User`s manual

NexSens Technology, Inc.
iSIC User‟s Manual 82
3.8 What an IT Administrator Needs to Know
For most, if not all networks and computers, there should not be any problems running NexSens
software or hardware. NexSens uses ports and protocols that are generally NOT considered to be
a security risk.
For iChart software:
iChart software is the main software tool used to communicate with data loggers and
sensors. For a computer to use iChart software the user must have write access to:
C:\Program Files\NexSens\
Which is the default install folder. Additionally, when registered (the software comes with
a FREE 30 day trial) the user must have Administrator writes to the computer as the
registration information is stored in the Windows registry.
For Windows Vista, iChart software must be run with the “Run as an Administrator”
option selected.
For WQData posting:
WQData is a web datacenter hosted on NexSens Technology servers. For iChart to be
able to post data to WQData.com it must be able to FTP files to ftp.wqdata.com on port
21 and navigate to a URL on www.wqdata.com port 80.
iChart software uses active ftp to post environmental data to the WQData web data
center.
In active ftp, the server (ftp.wqdata.com) always communicates on port 21 for
command and port 20 for data. The client (iChart), however can decide to send data
in any port higher than 1023. The client tells the server which port it wants to send
data (PORT command). The server then initiate data request to the client on this
port to obtain data when it gets the client request to upload file.
Client: send PORT d command
Server: acknowledge and remember port d
Client: send PUT file command
Server: initiate data transfer to client on port d
The client firewall at this point blocks incoming traffic from the server on port d since
it is initiated from the outside.
For WQData posting to work, the client firewall need to allow incoming traffic from
nexsensdatacenter.com on all port d that is > 1023.
Currently, iChart uses the Microsoft Windows build-in INET library for ftping. INET
sends PORT d command automatically picking an unprivileged port 1024 or higher.
The ftp log file shows that this port changes each time at random.
For additional information, please contact NexSens technical support.