NetGuardian FAQ
SNMP Questions
Pager Setup Questions
NetGuardian FAQ Answers
| Q. What port do you use to TELNET to DPS network devices? |
| A. To TELNET in to Net Dog, Net Watchman, NetGuardian, etc, connect to Port 2002 (NOT Telnet or any other port options). |
| Q. How can I backup what is currently configured and downloaded in my NetGuardian? |
| A. Currently the NetGuardian does not support software downloading or configuring. Downloading and configuring are strictly done online to the unit, which is done on a live terminal, (i.e. ProComm or HyperTerminal). We will be coming out with an upgrade soon that will support software configuring. Please be on the lookout for this future update. |
| Q. Can I use my NetGuardian as a Proxy Server to activate a serial online menu to my "Third Party" equipment? |
| A. Yes. You can use Data ports 1-8 located on the back of the NetGuardian, as long as your equipments serial port is RS-232 supported. To enable this make sure you use the correct TCP port defined per each Proxy port of the NetGuardian. Establish a Telnet session via the IP address of the NetGuardian and correct TCP port and proceed with connect. Once connected, proceed with your equipments serial menu commands. Refer the NetGuardian manual for more advanced information on setting up Proxy addressing and Proxy/Data ports 1-8. |
| Q. The NetGuardian manual talks about 8 relay outputs. How does one control these output ports? |
| A. The output relays are controlled by issuing the appropriate set commands against the DPS MIB command grid. The numeric references to the port, address, display and point number associated with the target relay are defined by the RTU and generalized to support multiple-product implementation. The remaining leaf represents the action to be performed and is enumerated to reflect the currently allowed actions. |
| Q. What do the terms "alarm point", "display/display number", "port", "address" and "point map" mean within the context of NetGuardian operation? |
| A. An "alarm point" is the logical term for a single sensed lead the activation of which represents an event that is generally thought to be an alarm condition. There might be a sense lead connected to a low oil probe in a generator or a monitored entry door. A display is a logical group of 64 alarm points and each display has an associated numeric identifier typically called the display number. A port traditionally refers to the physical port over which alarm information is collected using a process generally referred to as polling. In many polling protocols, each polled unit is assigned a unique address. For consistency in information formatting, the port and address concept is often extended to accommodate logical ports and addresses. The NetGuardian reports its internal alarms with a port of 99 and an address of 1. A point map is a single MIB leaf that presents the current status of a 64 alarm point display in an ASCII readable form where a "." represents an alarm point with an inactive sense lead and an "x" represents a point with an active sense lead. |
| Q. How can we associate descriptive information with a "point" for the RTU/granular traps? |
| A. The NetGuardian alarm point descriptions are individually defined using the WEB server interface or the TELNET configuration interface. |
| Q. What characteristics of an alarm point can be configured through software? For instance, can point 4 be used to sense an active-low signal, or point 5 to sense a level or edge? |
| A. The NetGuardian alarm points are level sensed and can be software configured to generate an "alarm" condition on either a high or a low level. |
| Q. How come when I am accessing the Craft port on the front of the NetGuardian it seems to work improperly or not at all? |
| A. The standard settings for the Craft port are 9600 baud, 8 bits, No Parity, and 1 stop bit. Flow Control MUST be set to OFF. Flow Control normally defaults to HARDWARE in most terminal programs and this will not work correctly with the NetGuardian. |
| Q. I just changed the Port settings for one of my data ports but the changes did not seem to take effect even after I wrote the NVRAM. |
| A. In order for data port and craft port changes to take effect the NetGuardian must be rebooted. These changes include the Baud Rate/Word Format. Always remember to write the changes you make to the NVRAM so they will be saved when the unit is rebooted. |
| Q. How do I get my NetGuardian on the network? |
| A. A few things must be setup before the NetGuardian will work on your LAN. The Unit Address (IP address) must be set, the Subnet Mask, and the Default Gateway. A sample configuration could look like this. Unit Address: 192.168.1.100 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 Always remember to save your changes by writing to the NVRAM. Any modifications to the NetGuardians IP configuration will also require a reboot. |
| Q. Why can't I telnet into the NetGuardian to configure it? |
| A. Telnet defaults to port 23 for its connections. The NetGuardian uses port 2002, so the telnet client must be configured to use this port. Standard windows telnet can be run from the command prompt or by going to Start|Run and typing 'telnet 192.168.0.1 2002.' - 192.168.0.1 being the IP address of the netguardian you are trying to access. |
| Q. I'm using HyperTerminal to talk to the NG using the craft port, but the unit won't accept input when I get back to the first level menu. |
| A. Make sure you turn off all handshaking in HyperTerminal. |
| Q. How do I setup the serial ports on the back of the NetGuardian to telnet out? |
| A. 1. Make sure the data port is set to "craft" and that it has been written to NV RAM and rebooted. 2. You must type in DPSCFG |
| Q. I can't change the craft port baud rate. |
| A. Once you select a higher baud rate you must set your terminal emulation to that new baud rate and enter the DPSCFG |
| Q. The LAN line is green on my NetGuardian, but I can't poll it from my DCPX master. |
| A. Some routers will not forward to an IP address until the MAC address has been registered into the router. Therefore, you'll want to put the IP address of the T/Mon or your gateway to the ping table. |
| Q. Every time my NetGuardian starts up, I have to reenter the date and time. How can I get the NetGuardian to automatically maintain the date and time setting? |
| A. Real Time Clock (RTC): A NetGuardian may be purchased with a real time clock option. A real time clock is an additional piece of hardware installed on the NetGuardian itself. Once a date and time has been assigned, no additional software or configuration is required to maintain the date and time setting regardless of system start up events. Network Time Protocol (NTP): If there isn't an RTC installed on your NetGuardian, or you wish to have clock synchronization between multiple units, then you may enable the NetGuardian to synchronize with a network timeserver. You may already have NTP support on your NetGuardian, or your unit may require a free firmware upgrade, which is available from our Tech Support Upgrade Site. There are numerous free and public network timeservers available on the World Wide Web, or you may have a server available on your network. To setup, the NetGuardian requires you to enter the IP address and port of the server and the time zone of the unit. T/Mon/IAM RTU Sync Period: The T/MON can also set the NetGuardian clock by using the RTU Sync Period in the Time Services section to a valid time interval (10-10080 : 0 = Never). This option automatically synchronizes certain RTUs, including the NetGuardian, to match their clocks to the T/Mon. This option will work with or without NIST synchronization enabled. |
| Q. How can I alert my technicians of alarms at the site as they are exiting? |
| A. Wire a light near the exit door to a NetGuardian control relay, then setup a derived control that will activate the light when specified alarms are set. |
| Q. If remote LAN firmware update fails, why can't I log back in? |
| A. In this case, the NetGuardian password defaults to "dpstelecom" |
| Q. Can I remotely upgrade my NetGuardian via LAN? |
| A. Yes |
| Q. What baud rate do an 832A and a DX use to communicate? |
| A. 2400 |
| Q. How do I database an NG480 in T/Mon? |
| A. Parameters->Remote Ports->Pick job that NG480 is on->F1 for devices->Device list: standard->displays1-3 |
| Q. Can you configure NetGuardians from T/Mon? |
| A. No. Use NGEdit or Web Browser Interface |
| Q. What is the default NetGuardian password? |
| A. "dpstelecom" |
SNMP Questions
| Q. Which version of SNMP is supported by the SNMP agent on the NetGuardian? |
| A. SNMP v1 & v2c on all versions of the NetGuardian 832A. The NetGuardian 832A G5 also supports SNMP v3. |
| Q. How does one configure the NetGuardian to send traps to a manager? Is there a seperate SNMP MIB for it? How many managers can the agent send traps to? (Setting the Ip address of the manager, the SNMP community string to be used while sending traps ...) |
| A. The NetGuardian begins sending traps as soon as the managers are defined. The NetGuardian MIB is embedded. The unit supports a global destination trap manager and global communities. Additionally, there are a maximum of eight assignable trap managers (using the notification device / pager table). All managers are designated by their IP addresses. |
| Q. Does the NetGuardian support MIB-2 and/or any other standard MIBs? |
| A. The NetGuardian supports the bulk of MIB-2. |
| Q. Does every SNMP agent running on a NetGuardian box support both the TMon/XM and RTU variables, or will the agent support the TMon/XM variables only with a T/Mon supporting NetGuardian box? |
| A. The NetGuardian SNMP agent manages an embedded MIB that supports only the RTU variables. The TMon/XM variables are included in the distributed MIB only to provide a single manager-level MIB for all DPS products. |
| Q. How many traps are triggered when a single point is set/cleared? The MIB defines traps like "major alarm set/cleared", "RTU point set" and a lot of granular traps which could imply that more than one trap being sent when a state change occurs on one point. |
| A. Generally, a single state change generates a single trap. One exception to this rule is the first alarm in an "all clear" condition which generates an additional "summary point set" trap. The other exception to this rule is the last alarm that clears going into an "all clear" condition which generates an additional "summary point clear" trap. |
Pager Setup Questions
| Q. Why won't my Alpha pager work? |
| A. An alpha pager requires a few things to be setup for it to work properly. First the DATA phone number for your pager must be entered into the Phone Number field. When called this number should be answered by a modem. The next thing needed will be the PIN for your pager. This should be entered in the P(I)N/Rcpt/Port field. The other fields can be left alone. If trouble is still experienced when trying to page, the Dial Modem Init string can be set to ATS37=9. This will limit the NetGuardians connect speed. |
| Q. My Numeric pages don't seem to come in or are cut off in the middle, what's wrong? |
| A. This problem is easy to fix once the operation of the NetGuardian's pager routine is understood. The Numeric pager's phone number should be entered in the Phone Number field. Directly after the number there should be some commas inserted to provide a delay. This delay needs to be the length of time from when the phone number of the pager was dialed to when the numeric page can be sent. A comma represents a 2 second delay. Putting this information together if you call your pager and have to wait 8 seconds to enter your page, then the entry into the NetGuardian would look like 555-1212,,,, |
| Q. What all is required to setup my E-mail pager? |
| A. In the pager section the data that is entered is the Recipients information. His Domain and user name. billy@thefarm.org would be entered as thefarm.org for the Domain and 'billy' for the Recipient. The @ symbol is not entered. An SMTP server must be supplied to the NetGuardian in the IPA field. Now the NetGuardian needs to know what its name and domain are. This is entered in the System menu under NAME and LOCATION respectively. The name cannot have any spaces in it, for example 'Netguardian' and the location could be bigcompany.com. When billy@thefarm.org receives his E-mail it will have come from NetGuardian@somecompany.com. |
| Q. What is a Proxy Reach-Through Port and How Do I Use It? |
| A. There are eight serial ports located on the back of a NetGuardian. Each of the eight ports can be used as a craft port, a channel port, a TCP reach-through port, or a UDP reach-through port. When a device is hooked up to the NetGuardian via one of the serial ports, you can access the device by Telnet-ing into the NetGuardian, using hyperterminal, or via dial up. To setup one of the serial port as a proxy reach-through port, you have to configure that particular port in the NetGuardian. You can do this by connecting to the NetGuardian unit using a web browser or NGEdit. |
Give Us a Call!
To find out more about this and other DPS applications, give us a call at our toll-free number and talk to one of our network specialists. They'll help you put together a perfect fit solution for your network!
Sales: 1-800-693-0351 · Fax: 559-454-1688
 |
 |
 |
|---|
| Related Pages |
 |
 |
|---|
| Popular White Papers |
|
SNMPv3 Tutorial - New! |
 |
 |
|---|
| Technical Support |
 |
|
|---|
 |
|
Request Info