Proxim ORiNOCO AP-2500 - Manual (Page 122)

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Public Space Parameters
NOTE
If you want the AP to send copies of credit card transactions to a mirroring server, see Credit Card Mirroring
for instructions.
Credit Card Mirroring
The AP-2500 can send copies of credit card transaction billing records to external servers that are defined in the
Subscriber > Billing > Mirroring screen. Also, if the primary and secondary servers are down, the AP-2500 can store
up to 2,000 credit card transaction records and send the information to the server when the connection is
re-established.
You can define up to three billing servers to which the AP will send billing records: a primary server (required), a
secondary server (optional), and a carbon copy server (to create a back-up copy of billing records). The AP attempts to
send billing records to the primary server first. If the primary server fails to acknowledge the record, the AP attempts to
send the record to the secondary server (based on the Retransmit Method setting). The AP also sends records to the
carbon copy server immediately after processing; however, the AP does not wait for an acknowledgment from the
carbon copy server (that is, the AP never attempts to retransmit messages sent to the carbon copy server).
When there is a billing record in the message queue, the AP performs the following tasks:
1. Stores the billing record in its flash memory.
2. Creates an XML packet, based on the new billing record.
3. Sends the billing record to the carbon copy server.
4. Transmits the data currently stored in the flash to the primary or secondary server based on the specified
retransmission method (round robin: A-B-A-B or fail-over: A-A-B-B).
The system stores the billing record in its flash so that the record is not lost if there is a problem during transmission
attempts (such as, the AP is powered down unexpectedly).
NOTE
Billing records are sent to the carbon copy server only after the records are place in the message queue.
Carbon copy servers will not receive the records again even if the AP has to retransmit the data to the primary
or secondary server.
Bill Mirroring Server
The AP sends the XML strings that contain the billing information to a specified server’s IP address on the specified
port. You need a software program installed on your server that will listen for packets from the AP on the specified port.
Proxim provides a sample Bill Mirror Server Daemon in the CD’s Docs/samples/ folder. This program is provided for
illustration and testing purposes only. It translates the AP’s XML strings into plain text. Proxim provides no guarantee
that this program will function error-free.
Follow these steps to install the sample bill mirroring software:
1. Copy sample_bill_mirroring_server.zip from the CD’s Docs/samples/ folder to a Windows 2000 server.
2. Extract the five files from the ZIP file to a folder on the Windows 2000 server.
• Among the files are three *.BAT files. These batch files launch the bill mirror daemon.
• Primary_4444.bat: This file is for the primary server. It configures the program to listen on port 4444.
• Secondary_4445.bat: This file is for the secondary server. It configures the program to listen on port 4445.
• CC1_4446.bat: This file is for the carbon copy server. It configures the program to listen on port 4446.
• You can change the port number by editing the contents of a batch file with a text editor.
3. Execute one of the three batch files to launch the bill mirror daemon so that it listens on the specified port.
• For example, executing Primary_4444.bat will launch the program and it will listen for packets from the AP on
port 4444.
4. Configure the AP’s Bill Mirroring settings.
• The server IP address and port parameters must match the server’s settings.
• For example, if you executed Primary_4444.bat, configure the Primary Server IP Address to match the IP
address of your Windows 2000 server and set Port to 4444.
5. The AP should now send copies of credit card transactions to the configured servers running the sample bill
mirroring software. The server saves these transactions to two log file: raw.txt (contains full XML strings) and log.txt
(contains only the incoming data from the AP). See
XML Packet Format for details.