Hi all. I'm not certain this is the correct forum in which to post this but here goes.
Ever since we moved to the Nscan system we've had issues off and on with random scanners connecting, updating their profiles and apparently being ready to scan tickets, and then when a ticket is scanned a message pops up saying "Could not connect to server". It's very bizarre behavior. Sometimes going out of the Nscan software and back in will fix the problem. Sometimes a reboot of the scanner will fix it. However, there are times when neither of these will work and the scanner is worthless that night. Again, this happens randomly among the scanners. It's not always scanner 1 or 2, for instance.
I'm just wondering if anyone else who is using Nscan has seen this issue, and if so have you resolved it?
I have done extensive testing on this issue and have figured out why we were getting the intermittent "Count not connect to server" issue. This error is definitely related to WiFi connectivity issues.
Our issue was twofold: We have 2 access points in our lobby area where scanners are being used. When the scanners would switch ("roam") between access points there was a brief period when the scanner had no WiFi connectivity. Once the scanner finally switched to the other access point all was well. The scanners also have a setting to force it to connect to a specific access point. This can be helpful in some deployments.
The issue that caused the most frequent connectivity problems for us was the power saving setting on the scanner itself. There are 3 power settings on the Motorola scanners: CAM, Fast, Max. In both the Fast and Max settings the scanners will shut down the WiFi after a period of inactivity to save battery. Fast mode is about 5-7 minutes and Max is less than that. When you scan a ticket after a period of inactivity, the WiFi doesn't turn back on fast enough before you get the dreaded error "Could not connect to server." If you scan the ticket a second time all is well because enough time has now passed for the WiFi to be reactivated.
I switched our scanners to CAM (constant active mode.) This does shorten battery life slightly but keeps WiFi active continuously. We only need about 2 hours of operation on battery so this setting change works for us.
Have not received a single error since making this change.