Release 3.00 firmware includes new features March 31 2007
Final 2.55 series update includes minor fixes March 1 2007
Utility updates, eth2 any IP Ezinet WEB GUI access
Monthly Billing, better Site Branding and any device IP address ranges now supported
NEW! Aug 7 2006 Brochures - End User, Detailed & Billing Options zip PDF's
IA-Series HSIA Billing Options & PMS setup by Vendor FAQ
IA-Series HSIA Wireless Options, Configuration and setup FAQ
Combined updates for all systems from revision 2.55-RC3
Updates to both the bundled and the licensed PMS interface software
Wifi wakeup usage corrected, User defined persistent routes and global firewall update
NEW! Nov 12 2005 Read the IA-Series Brochure PDF File
High Speed Wireless Internet Billing with Roaming
Mid day roll over updates for IA-Series 2.53-RC2 version
Several fixes and enhancements for IA-Series 2.53-RC2 version
DNS/DHCP enhancements for IA-Series 2.51.xx/2.52-RC2 versions
Internationalisation Support for Tax, Time & Currency
Property Management Software Interface Support
Setting up and loading a billing plan
Software Updates from a Web Server
Cannot find server or DNS Error / HTTP 404 - File not found
Email client connect errors due to DNS lookup failure
Web access not working because proxy fails to start
Repairing a corrupt room database
Reading internal temperatures from the Web GUI
SSH administration VPN update
Access to the Web proxy logs
Name server update
Remote access to the network switchs
Changing the date and time
Software fix to the remote software update function
Serial port configuration and grounding issues ?
Connection Settings Word Document
Getting Support
Please read the Software Updates FAQ section first
March 1st 2007 Final 2.55 series software update
Important note: These updates should only be applied after the Feb 15 2.55c update listed below.
This update is the last in the 2.55 software series and should be installed prior to upgrading to the 3.00 series
It includes minor corrections to display other currencies in the billing setup options after setting
currency values for charges, also for the IA50 the default database values from flash memory are now correctly
loaded on a system restart if the USB backup media is not found during system startup.
Web billing about page will show 2.55c3 March 1 2007 after this update
www.netxsecure.net/update-final-255c3.cpt
Apply to all IA series appliances
www.netxsecure.net/update-final-255c3-50.cpt
Apply in addition to IA50 appliances only
Feb 15th 2007 Utility Update re-released February 14th 2007
Important note: These updates should only be applied after the Nov 11 2.55b update listed below.
As with all other updates when a netconfig update is applied the netconfig program
must be closed from the menu and re run before a shutdown or restart.
The netconfig for all IA models now enables multiple IP address assignments on the uplink network.
Also a restart function for the DHCP service and an offline backup allowing backups of the network settings and
billing database which are copied with a serial number prefix to the system folder so that they may be
downloaded from the appliance through the web billing GUI, these files can be restored at any time using
the software update mechanism, this means remote backup/restores can now be done for network configuration
settings and the entire billing database.
The utility update includes many small enhancements and is required to be installed before the new netconfig is
installed. The enhancements include the PMS interface revision 2.21RC1.1k3, the latest wireless
watchdog and the ability to allocate 90+GB along with the service charge.
Web billing about page will show 2.55c2 January 22 2007 after this update
Netconfig will show 2.55c.2 after this update
If any problems occur as a result of this update re installing the Nov 11 2.55b update is advised
www.netxsecure.net/update-utility-255c2.cpt
Apply to all IA series appliances
www.netxsecure.net/update-netconfig-255c2-50.cpt
Model IA-50 appliance
www.netxsecure.net/update-netconfig-255c2-50B.cpt
Model IA-50B appliance
www.netxsecure.net/update-netconfig-255c2-250.cpt
All Model IA-250 appliances
Nov11 2006 Combined updates for all systems since December 20 2005
Monthly Billing, better Site Branding and any device IP address ranges supported
A Monthly Billing Option has been introduced in this combined update along with a Midday-Close option
similar to the existing Auto-Enable option, these options cater for selling HSIA on a per night
basis in comparison to the default always on mode. The Site Branding setup options allow the
Property name, corporate logo and Graphic's along with WWW links to be displayed to the guest
HSIA login and usage pages, these can be used as an entry point to the properties web site or
for access to a 'walled garden' optionally as free access for guests.
Billing accounts now support any IP address range configured on the Eth2 port and any IP devices
that are routable via that interface, this uses the MAC address billing function and access codes.
Install the combined update followed by the platform update, exit netconfig and re run netconfig
select network settings then tab to OK and PRESS OK before doing a system restart.
Web billing about page will show 2.55c R3 October 20 2006 after this update
Netconfig will show 2.55c after this update, Note these update files will fully update
any system from the 2.55 December 20 2005 firmware release.
www.netxsecure.net/update-combined-255b.cpt
Common to all IA appliances
www.netxsecure.net/update-255b-IA50.cpt
Model IA-50 only appliance
www.netxsecure.net/update-255b-IA50B.cpt
Model IA-50B only appliance
www.netxsecure.net/update-255b-IA250.cpt
Model IA-250 only appliance
www.netxsecure.net/update-255b-IA250R.cpt
Model IA-250R only appliance
June21 2006 Includes the RHS Systems RoonSoft Property management two way interface
Web billing about page will show 2.55a R3 June 21 2006 and Netconfig 2.55b after this update
After installing the platform update exit netconfig then re run netconfig before restarting the system
December 20 2005 All updates to any IA-Series appliance from the Decmber 20 2005 firmware
release are incorporated in the combined and platform update files listed above, the change log is
maintained here to help identify systems with older firmware and what enhancements are available.
Revisions to the THS Pheonix interface and the BellHobic record format,
Includes a network config utility update that forces additional
consistency checks of the file systems at exit, this will display
Netconfig 2.55a on the entry screen, the PMS interface software will
now show pmsmgr version:2.21.RC1 in the system logs file. .
User defined persistent routes in conjunction with disable or enable
NAT and user defined global firewall rules have been available in the
netconfig utility since version 2.53 circa September 2005, the utility
that loads these routes and firewall rules has been updated to include
a time stamp which is written into the net.log file at either system
startup or from the netconfig program options to load or delete the
routes and firewall rules.
Also in this update the usage page redirect for wifi clients returning
to the system after a period of inactivity sufficient for them to have
been aged out will now show the correct usage value rather than waiting
until the next system watchdog has updated their usage. There has also
been an update to the included PMS manager program to release candidate
status RC0 as well as access to the system DHCP log file to assist with
diagnosing that a client has or has not gained an IP address on the
system.
From October 2005 all IA-Series high speed Internet billing appliances
will be shipped with support for high speed wireless Internet roaming.
This will allow guests to use their high speed Internet access from any
location within range of the wireless hotspot access provided by the
Hotel or in the case of managed office or apartment blocks within range
of available wireless service. Wireless access can be provided as well
as in room wired access or in stead of wired access depending on the
preference of the Hotel or Building owner. In a room with high speed
wired Internet the wireless access can be disabled by the front desk
for any guests that may have concerns about the security of wireless
access and a preference to use wired only.
This update is available for a very small number of systems that have
updated from 2.53.xx to 2.54.xx and is not required for systems shipped
with a WEB billing application software version prior to 2.53.xx or
after 2.54.xx. The WEB billing application version can be found from
the About page found on the left hand pane of the main page. This
update fix's a mid day roll over issue for rooms in the room database
and provides detailed logging of changes made to remaining nights of
stay, the audit is written to the room audit log found as comma
separated CSV files under the system logs page of the WEB billing
application main page.
Fix permissions for management room, startup load of user defined
routes and firewall rules, software update server by IP address only
which should be name or IP and remove the need to have USB media
inserted when doing software updates from a web server, issue's now
resolved from versions 2.52-RC2 and 2.53-RC2. Enhancements have been
made to the DNS and DHCP to provide a name server within each VLAN
subnet as well as a name server routed from the default VLAN providing
better support for mis-configured clients. The netconfig utility
version 2.54c can now set both local time and zone information. To
install this update the USB media must be installed and the IP address
of the update server must be used instead of the name, see page 26
and 27 of the Network Guide
for details on the update procedure. One way to obtain the IP address
is to ping the server and the resulting ping command will show the IP
address which can be entered in place of the server name. The web GUI
About page will show 2.54-R2 Release September 7 2005 after
a restart. Apply to Firmware 2.53-RC2 only, after installing this
update close the netconfig connection, re run netconfig note the
version should read 2.54c, select configure network settings, press OK
and then restart the appliance.
Update files for the DNS/DHCP changes described above for version
2.53-RC2 are now available for version 2.51.xx and 2.52-RC2, apply
these updates in exactly the same way as described above for 2.53-RC2,
check the web GUI about page to determine the correct update file to
install. The netconfig version will change for 2.51.xx from 2.15a to
2.15b and for the 2.52-RC2 version from 2.26a to 2.26b.
This
Update adds many new features to both the NetConfig program and the Web
based billing application. Netconfig can now set the local time zone.
Billing data sets can now be maintained independent of the appliance as
can configurations and the Web based billing application itself. Basic
Internationalisation support has been added with user configurable tax
rates and codes eg: GST, VAT etc. Currency code or symbol displays for
Tax invoice Generation can now also be set from the Web based Billing
setup. The Web GUI can now be accessed without the requirement for an
encrypted TCP tunnel at the default IP address for the management
network interface at address http://10.1.0.1:8081 The netconfig utility
is used to enable or disable this, if disabled then the Web GUI can
only be accessed over the secure encrypted TCP SSH tunnel as with
previous versions of firmware.
Property Management Interface Software is available for the IA-Series high
speed Internet Billing Appliances. Supported PMS systems and drivers are Micros Fidelio
Uni Driver and FIA TCP/IP as well as various implementations of the Bell Hobic and other
POS text style interfaces. An SQL connector to MySQL is available on request. SMDR data
format and file server NFS or SMB client connectors are now available. Please
contact us by with your PMS system interface requirements. See our contacts page for details.
Load this update to improve the redirection of the guest login pages through
the confirm page and on to the connected page. This update improves this process when
the client web browser is IE6 and using the default URL for a home page. Also included
is a billing engine update that resets a room for several minutes after it has been closed.
The reset is forcibly removed early by enabling the room for service.
It the billing box is operated without a UPS and has been powered off
repeatedly without being shutdown from either the Setup Functions Admin screen
within the Web GUI or from the Netconfig program, the internal web proxy may
fail to start. Usually an orderly shutdown or restart from either the Web GUI Setup
Functions Admin page or the Netconfig program will resolve this. To check the status
of the web proxy first make sure that the Proxy Log Access update has been
installed and then select System Logs from the Web GUI followed by the web-proxy
folder, then open the cache.log file some time after the system has been started.
There should be an entry to say 'Ready to serve requests' if the proxy has started
correctly.
If the billing box is operated without a UPS and has been powered off
repeatedly without being shutdown from either the Setup Functions Admin screen
within the Web GUI or from the Netconfig program then the billing database may
become corrupted. To check the contents of the billing database select the Room
Status Table option from the Web GUI and press submit with the Room selection on
the default setting of All. The will after a short delay return a screen with all
of the billing database records in a grid/table format with one line per room.
If all room records do not appear as expected which should end with the last room
record having an index number of 999 (default room) then there is a problem.
To resolve this select the Setup Functions followed by Edit default settings, then
proceed with setting up a default billing plan followed by loading of the billing
plan into all closed rooms as described HERE. If a corrupted room record refuses
to load the default plan then it may need to be forcibly closed using the
normal Close and Print Room function. Please refer to the Billing Guide.
Any individual room record may be repaired by closing it and loading a new
billing plan into the room, this is important on a system were active billing data
is in use thoughout the room database.
Find out what the internal temperature is in your billing,
box, this should be less then 50c. The box should be in a room maintained below
40c. After installing this update the About page will display current and maximum
temperature readings. The version will show Version 2.51-1.05a.4 after this update.
The Administration Web UI is run over an SSH VPN tunnel,
this update records the IP address of the connecting client without attemtping
to lookup the client DNS name which can cause a minute + DNS timeout if the forwarding
DNS server is unresponsive.
This Update adds a link under the system logs page in the Web UI to provide
access to the proxy logs. The cache.log provides useful status information about
the web proxy startup.
This update changes the Local DNS server behaviour to always query
a forwarder and cache the results. The Netconfig utility will show a version
of 2.51a after this update and 2.51 prior to the update.
When configuring remote access to switches you will need to
set the switch IP to 10.254.254.254 for a single switch and where there
are multiple switch's then download and install this update with the
netconfig program from www.netxsecure.net/update-fw.cpt to enable TCP port
forwarding to the entire 10.254.254.0/24 subnet, configure the port
forwarding from an SSH client (in addition to) the same way as for
access to the web billing GUI with the destination set to the switch IP
and port desired eg 10.254.254.253:80 for a web interface. For further
instructions on how to set up port forwarding see page's 7 & 8 of
the Quick Start Guide
or page 13 of the
Network Guide
This fix is required to correct remote software update
functionality.
A minimum software revision of Version
2.51-1.05a.3 Release November 9 2004 (found on
the About page of the Billing administration Web UI) is required to
enable software updates to the IA- Series appliances. The Web updates
can be made from any upstream web server that the system has access to.
Instructions on how
this is done are in the Network Guide which can be
found here on
pages 26,27. Note that the NetConfig program may be run from a serial
console or preferably from an SSH terminal (see pages 7 & 8
Network-Guide)
For systems with firmware prior to this release please contact us and we will discuss remote
access options to bring the software up to date.
To load a default billing plan into all rooms first you will need
the Managers access password unless already logged in as Manager, the system
will prompt for the Managers password before allowing setup of the room rates.
Select Setup Functions from the Web GUI followed by Edit Default settings
and room over rides. All of the options presented are documented in the
Billing Guide. The room selection defaults to the default room DEFT and
after making changes as appropriate and selecting submit for each change,
then go back to Setup Functions and select Load Default Settings into all
closed rooms option. Note that it may be necessary to also do an Update
Room number index's after Real Room Number Edit which is done once for
each time that changes are made to the real room names as shown on the
door of each room. A further note is that any room may have its own unique
billing plan set by setting the Load Room Defaults on Enable option to 'No'
for that room within the Billing Plan setup screen option Edit default
Settings and Room over rides.
Correct Date and Time is critical to the billing system for many reasons.
The date and time is set from the Comm Bios console over the serial port.
There is a help screen within the BIOS for this. Changing the date and time
has a number of implications to billing cycles and can cause un expected results.
The bill will only reflect actual time and data used, for each night triggered at
mid day a charge is posted to the room and where excess data for the period is
measured the charges are posted accordingly. See the Network Guide for details on how to
access the serial port connection.
NOTE: For system versions 2.54-R2 or newer both local system time and time zone can
be set from the netconfig utility without having to access the Comm Bios console.
Both of these errors can occur for several reasons, firstly the web page
requested may not be at a valid domain name. This may also occur when a guest computer
is set to use a web proxy that has a DNS name that works on the corporate LAN
but is not valid on the public Internet, in this case the guest computer will
not even attempt to connect through the Internet Billing service, if the domain
name set for web proxy is not valid on the public Internet. Note that a similar
problem can occur with email clients where the email settings point to a domain
name that is not valid on the public Internet the client fails at the name
lookup and does not even attempt to connect. The Billing service has transparent
proxy options per room for web HTTP on the standard web proxy TCP ports of 80,
8080, 3128 and an SMTP redirect to the local ISP however if the guest computer
fails the DNS lookup due to a corporate LAN domain name then these transparent
proxies are not able to provide service. Often corporate LAN's utilise split DNS
whereby the corporate DNS name resolves correctly both within their own LAN / WAN
network as well as the Internet which deals with this issue very well.
NOTE: If a room has been closed and immediately re enabled for service there is a
5 minute time interval where connections are unavailable, a manual confirm from the
front desk management software will enable connections again before the 5 minutes
is up.
The following description of grounding issues taken from a discussion
about common grounding applies to the billing box when using the serial port
for configuration.
Unfortunately, when machines are a fair ways apart, or plugged into
different electrical circuits... there may not be such a thing as a common
ground. There may be a noticeable voltage difference between "ground" on
one machine and "ground" on the other, and any shielded cable which hooks
both ends of the shield to ground will be carrying significant current
through the shield (as part of a "ground loop"), which causes various
problems. Grounding problems can make otherwise well-behaved data links
do *very* strange things.
The best thing to do if serial port configuration must be done is to do the
configuration work over the serial connection with the billing unit not
connected to other network equipment, when configuration is complete
power the unit down reconecting other network equipment then powering
the unit back up. Of course most if not all configuration work can be
carried out over the Ethernet on the management port using the Netconfig
program as described in the Network Guide
Contact NXS Support by sending email to support at nxs dot co
dot nz or phoning us on the numbers listed on our contacts page
Return to NXS HomePage
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