Owner's Manual (Complete)

Chapter 24—Client Server
4 The Home Control Assistant
Connecting a Client
Once the Server is started and your design loaded, then a client can be connected. Before the
connection can be made the client must first be configured. Open
HCA Options again choose the
Client-Server tab.
As the dialog says, some of the sections configure the server, some the client, and some configure
both. The parameters that configure the client are:
 Port
Communication happens between the client and the server using a designated port number.
You can choose any port number you would like. The port selected for the server and client
must match.
 Server IP Address
This can be by using a four part IP address – a.b.c.d – or using a text string that can be
translated into an IP address. Depending upon how you have Windows configured, it may be
possible to use a computer name here.
If your internet access gets assigned an IP address that can change over time you probably
have setup an account with one of the services – like DynDNS.org – that give you the ability
to reference your home network using something like “myhome.HomeDNS.org”.
 Server Connect Time
The number of seconds to allow for a connection to be made to the server
 Server Reply Timeout
The number of seconds to wait for a reply to any request sent to the server
 Periodic messages
The client can periodically send a short message to the server every ‘n’ seconds. Depending
upon the hardware and operating system settings, this may be necessary to keep the server to
client communication connection open over time.
Once you have configured the server and the client, started the server, and loaded your file you can
now connect the client. To do this start HCA and select from the application menu
Connect To
Server
.