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wcdes
Joined: 02 May 2007
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject: PageGate Issues |
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Being a new user, hopefully some of these issues are easily fixed.
1. We have one dialer. We send weather alerts to local Emergency Service agencies via alpha paging and SMS. The old program we used would take maybe 15 minutes to send all messages via modem (SMS not available). The first time we used PageGate it took 27 minutes to send pages and SMS. Not a good start for a much more expensive program. First off, the dialer sends modem pages first then SMS. This makes no sense since SMS can be sent much more rapidly. In our case the SMS messages would have been gone in 1 1/2 minutes based upon the dialer log, but instead had to wait 25 minutes. The most messages delivered in the shortest time is our goal. How does one set PageGate to send fast messages first and slow messages last?
2. Concerning the GUI Client, we have created a local recipent list to limit what certain terminals can see. There is no option called "Local Recipient List Only" as stated in the manual so the user can switch to the network list at will. Not a major issue, but it could cause confusion among users (that is why we created the list).
3. The recipient, carrier, and group name fields cannot be changed short of deleting the entry and reentering it. This is not fun especially when group memberships are involved. Why not use the index number in the database to track it (don't sort by it though) and allow the name field to be changed or even dropped altogether? The full name field would serve user purposes.
4. Our users that have a cell phone can be contacted by page(modem) or SMS. We had to enter each in the Admin program. Since we did not want to confuse our senders in which entry to pick when sending a message to these users, we created a group for these individuals and put their pager and SMS entries in the group. We then hid the individual entries from the GUI Client prior to creating the local list in #2 above. This seemed to work until we tried to send a message to those groups. It seems that the server could not find the entries in the groups. My guess is that they were hid from the GUI Client, so the server couldn't see them either. Why would this be? The server should be able to see everything and process these groups with hidden entries. PS The groups did work when we unhid them from the GUI Client.
5. When setting up the GetAscii option as a service, it appeared to work just fine. It was not really working though as a test proved. It is set to monitor a folder on another computer on the network. Permissions are fine and the folder is available to the server. In order to get it to work, I had to create the service under the administrator account instead of the recommended local service account. Don't know if this is normal or a fluke in the service.
5. Possibly an idea for the next version now. Many people in our area have at least two methods of contact. These usually are SMS and alpha paging. Many have a third - email also. Instead of entering each person's devices one at a time, why not enter a person and then attach as many devices that they have under that person? It would be much cleaner, would still allow licensing by device, and would make it much easier to enter.
Thank you in advance for the help.
Don Sebastianelli
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Tech Support
Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Posts: 4405
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| Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: PageGate Issues |
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| wcdes wrote: |
Being a new user, hopefully some of these issues are easily fixed.
1. We have one dialer. We send weather alerts to local Emergency Service agencies via alpha paging and SMS. The old program we used would take maybe 15 minutes to send all messages via modem (SMS not available). The first time we used PageGate it took 27 minutes to send pages and SMS. Not a good start for a much more expensive program. First off, the dialer sends modem pages first then SMS. This makes no sense since SMS can be sent much more rapidly. In our case the SMS messages would have been gone in 1 1/2 minutes based upon the dialer log, but instead had to wait 25 minutes. The most messages delivered in the shortest time is our goal. How does one set PageGate to send fast messages first and slow messages last? |
How many messages were in the queue when it took 27 minutes to deliver those messages? Also, how many dialers do you have activated? There are a few things that might cause this but I'd like to have a look at the log file itself. If you would, please email the pgdial1.log file from your PageGate directory to support at notepage dot com so I can have a look at the command and response sequence.
| Quote: |
| 2. Concerning the GUI Client, we have created a local recipent list to limit what certain terminals can see. There is no option called "Local Recipient List Only" as stated in the manual so the user can switch to the network list at will. Not a major issue, but it could cause confusion among users (that is why we created the list). |
To change the view (Local vs Network recipients), when running the GUI Client, you should see Recipient list. In parenthesis next to Recipient List, it should, by default, say (network). If you left click on (network), it will change to (local) and only display those recipients in the "Local Recipient" list.
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| 3. The recipient, carrier, and group name fields cannot be changed short of deleting the entry and reentering it. This is not fun especially when group memberships are involved. Why not use the index number in the database to track it (don't sort by it though) and allow the name field to be changed or even dropped altogether? The full name field would serve user purposes. |
There are two name fields that PageGate uses for Recipients and Groups. The 'recipient' field is the internal name for the recipient. It's only ever used internally by the program. The Full Name field is what is displayed in the GUI Client. The same goes for groups and the Display vs Description.
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| 4. Our users that have a cell phone can be contacted by page(modem) or SMS. We had to enter each in the Admin program. Since we did not want to confuse our senders in which entry to pick when sending a message to these users, we created a group for these individuals and put their pager and SMS entries in the group. We then hid the individual entries from the GUI Client prior to creating the local list in #2 above. This seemed to work until we tried to send a message to those groups. It seems that the server could not find the entries in the groups. My guess is that they were hid from the GUI Client, so the server couldn't see them either. Why would this be? The server should be able to see everything and process these groups with hidden entries. PS The groups did work when we unhid them from the GUI Client. |
It's not a matter of the server not being able to 'see' the recipients or not. Each recipient has an 'enabled services' section. If the GUI Client schedules a message for a group and there are members of that group that do not have the GUI Client service enabled, the PageGate Server assumes that those recipients aren't valid GUI Client recipients.
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| 5. When setting up the GetAscii option as a service, it appeared to work just fine. It was not really working though as a test proved. It is set to monitor a folder on another computer on the network. Permissions are fine and the folder is available to the server. In order to get it to work, I had to create the service under the administrator account instead of the recommended local service account. Don't know if this is normal or a fluke in the service. |
The reason you needed to use the Administrator account is that the Local System Account for the PageGate PC doesn't have any sort of network permissions. The Local System Account for one PC doesn't have the appropriate network credentials to do more than read a directory, whereas the GetAscii module needs to be able to read in the text file, modify it while it processes the file, then delete the file when it's finished sending the message so it doesn't try to process it over and over.
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| 5. Possibly an idea for the next version now. Many people in our area have at least two methods of contact. These usually are SMS and alpha paging. Many have a third - email also. Instead of entering each person's devices one at a time, why not enter a person and then attach as many devices that they have under that person? It would be much cleaner, would still allow licensing by device, and would make it much easier to enter. |
This is a suggestion that we've received before and are currently looking into an efficient way to include it in future releases of the program.
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wcdes
Joined: 02 May 2007
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject: PageGate Issues |
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The log has been sent.
Concerning #2, sorry for the confusion. We do not want the GUI Client to be able to change to the network list. The network list has more entries and that is what could cause confusion of the operator. The manual indicates a switch to limit display to the local list only. That is what we would like to do.
Concerning #3, the reason for the ability to change the name is primarily sorting in the Admin program. If a persons name changes, the entry would have to be deleted and reentered or left with the old name which would be hard to remember over time.
Thanks again.
Don
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Tech Support
Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Posts: 4405
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| Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 3:08 pm Post subject: Re: PageGate Issues |
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| wcdes wrote: |
| Concerning #2, sorry for the confusion. We do not want the GUI Client to be able to change to the network list. The network list has more entries and that is what could cause confusion of the operator. The manual indicates a switch to limit display to the local list only. That is what we would like to do. |
Ah, now I understand. The best way to do what you want to do is create a group called 'display' or multiple groups named appropriately. Add each of the members you want displayed in the GUI Client to the member of this group (or groups). Then, you can use the GUI Client's "Lock to Group" function to lock in the GUI Client's displayable recipients to the member list of this group.
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| Concerning #3, the reason for the ability to change the name is primarily sorting in the Admin program. If a persons name changes, the entry would have to be deleted and reentered or left with the old name which would be hard to remember over time. |
Unfortunately, we don't have a 'rename' function for recipients or groups in version 4 of PageGate. Version 5, which is in its final beta stages, does have a rename function, so this shouldn't be an issue for much longer.
Something you can do, however, is if you have pagers or cel phones that will be changing hands, you could always set the recipient field to the phone number of the device and the Full Name field to whoever currently has the device. That way you wouldn't have to delete and re-enter the recipient.
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