the PC, when the next broadcast message is being received. It will also display a message if 20 seconds elapses without receipt of a broadcast message.

John

Mirna

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2017, 18:19:47 »
Hi Stuart,
Just wanted to mention that you might find it useful to look at the BridgePal System Guide, Para 1.1 - Connecting it up.(see under General discussion and also on BridgeScore website/documents www.mirnagoacher.co.uk
I now run BridgePalBroadcast as a matter of routine, from an icon on Desktop.
We had a visitor in the club a few weeks ago. He came to look at BridgePals and wanted to use his phone. He downloaded the App from PlayStore while on train, connected to our BridgePal network when he arrived (we keep password simple) and after a few moments he had 'NOT READY YET', i.e. he was connected.
It is much simpler than it used to be when we started.
Mirna
« Last Edit: August 02, 2017, 21:18:15 by Mirna »

stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2017, 09:29:15 »
Thanks for that - unfortunately we don't seem to be able to take the phones from one setup to the other which is quite perplexing - phones setup on each system work fine, but when they go onto the other club's system (so a different router and a different laptop but still the same IP address), they can't find the server. Both laptops run the broadcast software but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Anything I should test?

johng

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2017, 09:40:10 »
Definitely no reason why it should not work. Could you provide answers to the following questions:

1. Which make/model of phone are you using ?
2. Which version of the android BridgePal app is installed (select "About BridgePal" from the app menu)
3. What message do you see when you try to connect the phone to a different router/PC ? (e.g. does it say you are not connected to the specific wireless network, or does it say connected to the network but could not contact the PC)
4. Make sure bridgepalBroadcast.exe is running on the PC, then select "Find BridgePal Server" from the app menu. Watch the screen for up to 20 seconds. Does it report the ip address of the PC or does it timeout with a messages saying no broadcast message received from the PC ?

Thanks.

John

stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2017, 11:00:26 »
Hi John, thanks for replying:

1 - They're ZTE Blade III running Android 4.0.4
2 - 1.3.1 but other phones are on more recent versions with the same effect
3 - "Currently connected to NETGEAR87 wi-fi network but received error code -2 (The URL could not be found) from NetgearB PC. Please retry."
4 -  There's no option on this phone for Find BridgePal Server but I did do that on the phone that had been updated to the latest version and it did find the server (showing that it was on 192.168.0.2) but it still wouldn't connect.

Apologies for my timings - I only have the laptop that's not being used at the moment, the other is the active one and is stored at the club itself.

johng

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2017, 11:33:42 »
I'm beginning to wonder whether it is incompatible versions of software that is causing your problem. In November last year I changed the port used by the Apache web server on the BridgePal PC from 80 to 1357. This was to avoid clashes with other software that uses port 80. The change was made in BridgePalServices release 1.6 and BridgePal Server v1.4.0 . At the same time I released v1.4 of the BridgePal app, which was a necessary upgrade for compatibility with these releases.

I note Lingwood went live earlier than this so certainly it would have originally been using an earlier version. I also note that you say the ZTE Blade is running BridgePal 1.3.1, so if that works with the Lingwood laptop it would suggest that the laptop has not been upgraded and therefore runs Apache on port 80.

The new laptop presumably has the latest version of BridgePalServices installed, with Apache running on port 1357. That would explain why phones which work with one PC do not work with the other, even though it has the same ip address. You would need to upgrade the software on both PCs, and all phones, to the latest releases.

Incidentally, the bridgepalBroadcast configuration mechanism is not supported on BridgePal app releases prior to v1.4

If you can establish whether my above assumptions are correct I can advise you on the upgrade procedure. You can check which version of BridgePalServices is installed by going to the control panel. Look for "Programs and Features" and find the entry for BridgePalServices, which will show the version and the date it was installed.

John

stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2017, 16:41:01 »
That all sounds very likely - we definitely installed the software before last November. The new laptop is on the very latest software; I will check the version information on the other laptop when I'm there tomorrow and let you know.

stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2017, 19:05:41 »
Right, the versions on the Lingwood PC are:

BridgePal v1.3.0
BridgePalServices v1.5.2
BridgeScore v2.9.23


johng

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2017, 20:28:49 »
OK, that confirms what I thought. You are using the older versions of BridgePal Server and BridgePalServices on the Lingwood PC and these are set up for the Apache web server to use port 80. The BridgePal phones that you use at Lingwood are also set up to make requests to Apache on port 80 and this is why they do not work with the new PC even though it's on the same ip address.

You will need to upgrade to the latest version of the BridgePal app on all your phones. You can download this from the google play store, or you can download it from the BridgePal website (see section on Scoring Unit Setup). You may need to uninstall the old version first.

You should also upgrade both PCs to the latest version of BridgePal Server (v1.4.5) and the latest version of BridgePalServices (v1.6.2), though possibly you may have these already on the new PC. Both of these are downloadable from the BridgePal website. I suggest you uninstall the current versions of these first (from "Programs and Features" in the Windows Control Panel), then install the new versions. I'm not sure whether Windows will preserve the firewall setting for Apache when you uninstall it. If it does not you may be prompted by the installation to unblock the firewall. After you have installed BridgePalServices look at the firewall settings for Apache. Go to "Windows Firewall" in the control panel. Click on "Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall", look for "Apache HTTP Server" in the scrolling list and verify that the corresponding checkboxes in the "public" and "private" columns are both ticked.

Finally you will need to configure all the BridgePals to talk to the PC. Start bridgepalBroadcast.exe on one of the PCs, connect all the BridgePals to the same wireless network and start the app on each BridgePal. Within 20 seconds each BridgePal should show the message "NOT YET READY" on the screen which indicates that it is communicating with the PC but there is no BridgeScore session running. If you choose "Select BridgePal Server" from the BridgePal app menu it should now show an entry something like "BridgePal (192.168.0.2:1357)", if that is the ip address of your PC. If both of your PCs have the same fixed ip address you will only need to do this configuration procedure once.

John




stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2017, 09:29:07 »
Thanks John, that all sounds very logical - I'll do that in a fortnight when I'm next at the club and let you know how it goes but hopefully that'll resolve the issue.


stuartwildig

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Re: New Setup
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2017, 13:01:42 »
Just to complete the report on the above - it was indeed the difference in versions that was causing the issue. We updated the two laptops to the latest versions of the Server software and all of the phones then migrated the data across from the original laptop to the second one and both clubs are now running independently and successfully.

I'd just like to thank John for his help above, it is very much appreciated. The software has been a huge success at the club and even our most techphobic members have adjusted and can now happily enter the details on the phones. Our sincerest gratitude to Mirna and John for creating it and putting it out for free.