Hello! I've just been asked to look into what it would take to be able to scan our tickets at a concert we're presenting outdoors about 10 miles away.. is that even possible? There will be a reserved section and also a paid general admission section. I just can't imagine it... temporary server?? Through the internet somehow?
I imagine there are venues using NScan at more than one sight... how is that normally done?
We also now have other indoor venues that are a distance from the home server that we would like to scan tickets for..
Thanks.
Excellent information – thank you! I may be asking for more help or clarification as this gets to be a reality, or if it gets to be a reality. I’m not sure what type of connectivity we can get at the park but I guess we’ll have to find out.
Sheila
From: David Judd [mailto:bounce-davidjudd6242@tessituranetwork.com] Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 9:40 AM To: Sheila Crossman Subject: Re: [N-Scan] Offsite Scanning
As long as you can get access to a wireless internet site, it is possible to do. You have to do the following:
This should work. The only other thing you might need to do as part of the setup is open up your firewall to allow traffic to the N-Scan Web Service from the remote locations IP address range. This will secure the service to only allow traffic from the location you are working.
The key for any remote location where you want live scanning is the internet access. As long as you can get to the web, you can scan tickets. Theoretically, you could scan an event half way around the world as long as the response time was fast enough.
From: Sheila Crossman <bounce-sheilacrossman3944@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 5/5/2010 1:43:34 PM
Hi David Judd,
I note the solution above for scanning on an external network is 10 years old.
Does this still stand as the best approach for this?
Many thanks,
Wow - you dug up a really old one. I think this is still basically the same if you are self hosting. Again, the issue has to do with your firewall, what traffic you allow in or not, and how you setup the web service. As long as the scanner can get to the web service, you can scan from anywhere. Having a CNAME record with a friendly name just makes the setup a bit easier in the scanner rather than having to type in an IP address.
If you are a RAMP client, this won't work as they restrict IP's from which traffic can originate. For this situation at small venues (I'm at a client now using RAMP, not at Tessitura), I'm using a Meraki Z1 AP that concentrates traffic back to my office network through a VPN. That way, the scans look like the are originating from my office IP, which is whitelisted at RAMP. All I have to do is plug in my Z1 to the internet connection at my remote venue(s). You could do something similar as long as you can plug your own AP and the venue can be managed by a single AP. If it is a really big venue, then things get a little harder, but can still be done. In my case, my main venue is very large but not owned by us. There I have a Meraki MX80 security appliance, which also tunnels by VPN back to my office network (also a MX80) so that the scans still look like they come from my office network. Technically, at my main venue, I don't need to do this as they do have a fixed IP. But for remote printing of tickets, this is the easiest setup (my box office can send tickets to a BOCA at the venue). The venue just allows me to plug in my MX80 directly into their internet router. From there, I add my AP's around as needed so I have a separate WIFI network from the venue's network. My smaller venues typically don't have fixed IP's. Since I can't be updating the white lists at RAMP in time for scanning, the Z1 works just fine for these situations. You could do something similar even with your local network, which would avoid the need for a public facing IP or DNS name for your N-Scan Web service. You could just rely on the VPN tunneling to get into your office network.
Just a few options to consider.