The Device menu is used to manage the satellite terminal. The following is a description of each menu item.
Connect to the terminal using either serial, over-the-air, or by a secure shell (ssh). Internet access is required for over-the-air.
Once the connection is made a message is displayed in the status bar. The other Device menu items are enabled and the Connect menu item is disabled. The Connection Status is set to 'connected'. The Connection Port Identifier is set to the PC serial port number or IP address of the terminal or the mobile id depending on whether the connection type is serial, over-the-air, or SSH respectively.
If the Read Device check box is selected then the hardware variant and application version are read from the device. This is useful if you do not know much about the device you are connecting to. However this requires an extra data transfer and is slow for satellite. Expert users will probably uncheck this.
If Serial is selected then a COM port on the PC must be chosen from the drop-down list. That COM port must be connected to the terminal's COM0 (i.e. the RS-232 port).
Click OK and wait until the status bar message indicates that the GUI is waiting. If you want you can also click the Cancel button to break out of the connection request.
If Over-the-Air is selected then logon credentials must be entered. Bentek can provide these to you for any terminals you have purchased.
Click OK after entering the username, password, and address. If these logon credentials are valid then a list of terminals assigned to the user id is displayed in a table. Double click one of them to connect to it. The terminal number and site name, obtained from the server, is displayed on the Info form and in the Status Bar.
If SSH1) is selected then logon credentials must be entered. Bentek can provide these to you for any terminals you have purchased.
Click OK after entering the username, password, and address. The port is usually 22 or 9022. If these logon credentials are valid then a secure shell connection is made to the terminal.
Close the connection to the attached device. The Connect menu item is enabled and all other Device menu items are disabled. The Connection status is set to 'not connected'. The status bar Terminal # and Connection Port Identifier fields are cleared. The Info form Terminal # and Site Name fields are cleared.
Request the device to do a soft reset. Only the software framework is restarted so this takes less time than a full reset. The terminal is then disconnected with the same action as the Disconnect menu item.
Request the device to do a hard reset. This is equivalent to cycling the power on the terminal. The terminal is then disconnected with the same action as the Disconnect menu item.
A test of connectivity can be requested that sends brief messages to the server which then sends a response back to the terminal.
| Start | Starts the ping. The spinner has a count of the number of ping messages to be sent to the server. In the range 1 to 10. Allow 30 seconds per message. |
| Stop | Stops the ping. Return ping count and last ping time are set to blank. |
| Returns | Updates the ping count and last ping time. The ping count has received count followed by the send count in one string (i.e. 2 of 5). |
| Last Ping | Date and time the Ping button was last clicked. |
Get the configuration from the server or verify, read, write, and initialize the configuration stored in the terminal's memory.
It is good practice so use File > Save to retain the configuration in a file before using Config > Write or Config > Init. Always keep production configuration parameters in a file for safekeeping.
The most recent configuration read over the air can be obtained from the server database using Config > Get. The Get function is only available when connected over the air.