24im Server. Enterprise Instant Messaging & Collaboration

Transcription

1 24im Server Enterprise Instant Messaging & Collaboration This document is prepared for 24im Enterprise Server, 24im Basic Server and 24im.com hosting services. User s Guide 24im LLC 24im LLC reserves the right to make improvements to the software described in this manual without notice. Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on part of 24im LLC im LLC. All Rights Reserved.

2 Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction Welcome System Requirements What 24im Messenger Can Do for You im Server Editions Installing 24im Server Starting 24im Server Uninstalling 24im Server Technical Support Enterprise Edition License Key... 7 Chapter 2. Server Settings Server Interface Server Run Settings Firewall Settings System Option Settings Display and Deliver Log...17 Chapter 3. User Accounts and User Roles User Accounts Dual Sign-In System User Page Privilege and Active Directory Pages User Roles/Titles and Privileges User Access Control Assign Users to a Role Server Installation and Porting Active Directory Strategy Active Directory in Action Step by Step Active Directory Single-Sign-On Process Import User Accounts User Account Maintenance...29 Chapter 4. Control 24im Client Interface Set 24im Client Interface Remotely for a User Set 24im Client Interface Remotely for a User Role Lock Down 24im Client Interface Settings...31 Chapter 5. Workgroups, Departments and Chat Rooms Workgroups Departments Chat Rooms...34 Chapter 6. 24im Admin Launch 24im Admin Connect to Your Corporate 24im Server Connect to Your 24im Group Server Change System Administrator Password im Admin Functionality...37 Chapter 7. Running 24im as a Service Introduction Install and Uninstall 24im Service...39 Chapter 8. Automatic Upgrade Server Introduction Deploy a New Version on Your Network Launch IMUS Shutdown IMUS

3 8.5 Tips...42 Chapter 9. Backup Server Chapter 10. Running 24im Server on Private LAN Chapter 11. I-mail Viewer Chapter 12. Live Chat on 24im What is Live Chat? Server Side Setup Client Side Setup...47 Chapter 13. Moving 24im Server

4 Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Welcome Welcome to 24im Server and 24im Hosting Services! 24im Server is the hub that handles all 24im client connections, messaging, file transfers and other collaboration activities. is the hosting services that support group based 24im servers. 24im group account setup is available at System Requirements 24im Server requires one of the following Windows operating systems on your computer: Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Please note that you don t have to run 24im Server on a server operating system (2003 or 2008 Server). A workstation can be used to host 24im Server. The total hard drive space needed for installation is 20MB. More space is needed for data storage. 1.3 What 24im Messenger Can Do for You When 24im Server is up and running, users can perform the following tasks by using 24im Messenger connecting to the server: Instant Messaging Public messaging Department messaging Workgroup messaging Private messaging Chat Rooms Public chat rooms Department chat rooms Workgroup chat rooms Private chat rooms Broadcasting Broadcast low priority popup messages Broadcast urgent popup messages 4

5 Internal Mail (i-mail) Send i-mail to public Send i-mail to departments Send i-mail to workgroups Send i-mail to co-workers Forward i-mail to File Sharing Public file sharing Department file sharing Workgroup file sharing File Transfer Send files and screen shots in offline mode Send files and screen shots via online chat Local Screen Capture Full Screen Capture Window Capture Region Capture Permission Based Remote Capture Capture a remote co-worker s screen Capture a remote co-worker s window Additional Features: Project management system Scrolling ticker system im Server Editions 24im Server is released in two editions: Basic Edition and Enterprise Edition. See the comparison chart below for features available in each edition. Basic Edition Enterprise Edition Messenger Functions Emoticon Active Directory Single Sign On Unicode Support Broadcasting File Transfer, File Sharing Project Management Client Local Screen Capture Permission Based Remote Capture Image Save, Print and Copy Chat Message Encryption Internal Mail (I-mail) Encryption Notice Message Encryption 5

6 Forwarding I-mail to Server Event Log Server I-mail Log Server Notice Log Server Private Chat Log Server Chat Room Log Server Data Storage Mobility Run Server as an NT Service Local/Remote Administrator Software Automatic Upgrade Server (IMUS) 1.5 Installing 24im Server 1. Start Windows. Close all running applications. 2. Insert the 24im Messenger CD into your CD-ROM drive. 3. If the Setup program doesn't get loaded automatically, click the Start button, choose the Run command, type d:\setup and then click OK. If the CD-ROM is not on D: drive, use the other drive letter. If you received 24im Server from one of the 24im download sites, follow instructions on the web site to install 24im Server. 1.6 Starting 24im Server The 24im Server icon should already be on your desktop when the installation is completed. Double-click the icon to start 24im Server. If you have already deleted the 24im Server icon: 1. Click the Start button. 2. Choose the Programs item. 3. Choose the 24im submenu. 4. Choose the 24im Server application. 1.7 Uninstalling 24im Server To uninstall 24im Server: 1. Launch Windows Control Panel. 2. Launch Add or Remove Programs. 3. Look for 24im (Remove Only) and click Change/Remove button to remove it. 6

7 1.8 Technical Support For support options, contact or visit for information about support packages. 1.9 Enterprise Edition License Key To enable the Enterprise Edition, enter your license key in the About 24im Server dialog box. License keys can be purchased at 7

8 Chapter 2. Server Settings 2.1 Server Interface The server interface is made up of two components besides the standard menu bar, toolbar and status bar: the Online User List and the Log Window. The Online User List contains all online users, sign-in times, user types and connection types. Double-clicking a user item will open its account record. Right clicking the log window pops up a menu. You can print logs by choosing the Print command. The Log Window can be disabled or closed for server efficiency. The server can be running in the system tray as an icon. 2.2 Server Run Settings Server Run Settings include how you want to start your server and where you want to save your server data. 8

9 2.2.1 Start You need to specify a port number for 24im Server. The default port number is If this port number doesn t conflict with any currently running applications or services, we recommend you to use this port number. The 24im Messenger client program uses this default port number as well. If you decide to use a different port number, all client programs should be reset to use the same new port number. If there is more than one IP address on the computer where 24im Server is run, select the one you would like your clients to connect to the server. The Response Settings allows you to adjust 24im Server response times. If your server hardware is slow or if your server hosts other mission critical applications as well that require large amount of server resources, you may need to lower your 24im Server response times. Encryption is available in the Enterprise Edition only im Server Data Storage and Backup When you initially set up the server, all server side databases, event logs, chat logs and uploaded files are saved to a default data folder on your C: drive. Open the Server Run Settings page to see where this folder is. When you need to check a log file, you need to come to this folder to find it. Since this folder handles i- mail storage and all uploaded files as well, it may require a very large storage space to do so, which may not fit in your enterprise server management requirements if your IT Department wants to maintain a clean C: drive with less active data updates. You can specify where the data storage folder you want the server to work in. This will give you the flexibility to store all data to a backup enabled drive or the drive you want nothing else but the 24im Server data for an easy-to-manage solution. To select a drive or a folder, simply press the Change Folder button and make your selection. Warning: please back up your data periodically to external media. If your 24im Server can not be launched correctly, chances are that your server databases may have been damaged due to various reasons. Restoring data can solve many data loss related issues. 2.3 Firewall Settings 9

10 In order to allow 24im clients to connect to your 24im Server from outside of your firewall, you need to open certain ports on your firewall settings im Server Port As mentioned in the previous section, 24im Server runs on port by default. So you must open to let external connections to come through if you allow users to connect to this server from Internet outside of your firewall. If you wish to choose a different port, you would need to open that port as well im Upgrade Server Port 24im Upgrade Server, presented in Chapter 8, uses port as default. If you need to deploy the upgrade server to let your 24im clients perform auto upgrade, you need to open System Option Settings Press the System Options command button to open the System Options property sheet Display Names User names are listed on the Online and Offline panels of the 24im Messenger client. When a user signs in, his/her name is listed on the Online Panel. You need to select a name display method for the entire system. The name display method is also used in all server logs to identify a user in various activities. By default, the server uses First Name Only of the User Real Name for display User Photos You can turn on/off the user photo system. If the photo system is on, you should decide whether or not to allow users to upload photos themselves. 10

11 You can use the 24im Admin program to change a user s photo Status Management There are six standard online status users may choose to indicate their current status: Available to Chat Away from Computer Busy Can t Chat Hidden from View Out of Office Available to Chat doesn t have a special status display on the online directory to the right of a user s name. Away from Computer, Busy, Can t Chat and Out of Office all have an explicit display positioned to the right of a user s name. Hidden from View allows a user to see all other online users; however, the user s name is not listed on the online directory. The user appears as though offline. Although a user with Hidden from View status can 11

12 initiate chat with others, the opposite is not true. Disable this status if you think this may cause problems for your environment. You can set status management options in the Status page. You can turn on/off the Hidden from View in particular; you can also turn off all status changes so that when a user is online, he/she has only one online status. Enable Auto-Away will trigger a client computer automatically display Away from Computer status when the user has not touched his computer for a period of time that can be set on 24im Messenger client. Allow Users to Use Custom Status will give users options to add additional status if they need to express themselves using custom status other than standard status. Up to 10 custom statuses can be added on the client side. You can change the standard status provided by default in any language Chat Settings Chat settings control chat features. You can enable or disable private chat, sending files via chat and using emoticons. 12

13 For privacy protection, you may consider disabling typing status notice features Broadcast Settings 24im Server allows users to send popup messages by default. A popup message is a short message sent by privileged users. It is displayed in a standalone small window on a recipient s desktop. It will not go away until the recipient closes it. Since users can send a popup message to more than one user, this feature is also called broadcasting. You can disable broadcasting or just disable urgent message broadcasting if it interferes with certain mission critical applications I-Mail Policy Settings 24im Messenger comes with an internal system. It is called i-mail. As the name implies, i-mail messages can be sent and received only among the users who have an account on the 24im Server. There are several settings you can change for i-mail. 13

14 If you allow users to forward received i-mail to their address, you must set up a server forwarding account. Press the Set server forwarding account button to open the settings dialog box. The screen shot below is an example of such a setup. Different from public system, all I-mail attachment files are stored on the server so that users can open i-mail messages anywhere and download attached files from any client machine. Since attachment files take server storage space and are not easy to manage, you may want to disable the attachment feature Activity Feed Activity Feed is a micro-blogging type of message delivery and display service available on 24im and the desktop version of 24im Messenger Local Access Settings 24im Messenger client program allows users to select a folder to store received files from other users during chat. By default, the received files folder is called My 24im Files under My Document. The screen shot below shows where a user may change this folder. 14

15 For security concerns or any other reasons, you can disable users access to local drives in the Local settings page. If the folder option is disabled, 24im Messenger will always save received files in the default folder. You can disable client side screen capture feature if you don t want users to use that productivity tool Guest Anyone who is not a registered user on your 24im Server is called a guest. If you allow guests to chat with your registered users, you need to enable this feature. Currently, the guest access and service is only available on 24im hosting network. If you d like to support Live Chat on you must turn on the guest access for your group. 15

16 Log Settings Logs settings decide what you want to save to disks for future tracking and auditing. It is useful if your company needs to keep all communications among employees for government compliance requirement or for your own business records. There are five major log features you can enable. Event Log is available in all editions. I-mail Log, Private Chat, Chat Room Log and User Traffic Stats are available in the Enterprise Edition only. 24im Server generates event log files on a daily basis. All files are automatically saved in the EVENT_LOG folder under the 24im Server installation directory or the Data Folder directory you specified. You can search logs using the 24im Admin program Remote Capture Rules 24im Messenger has a feature dubbed Remote Capture. It allows users to capture screens or active windows from a co-worker s computer. You should evaluate this functionality and select a capture rule carefully based on user needs and related corporate privacy policy. 16

17 As clearly indicated in the property page, if you select Do not check permissions as the running mode, all users will be able to capture screens and active windows from a co-worker s computer without any permission. If your users don t have such a need, select Disable Remote Capture System to turn it off completely Enable Applications 2.5 Display and Deliver Log Press the Log Display Settings command button to open the Log Display Settings property sheet. 17

18 2.5.1 Enable and Deliver Log If you don t want any 24im Admin including the System Administrator to receive event log or chat log, you can turn off this feature. With this feature on, log is delivered to 24im Admin clients based on their privilege settings. See User Roles and Privileges in Chapter 3.5 for details Log Display Options The log display format is for Log Window display. You can select background color, timestamp or message colors Timestamp Format The Timestamp format is for Log Window display. 18

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20 Chapter 3. User Accounts and User Roles The User Accounts database is a core directory database maintained on the server side. You can use the User Accounts button on the toolbar to access this database. 3.1 User Accounts When you run the server first time, there is no user account. You need to create user accounts based on your needs. Press the User Accounts button to open the directory database. Press the New button to create a user account. There are two property pages for a user account. 3.2 Dual Sign-In System 24im Server features the dual sign-in system that allows users to sign in to the server by using Active Directory Logon Name and Password and/or by using 24im Native User ID and Password. The advantage of using Active Directory sign-in method is to achieve the goal of Single-Sign-On. If your users are already on your corporate network, Single-Sign-On will allow them to sign in to 24im Server without using a separate set of user ID and password. The advantage of using 24im Native Sign-In method is flexibility. For those who can t log on to your corporate network and for those you don t want to create Active Directory accounts (customer access, temporary guest accounts, etc) using Native Sign-In can be very convenient. Please note that Active Directory Single-Sign-On system is available only if you run 24im Server on Windows 2003 and 2008 Server. 3.3 User Page Suppose the first user you d like to create is Amy Smith. Enter the name and other user information at the upper part of the page. Enter User ID and Password at the lower part of the page. The Screen Name is used for online and directory display if you select the screen name as the name display method. It is optional. 20

21 Press OK button to create the user account. 24im Server will apply default settings to the new account. If you need to change privileges and active directory sign-in info, open the user account again to modify it. The following screen shot shows the first user account in the 24im Server directory. 3.4 Privilege and Active Directory Pages The Privileges page allows you to set what a user can do and can t do. It can also set a user s 24im Messenger interface. Plus, 24im Server can block a user from signing in temporarily. To do so, choose the Access Blocked from the Account Status list. The Active Directory page sets how a user can sign in using the active directory account record. For details, please read Chapter

22 3.5 User Roles/Titles and Privileges There is a flexible User Roles/Titles and Privileges management system on the 24im Server. To create and edit user roles, choose the User Roles & Titles command from the Accounts menu. There is no default user role. You need to create what is needed for privilege management needs. If you don t create user roles and titles, you can assign user privileges one by one or simple give all users all access rights. Here is an example of creating a user role called Standard User. 1. Press the New button after the Role & Title dialog box is open (see screen shot above). 2. Type Standard User as the Role Name. 3. Press Select All buttons to select all privileges. 4. Remove selection check for Run 24im Admin to monitor 24im Server. 5. Press OK button. Whoever is assigned this user role will not be able to launch 24im Admin program to access the 24im Server. If you turn on Run 24im Admin to Monitor 24im Server, this user role will be allowed to run 24im Admin and sign in as an administrator. 22

23 3.6 User Access Control Under the User Access category, you can specify who else this user can see. By default, all users can be seen. If for any reason you want to limit this user s access to other users, select Own department or Selected departments or Selected users. 3.7 Assign Users to a Role There is no limit to the number of roles you can create. Now let us see how to assign a user to a role you defined. Supposed four user roles have been created. To assign multiple users to a role, press the Select Users button. If a user s account record is open, you can assign the user to a role in the property page. For example, assign Amy Smith as a Standard User: 1. Open the account record. 2. Pull down the Role & Title list. 3. Select the Standard User. 4. Press OK button. 23

24 If you don t assign a user to a role, it will be labeled as Not Assigned. You can press the Privileges button to set custom privileges for the user. 3.8 Server Installation and Porting Active Directory Strategy If you want to copy all users from your current Active Directory and enable them as 24im Messenger users, press the Active Directory button. You will see a warning message box. You can turn the warning box off by unchecking the AD Warning check box if you re familiar with Active Directory issues. You need to carefully plan your 24im Server installation and Active Directory support strategy. Practically, 24im Server can be installed on any computer on your network. Since system requirements are low, a regular Windows XP Professional can be used as a 24im Server. However, Active Directory access involves security issues. There is no problem if you install 24im Server on a Domain Controller server AD server or Logon Server; however, 24im Server may not be able to access your Active Directory if the 24im Server is installed on a computer that is not a domain controller. It is a good decision to run 24im Server on a separate computer server so that your domain controller won t be tied up by potential heavy IM traffic. If this is the case, you can install 24im Admin on the Domain Controller and let it sign in to the 24im Server. 24im Server and 24im Admin can communicate with each other and pull user data from Active Directory and put the data into 24im Server. This deployment will give you a designated 24im Server, free up your domain controller and still give you the Single-Sign-On support. No matter how complicated your corporate domain forest is, as long as there is a 24im Admin running on the root, you can get Active Directory data. If you still can t decide what to do with Active Directory support, contact [email protected] to get solutions. 3.9 Active Directory in Action Supposed there are seven users in your Active Directory. They will be listed in the following dialog box after you press the Active Directory button. 24

25 The IM Logon column is the one you need to check or uncheck if you want or don t want a user to sign in to 24im Server. Press the Select All button to check them all. Press OK button after deciding who will be allowed to access 24im Server. The result is shown in the 24im Server directory. As you can see, all Active Directory users have been copied to 24im Server directory. The Sign In Type column indicates which sign-in method a user can use to access 24im Server. The first user Amy can sign in by using Native Sign-In method only. The rest of users can sign in by using Native Sign-In method and Active Directory Single-Sign-On method. If you d like to remove a user s Active Directory Single-Sign-On or Native Sign-In privilege, select the user and press the Properties button. Or you can double-click the user. The user s account record will open. In our example, we ll change Mary s account. We allow Mary to get into 24im Server by Active Directory Single Sign On only. So we remove Mary s User ID. This way, Mary has to logon to the corporate network before using 24im Messenger. Press the OK button when the change is done. 25

26 The 24im Server directory will show that Mary can sign in by using Active Directory only Step by Step Active Directory Single-Sign-On Process If 24im Server can t gather Active Directory data from your server clusters, you can use the following steps to complete user AD single-sign-on: 26

27 3.11 Import User Accounts If you run other applications on the same computer server that hosts 24im Server and export user data from an application to a file, you can import user accounts into 24im Server or change existing user accounts from an output file. The file has to be named as 24im-UserDB-change.xml. It can be located on any drive the server can access. The import data is defined in the following API. The API: All changes must be written in one XML file. Multiple user records can be added, changed or deleted. The import file size must be smaller than 30KB. <user-database> <user> <command>...</command> <user-id>...</user-id> <password>...</password> <first-name>...</first-name> <middle-name>...</middle-name> <last-name>...</last-name> <screen-name>...</screen-name> < >...</ > <work-phone>...</work-phone> <cell-phone>...</cell-phone> <home-phone>...</home-phone> <fax>...</fax> <role>...</role> 27

28 <department>...</department> </user> <user>...</user><user>...</user><user>...</user>... </user-database> Explanations: 1. <command> add = add a new user. <command> change = change an existing user record. <command> delete = delete an existing user record. 2. <user-id> value must be unique. For <command> = add, if an identical <user-id> is found, the command is ignored. For <command> = change or delete, if <user-id> is not found, the command is ignored. 3. For <command> = add, <first-name> and <last-name> are optional; if missing, <user-id> value will be used in the <first-name> field. 4. For <command> = change, the API can be used to change any field. If a tag is missing, IMS will not change that field. For example, if <department> is not present, IMS will keep its value unchanged. If a field needs to be set to NULL, use two double quotes in the tag, for example, <role>""</role> will delete the <role> field from this user's record. 5. All tags are case sensitive. Examples: 1. Adding a user record <user> <command>add</command> <user-id>john</user-id> <password>123456</password> <first-name>john</first-name> <last-name>doe</last-name> <screen-name>joe Doe Hometown Hero</screen-name> <role>agent</role> <department>sales</department> </user> In this example, a new user 'john will be added along with several other fields. 2. Changing a user record <user> <command>change</command> <user-id>luke</user-id> <password>123456</password> </user> In this example, the password of the user 'luke' will be changed. 3. Deleting a user record 28

29 <user> <command>delete</command> <user-id>peter</user-id> </user> In this example, user 'peter' will be deleted. Error Messages Possible error messages are as follows: 1. Loading error. Invalid XML file. 2. Unsupported <command> tag. 3. <user-id> tag is missing. 4. Department name was not found. 5. The User ID is in use by another user. 6. The User ID was not found. 7. The user with this User ID is online. The server can't delete online users. 8. Can't add users. No available client licenses User Account Maintenance Since a user s activities, chat messages and i-mail messages are all logged by the server, you should keep a user s account for as long as needed for corporate records. Do not delete a user s account record even though he/she will no longer use the system. You can use the Access Blocked option to turn off any access to this account. Delete a user account only if your organization no longer needs to track the user s past activities. 29

30 Chapter 4. Control 24im Client Interface You may want your 24im users to use the same interface that you think would make the 24im system easier to manage. 24im Server has a tool built in to control client interface appearances. You can change the interface settings of a 24im client remotely. 4.1 Set 24im Client Interface Remotely for a User Steps to check or change a user s 24im client settings using 24im Server or 24im Admin: 1. Open the user s account property sheet. 2. Select the Privileges tab 3. Press the IMC button Anything you see can be set in this property sheet. New settings will apply when the user signs in to the system next time. 4.2 Set 24im Client Interface Remotely for a User Role If you use the User Role system and want to set 24im client interface for all users of a role, use the following steps: 1. Open the User Roles dialog box 2. Select a role 3. Press the IMC button 30

31 New settings will apply when users sign in next time. 4.3 Lock Down 24im Client Interface Settings Settings for individual users and for user roles can still be changed by users on the client. If you decide to lock down what you have set, you should remove user privileges of changing IMC interface. To remove a user s privilege of changing 24im interface: 1. Open the user s account property sheet. 2. Select the Privileges tab 3. Press the Privileges button 4. Uncheck the Change 24im interface 5. Uncheck the Change start settings 6. Uncheck the Change alter settings 7. Uncheck the Change chat settings 31

32 You can lock down the IMC interface for all users of a role: 1. Open the User Roles dialog box 2. Select a role 3. Press the Privileges button 4. Uncheck the Change 24im interface 5. Uncheck the Change start settings 6. Uncheck the Change alter settings 7. Uncheck the Change chat settings Not everything on the client interface can be locked. Basically, all messaging and operations related options and selections are lockable, while color and font related options are not lockable. This is because client computers may not have various installed fonts, and users may have different viewing accessibility preferences. 32

33 Chapter 5. Workgroups, Departments and Chat Rooms Workgroups, Departments, and Chat Rooms are three additional databases maintained on the server side. You can use command buttons on the toolbar to access those databases. 5.1 Workgroups Workgroups can be created on the server side by administrators or created on the client side by a user if the user has privileges of creating workgroups. To create a workgroup, press the Workgroups button on the toolbar. Press the New command button inside of the Workgroups list box to open Workgroup Properties dialog box. If you d like to create a workgroup called Security Forum, type the name and then assign users to the workgroup. A workgroup has its own Online Users list, Directory, Files folder and Chat Rooms. The screen shot below lists two workgroups. One of them is created on the client side. Administrators have privileges to delete workgroups created by any user. Deleting workgroups will not affect server logs. 5.2 Departments A department is a logical unit used by your organization to organize the entire workforce based on each user s job category. A department object is created and maintained by administrators on the server. A user can be assigned to multiple departments. 33

34 To create a department, press the Departments button on the Toolbar and then choose the New button. The sample shot below shows 7 departments. If you want to list all unassigned users under Not Assigned department, select the check box at the bottom of the dialog box. 5.3 Chat Rooms Chat rooms can be created on the server side by administrators or created on the client side by a user if the user has privileges of creating chat rooms. However, administrators can create public chat rooms only. Workgroup chat rooms and private chat rooms have to be created by a user on the client side. To create a public chat room, press the Chat Rooms button on the toolbar. Press the New command button inside of the Chat Rooms list dialog box. The Chat Room Properties dialog box is open. If you d like to create a chat room called Corporate Computing, type the name and then press the OK button. 34

35 Your can type an announcement message for this chat room. This message will be displayed when a user enters the chat room. You can also assign administrators to the chat room. A special icon will be displayed in front of the chat room administrators for users to recognize them. Administrators can remove a user from a chat room. Assume that a user named Becky has already created four chat rooms under her account and the new chat room Corporate Computing has been created successfully. The screen shot below lists all five chat rooms in the Chat Rooms list dialog box. Administrators have privileges to delete chat rooms created by any user. Deleting chat rooms will not affect server logs. 35

36 Chapter 6. 24im Admin The 24im Admin program can access to your corporate 24im Server and your 24im.com Group Server. A user can launch the 24im Admin program and access to the server if the user has privileges of running 24im Admin. 6.1 Launch 24im Admin Double click the 24im Admin desktop icon to run it. 6.2 Connect to Your Corporate 24im Server Click the Sign In button to start the sign-in process. If you have not set up the connection settings for your 24im Server, set it up in the following dialog box. You can enter connection settings for multiple servers and choose one when you connect. If you sign in to your own account, the User ID field should be your User ID. You can also sign in as the System Administrator: 6.3 Connect to Your 24im Group Server 36

37 If you have a group account on you can access to your group server using the 24im Admin. If you don t have a group account and wish to set up one, please visit Change System Administrator Password Only one person can sign in as the System Administrator at any time. For the 24im Server Enterprise Edition and the 24im Server Basic Edition, no password has been assigned by default. For the 24im Group account, a pre-assigned password has been ed to your registration address. You should change the password immediately to prevent unauthorized access to your 24im Server. To change System Administrator password: Different from a regular user with the administrator status, the System Administrator can change a user s status to an administrator and change an administrator s privileges im Admin Functionality 24im Admin has the same look and feel as the 24im Server interface window. 37

38 You can remotely control and monitor multiple 24im Servers by running multiple 24im Admin. Here is a list of what you can do with the 24im Admin software: 1. Create, change and delete users. 2. Create, change and delete user roles. 3. Set user privileges. 4. Disconnect users. 5. Create, change and delete workgroups, departments and chat rooms. 6. Change 24im Server system options. 7. Change 24im Server log settings. 8. Receiving all 24im Server event logs and chat logs so that you know what s going on with the 24im Server even though you are not on the server machine. 9. Remotely change and lock 24im Messenger client interface options of any user registered on your 24im Server. Check 24im Server usage statistics: 38

39 Chapter 7. Running 24im as a Service 7.1 Introduction 24im Server can be running as a desktop application or as a Service. As you can see in previous chapters, running 24im Server as a desktop application gives you intuitive interface. You can easily perform user maintenance work and view server log. However, the drawback is that if you need to log off your server computer, your 24im Server has to be turned off; as a result, all connected users will lose connections to the server. 24im Server is capable of running as a Service. The benefit is that the server will be started when your computer is turned on even before you log on to the operating system. When you log off, the 24im Server can continue to run. 7.2 Install and Uninstall 24im Service To install 24im Service, choose the Install Service command from the System menu. To uninstall the service, choose the Uninstall Service command from the same menu. Install Service command will install the service in the Service Control Manager of the Windows operating system. If this command failed and couldn t install 24im Service, your login account might not have enough privileges to install services. The solution is to run 24im Server as Administrator and then try the Install Service command again. Before you run the service, you need to exit from the desktop version of the 24im Server by right clicking the tray icon and choosing the Exit command. 39

40 To run 24im Service: 1. Open the Control Panel. 2. Open Administrative Tools. 3. Open the Services. 4. Right-click the 24im Service and choose the Start command. From now on, 24im Service will automatically run whenever you start your server computer. It continues to run even you log off the server computer. Since 24im Service runs itself completely in the background, you need to use 24im Admin to do regular user accounts maintenance and view server logs. 40

41 Chapter 8. Automatic Upgrade Server 8.1 Introduction The 24im Server comes with IMUS (24im Upgrade Server). It is installed to your server directory named as IMUS.EXE. It is licensed as part of your 24im Server. Its purpose is to reduce IT staff workload when installing a new release. No special installation is needed. IMUS is installed together with 24im Server automatically with each new release. 8.2 Deploy a New Version on Your Network No matter how many users are using 24im Messenger on your network, you actually need to do installation only once on your server. Here are proper ways to deploy a new version: 1. Broadcast a message to Public so that all online users know that you are going to take down the server. 2. Disconnect all users by launching the command from 24im Admin or 24im Server. This step is necessary if there are many online users currently connected to the server. IMCs will not automatically reconnect to the server upon receiving this command. Without this step, all IMCs will try to connect to the server at the same time when you launch the new server. As a result, their online status may not be broadcast to the network properly. 3. Stop the server. If you are running your 24im Server as a desktop application, choose the Stop command from the System menu. If you are running 24im Service, you need to stop it from the Service console (see Chapter 7). 4. Exit the server. 5. Download the new release from 24im website If you are running the Enterprise Edition, you need to contact [email protected] to obtain the proper download file. For customers who have current maintenance plan, the upgrade links are ed to the registered technical contact. 6. Run installation on your server computer. 41

42 7. Run the new 24im Server from the desktop icon as an application or as a service (see Chapter 7). 8. Launch IMUS. See the next section. 8.3 Launch IMUS If you are running 24im Service, IMUS is launched automatically as a service whenever 24im Service is started. If you are running 24im Server as a desktop application, you can launch IMUS from the Start menu. The 24im Upgrade Server command is available from the 24im submenu of the Program Files. When you see the IMUS interface, press the Start button to run the server. 8.4 Shutdown IMUS Since IMUS does only one thing - helping you upgrade all your 24im clients, you can shutdown IMUS safely if you know all your clients have already installed the new version delivered by IMUS. 24im Server and 24im Admin both have an online user list. The last column of the online list is the IMC version number. To shutdown IMUS, right-click the IMUS tray icon to open its menu: Choose the Exit command to terminate IMUS. 8.5 Tips Don t change the directory of IMUS.EXE. Don t touch any file under the 24im Server directory. Changing or removing any file may cause IMUS to fail. If there is any 24im client that can t be upgraded automatically, use the download version available at to upgrade it manually. If you have any technical questions, please contact [email protected]. 42

43 Chapter 9. 24im Backup Server The 24im Server comes with IMBS (24im Backup Server). It is installed to your server directory named as IMBS.EXE. It is licensed as part of your 24im Server. Its purpose is to copy all of 24im user accounts, chat logs, i-mail, files and server settings from the current 24im Server data directory to a backup directory you specify on a daily basis. No special installation is needed. IMBS is installed together with 24im Server automatically with each new release. 24im Backup Server is launched by 24im Services. To set up 24im Backup Server, choose the Backup Server command from the System menu on 24im Admin or on 24im Server. 24im Backup Server is easy to set up. All you need to consider is your backup directory, backup time and whether you want to keep multiple copies of your 24im data. If you don t want to run 24im Backup Server, select Don t Run Backup option that is the default selection when you install 24im Server. 43

44 Chapter 10. Running 24im Server on Private LAN If you deploy your 24im Server with a publicly accessible IP address, you are all set. No need to read this chapter. However, if your 24im Server is on a private LAN behind a NAT-enabled router, your 24im Server will be on a private IP address (e.g ) that can t be reached by public machines on the Internet. If you want your users to connect to your 24im Server in this type of environment, you need to have a static IP address and then use the Port Forwarding technique to forward 24im traffic from the router to the computer that hosts your 24im Server. Port forwarding is the act of forwarding a network port from one network node to another. This technique can allow an external user to reach a port on a private IP address inside a LAN from the outside via a NATenabled router. NAT routers support port forwarding. The screen shot below shows an example of NETGEAR router port forwarding settings. There are two 24im servers running one on on port number and the other on on port If a 24im client is configured to connect to port 10883, the NAT router will direct all IMC connection requests to the computer on However, port forwarding is NOT the only method used by router manufacturers in allowing public to access to a computer behind a router. For example, 2WIRE routers use Address Allocation Settings to map a static IP to a DHCP IP address. 44

45 Clearly, different routers have different methods to do the job. Contact your router manufacturer for details. If you need any help on port forwarding in order to support users to reach your private LAN, please feel free to contact 24im Support at 45

46 Chapter 11. I-mail Viewer The I-mail Viewer is a utility program that can open stored i-mail files on the 24im Server for review and print. It is a server side tool and is installed in the 24im Server directory. Please note that the I-mail Viewer doesn t need a sign-in process to access to stored i-mail files because it is a server side tool. Users who want to use this tool must be able to access to the server computer in the first place. If you don t feel secure, you can remove IMVIEWER.EXE from your 24im Server directory. It is safe to delete this file without affecting your 24im Server operations. If your organization doesn t need i-mail message audit, you should turn off i-mail logging in the System Options settings. To run the I-mail Viewer, choose the 24im I-mail Viewer command from the 24im submenu of the Program Files: Use the Open command to open an i-mail file. The 24im Server stores all i-mail files in the MAIL_LOG folder of the server data directory. You can also double click an i-mail filename with IMM or IMN file extension to open the file. 46

47 Chapter 12. Live Chat on 24im 12.1 What is Live Chat? The Live Chat is a feature that allows visitors on your web site to chat with your customer service representatives on the spot. Visitors don t need to download any software. The chat is on the web. The advantage is obvious: if your web visitors have any questions, they can communicate with your staff right away without leaving your site. The live chat is considered as an important sales and customer support tool. This feature is currently available for 24im Group Servers on 24im.com only Server Side Setup Steps to use Live Chat on 24im: 1. Sign up a group account at 2. Create a department that you want to use to support live chat. 3. Create user accounts and assign them to this department. 4. Enable the department with live chat support. By default, 24im group creation process has created six departments for you. Among them, the Customer Service department is enabled with the Live Chat feature. To turn on/off the Live Chat for a department: 1. Select the department. 2. Press the Live Chat button to turn it on. 3. Press the button again to turn it off. The Live Chat link is the one you need to publish on your website. That s the only change you need to make on your website. Do not copy the above example. Make sure use your own group account ID. For example, if your 24im group ID is MyGroupID, the department directory ID is 1, the link will be: For more info, visit for details Client Side Setup 47

48 Anyone who is in a live chat enabled department will see a status label next to his/her name Live Chat On. There is no limit how many users can be in that department. The 24im live chat engine will use a round-robin method to find next available user in the live chat department. If a user can t handle a live chat for any reason, change the online status to Busy, Away from Computer or any other status. The 24im server sends visitors to users with Live Chat On status only. The client side settings are simple. You can type a greeting that visitors will see when they click the Live Chat link. You can use a screen name instead of your real name. 48

49 Chapter 13. Moving 24im Server If you want to run 24im Server on a new computer server and copy all existing data to that server, execute the following steps: 1. If your 24im Server is running as a service, stop 24im Service inside Administrative Tools->Services. 2. Double click the 24im Server icon on your desktop to run it as a desktop application. 3. Choose Server Run Settings command from the System menu. 4. Check where your 24im Server data is stored. 5. Install 24im Server on your new computer server. 6. Check where your 24im Server data folder is on your new computer server. Note: 24im Server may assign a default data folder based on your Windows OS version, which may be different than your current 24im Server data folder. 7. Copy all sub-folders and files from your current 24im Server data folder to your new 24im Server data folder. 8. Launch your new 24im Server. All your user accounts, logs and files should be loaded into that new server. 49