We received an important notification from the company that produces the database we use in PhonePad 5.  In a recent version of the database engine, a new feature was added that dramatically improves performance, however, this week the database company discovered a bug in the database engine that could possibly result in data loss for new messages.

Yes, this took us by surprise as well!  This affects all versions of PhonePad from Version 5.30.0 and onward.

The company has fixed the issue and released an update.  We have incorporated the update into a new version of PhonePad and are in the process of releasing it.  It should be available within the next few hours.

As a precaution, we strongly advise you to turn off the feature that could cause you this issue:

1. On your Server or Host PC, open Control Center.
2. Select PhonePad Server.
3. Click the Settings button.
4. Select the Support Use Only tab.
5. Click the I/O Buffering button.
6. Uncheck the Enable File I/O Buffering check box.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause but we were not aware of the issue and it did not present itself during testing.  As already mentioned, the bug is in the 3rd party database engine that is incorporated into PhonePad.  We have not been able to reproduce any data loss ourselves but we know of at least one customer that has had this problem.

Another announcement will be posted once Version 5.38.1 has been released.

 

We are pleased to announce the release of PhonePad Version 5.38.0.

This is an important update. The internal database engine used by PhonePad is provided by a 3rd party company. We have been advised by the database company that there is a possibility of data loss IF the PhonePad 5 Server crashes when File I/O Buffering is enabled.

This is due to a bug in the database engine that was just discovered.  This release includes a new version of the database engine that fixes the problem.

As a precaution, it is highly recommended that you update to Version 5.38.0 as soon as possible.

Changes in This Release

• UPDATED – An important update of the database engine (2.28 Build 6) is included in this release to prevent potential data loss from File I/O Buffering if the PhonePad Server crashes for some reason.
• FIXED – Message archiving was not working.
• FIXED – New version check was not working.
• Various minor fixes and improvements.

Installation Information

Please note: Server Updates must be installed on your Server or Host PC, not your workstation (unless your workstation is also the Host PC) – they cannot be installed directly on your workstations.  Make sure all users are logged out of PhonePad as the PhonePad Server will be stopped during the update and then restarted once it has completed.  Workstations will be automatically updated when PhonePad 5 Workstation is started on each workstation.

Important: When downloading and installing an update from your My PhonePad account, make sure it’s actually the update and not the server setup program.  The update will update your database whereas the setup program will overwrite it with a blank database.

Important Information If You Are Updating from PhonePad Version 5.35.x

Some code was added to the PhonePad loader program (the blue window with the PhonePad logo that finds the server connection) to log what security software was installed on the workstation that we would use to diagnose any startup issues.

Unfortunately on some Windows 7 workstations this caused the PhonePad loader to just sit there and do nothing.  We don’t know why this would have caused this and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, it only affects Windows 7 workstations.

This code has been removed in this release so this problem should no longer occur once these workstations have been updated to 5.36.0 or higher.  However, it does mean that the PhonePad Version 5.36.0 workstation setup program will need to be manually downloaded and installed on any affected workstations.

Downloading the Update

You can download the update from your My PhonePad account.

If you are a trial user please contact Support for a download link for this version.

Please contact Support if you have any problems or questions.

We are pleased to announce the release of PhonePad Version 5.37.0.

New Sub-Folders Support

There have been a lot of requests for this and it’s finally here.  Now it’s even easier to organize your messages because you can create sub-folders in the folder tree under Personal Folders and Public Folders.

You create them the same way you create folders, ie. by clicking the Add Folder button on the Folders toolbar, or by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Add Folder from the popup menu.

When you create a sub-folder you will see a slightly different window.  It shows you the parent folder you are creating the sub-folder under so that you can confirm you are creating it in the right location.

How many levels down can you go with sub-folders?  As many as you like.

Folder Navigation Bar

Once you go down a few levels in folders you may end up losing track of where you are in the hierarchy of folders.  That’s why we have included a folder navigation bar (sometimes known as “breadcrumbs”) that shows you where you are and the path back to the top.  You can click on any of the folders above the current folder to go straight to them.

Search Folders

If you create a lot of folders, after a while you may find it difficult to find them.  That’s why the folder tree now includes a search function to search for folders.  The search is not case-sensitive and it automatically searches for text within a folder name so you can search for folders using only part of the name.

Drag and Drop Folders

Personal and Public folders, including sub-folders) can be moved around using drag and drop.

If you create a Public folder that should be a Personal folder, simply drag and drop it under your Personal folders.  Or you can drag Personal folders over to Public folders.

External Users

Do you have staff that are out of the office most of the time and never login to a computer?  How do you get their phone messages to them?  Well with 5.37.0 you can now send messages to users that don’t have a PhonePad user account.

Using the new External Users feature you can create staff as an external users.  They can receive their messages by email, SMS and/or Pushover via MessageSender.

There is no limit to the number of External Users you have.

Changes in This Release

• NEW – Personal and Public Folders now support sub-folders.
• NEW – Folder Navigation Bar.
• NEW – Folders can be rearranged using drag and drop.
• NEW – The Folder Tree now has a search feature.
• NEW – External Users. Send messages to users that don’t have a user account.
• FIXED – When accessing another user’s Inbox and completing a follow up, the user for the Inbox was recorded as the user completing the follow up, rather than the logged in user.
• Various minor fixes and improvements.

Installation Information

Please note: Server Updates must be installed on your Server or Host PC, not your workstation (unless your workstation is also the Host PC) – they cannot be installed directly on your workstations.  Make sure all users are logged out of PhonePad as the PhonePad Server will be stopped during the update and then restarted once it has completed.  Workstations will be automatically updated when PhonePad 5 Workstation is started on each workstation.

Important: When downloading and installing an update from your My PhonePad account, make sure it’s actually the update and not the server setup program.  The update will update your database whereas the setup program will overwrite it with a blank database.

Important Information If You Are Updating from PhonePad Version 5.35.x

Some code was added to the PhonePad loader program (the blue window with the PhonePad logo that finds the server connection) to log what security software was installed on the workstation that we would use to diagnose any startup issues.

Unfortunately on some Windows 7 workstations this caused the PhonePad loader to just sit there and do nothing.  We don’t know why this would have caused this and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, it only affects Windows 7 workstations.

This code has been removed in this release so this problem should no longer occur once these workstations have been updated to 5.36.0 or higher.  However, it does mean that the PhonePad Version 5.36.0 workstation setup program will need to be manually downloaded and installed on any affected workstations.

Downloading the Update

You can download the update from your My PhonePad account.

If you are a trial user please contact Support for a download link for this version.

Please contact Support if you have any problems or questions.

 

 

PhonePad 5.37.0 has 2 new features that we believe many users will find very useful.  We had planned to release it over the weekend but there are still a few things that need to be finished before it’s ready to go out.

For users that were expecting it today we apologize for the delay, but we feel it’s better to have it done properly then to have to release an update to fix problems.

Hopefully it won’t take longer than a few days more.

So what are these new features?  You’ll have to wait and see. 🙂

Out of all of the support requests we receive by far the majority of them are about connection issues.  In most cases these problems are caused by over-zealous anti-virus/anti-malware software that use real-time protection.

We have released a new application called PortCheck to help identify where the issues are occurring as quite often they can be difficult to diagnose.  More about that in a moment.

This is a very long post so please bear with us.  It covers virtually everything we do to help our customers fix connection issues, so there is a lot of information here.

We take you step-by-step through the process of determining what is causing the connection issues.  Hang in there.

Important: If you don’t have the PhonePad workstation software installed on your Server or Host PC, please download and install it now.  It’s important to help isolate connection issues.

Part A – Checking the Server or Host PC

1 – Make Sure the Services Are Running

On your Server or Host PC, open Control Center and check the status of each PhonePad 5 Service.

• If any installed services aren’t running then start them.
• Stop and start the PhonePad Server service.
• Reboot the Server or Host PC.

2 – Check the PhonePad Server Settings

1. Select PhonePad Server in Control Center.
2. Server IP Address should be blank.  The only time it shouldn’t be blank is if the Server or Host PC has more than one IP Address (usually due to multiple network interfaces cards (NICs) or it has both an Ethernet and Wireless LAN connection).

3. If Server IP Address is not blank then click Scan IP to see if the Server or Host PC has more than one IP Address.
4. In this example, the Server or Host PC has two IP Addresses.

5. We need to choose the correct one to use as PhonePad Server may use the wrong one.
6. Select the correct IP Address to use and then click Close.
7. In this example we selected the first IP Address that was listed.

8. The best way to test this is to stop and start the PhonePad Server service in ControlCenter and try logging in to PhonePad.
9. If it doesn’t work then repeat steps 3 to 8.
10. Two other things that are important are the Server Port and Notifications Port settings.
11. Server Port should be set to 12600.
12. Notifications Port should be set to 12601.

Please Remember This: The Server IP Address setting should be blank unless the Server or Host PC has more than one IP Address.

If you are now able to login to PhonePad successfully then you don’t need to proceed any further.

If you’re still unable to login to PhonePad then proceed to the next step.

3 – Scan the Server Ports

If the services are definitely running then they will have tried to open the ports they use.  If PhonePad still can’t connect then we need to check that the ports are still open.  This is where we use the new PortCheck program.

1.  Download PortCheck.
2.  Open PortCheck by right-clicking on its icon and selecting Run as Administrator from the popup menu.  If you don’t do this you will get this message:

3. Select Server.
4. Click Scan.

A green tick or check mark icon means a port is open.  That’s good news.

A red icon means a port is closed.  That’s bad news.  This means that either the service is not running or something is blocking the port.

A grey circle icon means that the port is not responding because the service is not installed.

If any of the port scans fail (display a red icon) then we need to find out what is blocking the port.  In most cases this will be a firewall, anti-virus or anti-malware software.

4 – Server Firewall Rules

The next step is to check the Server Firewall Rules.

1. Select the Firewall Rules tab under Server.

2. There will be around 17 rules – inbound and outbound.
3. Click the Reapply Firewall Rules button just to make sure they’re all there.
4. Now select Server Ports again and re-scan the ports by clicking the Scan button.

5 – Are All of the Files There?

If there are ports that still show as closed in the port scan then we need to check if there are any files missing from the installation.

1. Select File Check.
2. Click the Scan button.

The file checking process will detect if the computer is a Server or Host PC, and/or Workstation.  It will then scan for the appropriate files.  If there are any files missing they will be shown in red.

In this example (which actually happened to a client), two important database files are missing.  The anti-virus software quarantined them because it suspected they were infected by a virus.  On further investigation it was discovered that these were false positives.  The anti-virus company was contacted and they released an update to fix it.

The problem with this is it prevented the PhonePad Server starting up correctly and therefore the ports it used were not opened.

If you have missing files then run the server update again and then re-scan for the files.  If the files are still missing then it means your security software is still quarantining them.  You may need to configure your security software to exclude these files.

6 – Checking What Security Software You Have Installed

1. Select Security Software.
2. Click the Scan button.

7 – What If the Ports Are Still Closed?

Hopefully by now the ports are reporting that they’re open.  If there are still closed ports then something is definitely blocking the ports.

At this point:

• We have confirmed that the services are running.
• We have reapplied the firewall rules so that shouldn’t be the problem.
• We have checked the PhonePad files and they are all there.

The only thing left is to check your security software.

• Some security software have their own firewall.  While many honor the Windows Firewall Rules, some do not.  You may need to configure the firewall in your security software to allow the ports to be used.
• Another big problem is real-time protection.  This may be preventing the ports from being open.  You may need to exclude the PhonePad folders and/or files from real-time protection.

If you have more than one security application installed you will probably have to configure each one individually.  While we will provide advice whenever we can, we can’t actually help you with this as there are too many anti-virus and anti-malware programs available for us to know how to configure every one of them.  You will need to contact the company that produces the security software.

Important Note:  Some users find that a previous version of PhonePad connected fine but then they start having connection problems after installing an update.  This can happen because security software sees the update as different software as its signature is different.  If PhonePad had to be excluded in the security software previously then it will have to be excluded again for the update.

8 – What Now?

If there are port scans that are still coming up red then you will need to work out what is blocking PhonePad before you can continue.

If you have gotten this far and everything is now ok, ie. the port scans are all green, then the next step is to try logging in to the PhonePad Workstation software on your Server or Host PC.  If you can’t login from the Server or Host PC then you may need to go back into your security software and configure it to allow PhonePad to run.

If you can login successfully from the Server or Host PC then proceed to Part B.

Part B – Checking Workstations

Only continue with this section if you have determined that PhonePad on the Server or Host PC because there is no point continuing if the Server or Host PC is not work correctly.

1 – Log in to PhonePad

If you can successfully login to PhonePad then you’re all done.  If you can’t login then move on to the next step.

2 – Set PhonePad to Run as Administrator

1. If you haven’t done so already, download PortCheck to each workstation.
2. Select File Check.
3. Click the Run as Administrator button.

4. Try logging in to PhonePad again.  If you can login now then you’re good to go, otherwise continue to the next step.

3 – Check for Multiple Servers

1. Open PortCheck by right-clicking on its icon and selecting Run as Administrator from the popup menu.
2. Select Workstation.
3. Select Server Scan.
4. Click the Scan button.
5. Wait while the scan does its job.  This can take up to 10 seconds.

6. In this example we have found 2 PhonePad Servers on the network.  This is not good as it can cause conflicts.
7. The list shows the name of the computer each PhonePad Server was found on and its IP Address.
8. You will need to work out which computer is the correct Server or Host PC and uninstall PhonePad Server and any of the other computers it appears on.

4 – Scan the Workstation Ports

Just like we did on the Server or Host PC, we’re now going to scan the ports on the workstation.  There are less ports to scan on a workstation than on the Server or Host PC.

1. Select Workstation Ports.
2. Enter the IP Address of the Server or Host PC.
3. Click the Scan button.

Ok, so there’s some good news and some bad news.

The PhonePad Data Port shows as red which means it’s closed.

The Notifications Port is green so that port is open.

The Server Auto Discovery Port shows a question mark, which means the scan was unable to determine the port’s status.  It’s not open so that’s not good news.

5 – Workstation Firewall Rules

Even if the previous test showed that all ports are open, if you are unable to login to PhonePad then we should check the Firewall Rules.

1. Select the Firewall Rules tab under Workstation.
2. There will be fewer firewall rules – typically around 10.
3. Click the Reapply Firewall Rules button just to ensure they are all there.

If any port tests failed before, try scanning the ports again and see if they pass.  If they do, try logging in to PhonePad again.  If you can login now then you’re all done.  If not, continue to the next step.

6 – Check Your Workstation Configuration

1. Go to the PhonePad folder on your workstation (C:\PhonePad5).
2. Open WorkstationConfig.
3. Under the Server Auto Discovery tab, make sure that the Enable Auto-Discovery of Server option is selected.

4. In this example, the Auto-Discovery is overridden because the Disable Auto-Discovery of Server is selected, and the IP Address for the server is wrong.  This would prevent PhonePad from connecting to the Server or Host PC.
5. In this case we would select Enable Auto-Discovery of Server, and to play it safe remove the IP Address.  Then we would click the Save button to save the changes.

If Auto-Discovery was disabled on your workstation and you enabled it and saved the settings, try logging in to PhonePad again.

7 – Check the Security Software (Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware) on Your Workstations

If you get this far in the process and are still unable to successfully login to PhonePad then you will need to check the security software on your workstation(s).  If you have more than one type of security software installed you will need to do this with all of them.

If the security software has any form of real-time protection either exclude the PhonePad folder (C:\PhonePad5) or PhonePad5.exe and PhonePadRun.exe from being scanned.

Important Note: Do not exclude the PhonePad 5 folder/files from scheduled scans, just real-time protection.

Another Important Note:  Some users find that a previous version of PhonePad connected fine but then they start having connection problems after installing an update.  This can happen because security software sees the update as different software as its signature is different.  If PhonePad had to be excluded in the security software previously then it will have to be excluded again for the update.

Finally, if you get to this point, have tried everything in this blog article, and still can’t login to PhonePad, please contact Support and we’ll do our best to help resolve your issue.

Do you experience any strange behavior when logging in to PhonePad after a server update?  We’re talking about strange behavior with PhonePad, not you or your colleagues. 😉

Things like: the phone message screen is black, PhonePad shuts down as soon as you login, or error messages about something missing or not found.

If you do then the most likely cause is that the database update process didn’t complete on the Server or Host PC, often due to insufficient access rights.

You can easily resolve this by right-clicking on DataUpdate and selecting Run as Administrator from the popup menu.  DataUpdate should then run through and update your database.

We are pleased to announce the release of PhonePad Version 5.35.4.

Changes in This Release

• IMPROVED – Server performance enhancements.
• Various minor fixes and improvements.

Installation Information

Please note: Server Updates must be installed on your Server or Host PC, not your workstation (unless your workstation is also the Host PC) – they cannot be installed directly on your workstations.  Make sure all users are logged out of PhonePad as the PhonePad Server will be stopped during the update and then restarted once it has completed.  Workstations will be automatically updated when PhonePad 5 Workstation is started on each workstation.

Important: When downloading and installing an update from your My PhonePad account, make sure it’s actually the update and not the server setup program.  The update will update your database whereas the setup program will overwrite it with a blank database.

Downloading the Update

You can download the update from your My PhonePad account.

If you are a trial user please contact Support for a download link for this version.

Please contact Support if you have any problems or questions.