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?
We have the same problem. And the fixes you mention work/don’t work in the same manner. It does not happen all the time, just randomly it seems. And not too often to pose what I’ll call a serious problem since we have a couple extras on stand-by to swap in just in case. If there is a definitive reason for this, I am happy to test out the fix!!
…Dave
From: Tessitura Technical Forum [mailto:forums-technical@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jon Harrison Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 3:19 PM To: Vivino, David Subject: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Nscan and ticket scanners
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We sometimes see a message “Could not connect to server” and it is because our Wi-FI is not available at the moment in that location.
Sabina
From: Tessitura Technical Forum [mailto:forums-technical@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jon HarrisonSent: Monday, March 04, 2013 12:19 PMTo: Sabina SpilkinSubject: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Nscan and ticket scanners
I contacted the Tessitura guy that helped set this up for us and he did say that it sounded like a wifi issue. What's strange is that the scanners don't indicate there's any issue with the wifi. The scanner bars are full or almost full and other scanners right there are working fine. It's so confusing but it's good to know that others experience the same problem. So neither of you have worked out a permanent fix or solution to this issue?
ok, I have battled the scanners in our venues for a year when we moved into our new space and I finally got them working correctly and very reliable. The infamous "cannot connect to server" was killing me. Every time I was scanning tickets it would work fine and the minute I would walk away the message would appear for an usher. There was no common factor when the message would appear. This is how we fixed the issue:
--obviously check the overlap of the AP's (should overlap 50%) and make sure they are on a stable pipe (this was never an issue for us but i thought I should mention it)
--turn off the SSID from broadcasting.
--make sure the security on the AP's is WPA not WPA2 and reconfigure the profile on the scanner to match.
I have not had any issues for 6+ months. I hope this helps you and good luck. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Travis
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It's great to see this conversation, and we'd love to have seen it last year! We have had the same issue, on and off, since last October at least, and have only recently reached a reasonable level of stability.
Unknown said: --obviously check the overlap of the AP's (should overlap 50%) and make sure they are on a stable pipe (this was never an issue for us but i thought I should mention it) --turn off the SSID from broadcasting. --make sure the security on the AP's is WPA not WPA2 and reconfigure the profile on the scanner to match.
We arrived at all three of these solutions as well! In addition, we make sure that there is one wifi channel that scanning uses *exclusively*: this cropped up early on, and we've added language to our contracts for visiting companies spelling out what channels they may/may not use.
We tried many other things as well, though the above are the ideas that were the most useful.
I agree - it's great that we are having this discussion. Maybe the Tessitura folks can chime in if they have any information, but at least it would be good for them to share this information with organizations in future Nscan installations, perhaps make it part of their documentation or something. I'm going to run all of this by my manager and go from there, but finally it looks like we may be able to fix our problems! Yea!!!
If you were wondering what hardware we are currently using here you go.
Hardware:
Access Points
--Meru dual channel AP 150's (7 of them covering all three venues)
Scanners
--Mc 55 (12 of them)
Ah, good information. We use the MC55 and 75A models. We have about 16 55's and 6 75A's. We're using Juniper access points on a Juniper switching network infrastructure.
I have another detail to add from the Guthrie. We also discovered that one of our WAP's was bad. It allowed the scanners to connect to it and worked some of the time. At other times it would send garbage back to the scanners and they would not be able to connect to the server. We installed a new WAP and shut down the bad one. Things have been stable since then. I agree that it was a VERY frustrating and hair pulling out issue.
We used to have lots of problems with our scanners losing connectivity with the server. What we found that helped significantly, is to install additional wireless access points in our performance venue areas, that are solely dedicated to NScan. On these APs we only allow connections to the MAC addresses of the scanners. By preventing any other connectivity to public devices on those APs, we have seen a tremendous improvement in the reliability of the scanners. We still occasionally have a scanner that we have to reboot, but not nearly as often as before, and usually a quick reboot does the trick. We have learned to have a spare scanner available and ready to use, that we can quickly swap to while the bad scanner reboots…then that bad scanner becomes the spare if there are any other freeze-ups.
I agree that we would have avoided a great deal of stress and turmoil, if the suggestion to use dedicated APs had been included in the initial setup instructions.
Penny Tabor
IT Manager
Midland Center for the Arts
Midland, MI 48640
From: Tessitura Technical Forum [mailto:forums-technical@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jon Harrison Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 9:14 AM To: Tabor, Penny Subject: RE: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Nscan and ticket scanners
From: Sabina Spilkin <bounce-sabinaspilkin7252@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 3/4/2013 3:53:13 PM
From: Tessitura Technical Forum [mailto:forums-technical@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jon Harrison Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 12:19 PM To: Sabina Spilkin Subject: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Nscan and ticket scanners
Thanks so much for posting this, Lou! We are experiencing this exact issue, and would like to keep what is left of our hair!
Thank you!!! We are having this issue also. Did you have to change any of the settings on your scanners?
Best,
Laura
Think of it like a cell phone. Tap out of the error message. Move a little and try again. Sometimes it really is the wifi an other times we just have had dead areas in the building. Our seasoned volunteers have gotten to where they will tear tickets if they have a line and then scan after they have a chance to tap out of the error.
Hawana
We arrived at the same solution as Penny.
In our case this was happening in our outdoor venue. We were configured to have the scanners connect to a mobile 4G cellular AP (no wired network connectivity available). The issue would come up as soon as we had a larger number of people who might be carrying WiFi enabled devices enter the scanning area. Even though we were not broadcasting the SSID the endpoint devices would still put pressure on the AP which has to inspect every packet regardless. We discovered by trial and error that configuring the AP's to only allow connections from the MAC address of the scanners virtually eliminated the problem. This allowed the AP's to ignore the MAC addresses of all the cell phones people were carrying and only process packets for the scanners.
Dan
Dan Spees
Director, Information Services
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Hi
This happens to us, when our small foyer gets filled with people. We go through the steps listed below; log out then log in. Sometimes this works, more often not.
At this point we set our scanners to ‘off-line’ mode. Then I upload the scanners data into Tessitura. I hope this link works---it is to the documentation;
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/~/media/Documentation/N-Scan/N-Scan%20Application%20Guide%20v6.ashx
Thank you,
Carol
Carol Ciulla
Box Office Manager
37 Main St. 01966
978.546.7391 x 102
From: Tessitura Technical Forum [mailto:forums-technical@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Hawana Townsley Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 5:37 PM To: Carol Ciulla Subject: Re: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Nscan and ticket scanners
From: Jon Harrison <bounce-jonharrison5102@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 3/4/2013 1:43:13 PM