Emerald 4 Frequently Asked Questions ------------------------------------ Please also refer to the Emerald 4 User and Administrator documentation for further information on using Emerald. This FAQ is not designed to replace the application documentation set, but rather address specific common questions with installing and using the application. In Addition to the latest version of this FAQ, additional documentation covering many different aspects of Emerald 4.5 can be found at the following location: ftp://ftp.iea-software.com/EmeraldV4/Docs/ 1. Installation --------------- * When I use the Emerald 'Web Server Debug Mode' Start Menu option after installation, no window appears? On some Windows systems, the 'Web Server Debug Mode' option created within the Windows Start menu during installation will not initially work. To resolve this problem, right-click over the Start menu option, and select 'Properties'. Enter a comment into the 'Comment' box and press 'OK' to save the change. * What is the initial user name and password to use when I start the Emerald Web Configuration server for the first time? The Emerald Web Configuration server can be accessed through your browser via the following URL: http://127.0.0.1/settings (replacing 127.0.0.1 with your server IP address and port, if needed). The first time the Web Configuration server is accessed, the system will prompt for an administrative password to set up for the server. The password entered is machine-specific and is applicable only to the Emerald Management Suite Configuration servers, not to the Emerald application itself. Once the password has been entered and confirmed, the password is saved for the system. You will then be prompted to enter a username and password to login to the Web Configuration server. Use the username 'Admin' and enter the Web Configuration server password configured earlier. For more detailed information regarding Emerald Web Configuration server access, please refer to the Emerald Administrator's Guide. * Can I use a pre-created database with my own device configuration? Yes. When you install Emerald, you can select a pre-created database rather than creating a new one. On Windows systems, if you have also previously created an ODBC DSN that points to this database, you *MUST* make sure the default database for the DSN is 'master', and does not name your database. You will have a chance to select the correct database name during the database creation process. Once the database creation (table and other objects) is complete, you will need to modify the original DSN to point back to the correct Emerald database. * After creating the Emerald database, the Emerald Web server replies with "Service unavailable" when I try to access it through my web browser? Verify the ODBC DSN configuration by logging in and using the Emerald Web Configuration server. Select the 'Database Settings' option to make sure that the correct DSN is configured for Emerald. Secondly, verify the DSN entry, making sure that the server settings and default database are set correctly. If modified, use the "save settings" link at the top to save the settings and Automatically reload the web server settings. 2. Administration and Configuration ----------------------------------- * Why does the Delete link show up on some options and not others? You cannot delete an option that has been assigned to an MBR, Service or other type of Emerald entry. For example, you cannot delete a Service Type, if you have service accounts assigned to that Service Type. * Can I run Emerald Web Server on another port besides 80? Using the Wegb Configuration Server, you can set the HTTP and HTTPS ports to the value of the port you want Emerweb to listen on. If you change the port from 80 to another port, the shortcut menus will not work anymore. You will need to modify the emerweb.url and emerwebcfg.url files in the Emerald installation directory to include the port after the URL for them to work properly. * How do I setup native SSL with Emerald 4.5? For Windows, there is a utility to help generate the certificate request at: ftp://ftp.iea-software.com/EmeraldV4/WinNT/sslcert.zip SSL configuration can be managed via the Security settings in the Emerald Web Configuration server. For most platforms, follow the instructions for Apache/OpenSSL with your CA to create your certificate. You will have two files, one that has your certificate keys in it, and one that has your Certificate authority keys in it. In the Emerald configuration server (/settings) go to the security section and enter the full path to each file in their respective place and restart the web server. You should now be able to go to the HTTPS port. * Can I change the colors used by Emerald? Can I change the pictures? In the Admin under Web Config, you can change the common colors used througout the system. Currently, however, you cannot change the actual web page layout. All pictures (including the login) are stored in the Web\Images directory where Emerald is installed. You can change these pictures to your own choice to match your company logo or preference. * Can I add links to the Home page and Admin page to other resources at my ISP? By using the Emerald Administrative 'Web Config/Web Links' option, you can change and/or add to the links displayed on the Emerald Welcome page (Operator Links) and the Remote Customer Access site main accounts page (Customer Links). If no links are defined, a link to the HTML documentation will default. If you add any links, only thos links will show, and the HTML documentation link will not be shown unless you create an entry for it. 3. Billing ---------- * Do I have to generate statements? Yes. Although you do not have to send the statements out to customers, account statements must be generated on normal monthly billing cycles in order for Emerald to correctly maintain MBR account balance and aging information. A statement outlines and summarizes all invoice and payment activity for each account since the last statement run. Typically, most Emerald version 4.0 users will only send statements to their customers, rather than sending invoices (as was done in previous Emerald versions). * Do I have to create invoices? Yes. Although you typically won't need to send them to your customers, invoices must be created within the systems as statements rely on them for account summarization. * Can I bill Service accounts within the same MBR on different periods? Different days? You can bill service accounts within the same MBR using different billing periods (ie one monthly and one yearly), but all services under an MBR must be billed on the same day of the month. For this reason, the day of the ExpireDate and BilledThru date on the service will always match the Bill Day defined on the MBR. Any new services added will automatically be pro-rated and aligned to the MBR Bill Day. * How do I bill a customer initially on their credit card, but set them up as a Renewal account after the first payment has been received? Create the MBR account as a Renewal account. When the first payment is received, manually process the first payment as a one-time account payment via the MBR 'Add Payment' option. One time payments may be Cash, Check, or Credit Card. * Can I run my billing activities automatically? Do I have to run billing automatically? You can enable the invoice and statement tasks in the Emerald Scheduler to run your billing automatically. When the invoices and statements are generated depends on the general and individual MBR billing cycle definitions. Although using the Emerald Scheduler is strongly recommended, it is possible to run billing manually using the Emerald Client 'Batch' options. Please see the Emerald User's Guide for more detailed information regarding billing activity options. * What is the format of the Batch Payments File and how do I use it? The Format for batch payments is as follows: Field Name Size Offset ------------------------ CustomerID 12 1-12 Amount Paid 12 13-24 Trans Date 10 25-34 (MM/DD/YYYY) Check # 10 35-44 (Not a required field) Batch Payments uses browser file attachments so the file is local on your computer, not the server. File example: 1 2 3 4 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234 -------------------------------------------- 12345 14.50 10/22/20021689 12345 1450 10/22/20021689 -------------------------------------------- Both lines are equivalent. If Emerald doesn't see a . in the amount, it will divide by 100. So you can put 10 for 10 dollars, you have to put either 1000 or 10.00. Batch Payments will put "BPI [DATE]" in the comment field. It uses that to detect duplicate import entries. 4. Customer Web Site -------------------- * How do customers log into the Remote Customer Access site? Customers log into the Remote Customer Access site by logging in using one of their existing MBR service account username and password entries being managed within Emerald. Please see the Emerald Administrator's Guide for example Remote Customer Access User's documentation that explains the login process and application features to your customers. The easiest way to configure access to the Remote Customer Access site is to make a form on your home page or customer support page that posts to login.ews on the Emerald Web server. An example of the form can be found by doing a view source on the Emerald login page. You can also just point users to the Emerald login screen as well (the same one for operators). * How can I restrict what services can use the Remote Customer Access site? There is a 'Remote Access' option that is assignable per MBR service account. Only those services with the 'Remote Access' option set to "Yes" can log into the Remote Customer Access web site. You can define per Emerald Service Type whether by default, Remote Access is enabled or disabled for users of the Service Type. Note: Only services with both Remote access and the send bill option can access billing functions within the customer web site. 5. RadiusNT/X ------------- * I am receiving an "unknown attribute" error in my RadiusNT/X debug log. Why am I receiving this and how do I fix it? The RADIUS protocol allows for vendors to create their own attributes outside of the RADIUS standard attributes. Although Emerald has most of the known and popular attributes for vendors, it can not know of all of them. If you receive an unknown attribute error or want to use an attribute for your vendor that is not listed, you can add the attribute using the Emerald Admin, RADIUS Vendors section. Select your vendor, and then select add attribute. You will need to get the attribute details (ie, type, number, etc) from your vendor or vendor documentation. * Can I Limit a customer to a specific number of minutes per month? To setup a recurring time banking, configure a service type with the Time Left field set to the number of minutes the customer should be able to use each month. New services assigned that service type will be limited to that number of minutes. Existing services of that service type or changed to that service type will need to have thier time left field manually set. Even if a service is assigned a service type that has a default time left specified, if the service has a blank time left, the time left will not be reset each month. You also must make sure your "Update account timebank" scheduled task is configured to run each day and is active in the scheduler. 6. Security ----------- * How do I setup an Emerald Operator Group so that the group only has access to information regarding a single Emerald Billing Group? The Emerald 'Security/Operator Groups' Administrative option allows you to restrict Emerald Operator access to a specific Emerald Billing Group. You will need to create a new Operator Group, (perhaps by duplicating the security permissions assigned to either the 'Tech' or 'Accounting' Operator groups, depending on whether you want the operators in the group to have billing access to the Billing Group) but rather than choose 'Global/all' for the assigned Billing Group, Select the specific Billing Group the Operator Group should be restricted to. 7. Printing ----------- * How do I print? Do I have to print from a browser? You can either print Emerald information using an Adobe PDF Viewer via your client web browser (like the PDF Viewer plugin available for both Internet Explorer and Netscape), or you can print directly from the Emerald server. If you do choose to print directly from the Emerald server, you must make sure the "Emerald Web Server" service is configured to run as a user that has a configured default printer (please see the Emerald Administrator's Guide for more detailed information regarding Printing configuration). It is highly recommended to use a PDF Viewer within your browser so that you can preview the print job and select print options. 7. Other -------- * If I restart the web server does everyone have to re-login? The cookie authentication information is stored in the Emerald database. Restart the web server will not cause any users to have to re-login or loose information. They may get a timeout while the web server is stopped, but by refreshing or re-submitting their request they should continue. * When I try to Add/Edit a service in Emerald, my computer crashes? Certain versions of the Linksys v5 100TX NICs and Netgear 100TX NICs have drivers which will crash your computer when a specific data stream is sent out from the NIC. This predominantly will only happen when you are editing or adding a new service. You should look for an updated driver or change the NIC to another one to prevent this from happening.