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Commmon Questions

Try the following steps: 

  1. Be sure you can ping from the client to the server.
    Example: From a Command Prompt: ping "servername"
    or
    ping "IP Address"
    If pinging is not possible all communications may be disabled between the client and server. Ensure that there is a "Trusted Zone" defined in the firewall settings for the connection between the KEY-LOK client and the server.
  2. Configure security settings.
    All firewalls, security software, and routers must be set up to allow klserver.exe and your application (yourapp.exe) to communicate via TCP/IP.
  3. Communications must be allowed via TCP/IP port 4242.
    This is generally allowed if a program has permissions to communicate but it may be necessary to open this port manually on the firewall for both the incoming and outgoing TCP port.

Unblock incoming and outgoing UDP ports.
If you are not using a TCPIPSVR.DAT file to point the client to a specific server, all firewalls, security software, and routers must be set up as unblocked incoming and outgoing UDP ports to allow UDP communications between client and server.

TCP/IP networking allows you to access a dongle mounted on a central dongle server machine from an application running on a remote client via a TCP/IP network.

You can use KL2, KL3, and Fortress keys with our TCP/IP networking solution. We currently have multi-user keys available that will support from 3 to an unlimited number of simultaneous users. You can also access our regular single-user keys over a network, but can only have one user connected to the key at a time.

Our install utility, install.exe, will install all of the necessary software and drivers for either a dongle server or a client.

Use a TCPIPSVR.DAT file on the client.

In order to have an application running on a client machine point to a specific server, place a file named TCPIPSVR.DAT in the \Windows\System32 directory. TCPIPSVR.DAT should be a standard ASCII text file (such as those created by Notepad) and should contain one line with either the full IP address or network name of the server. The placement of the file is architecture dependent. 64-bit OS require placement of this file in either \sysWOW64 or \system32 depending upon the architecture of the application.

You can also use the install utility to create a TCPIPSVR.DAT file. When you install the client software, click the Set Server button. The utility will then allow you to either enter a network name or IP address manually or select the desired dongle server from a list of dongle servers currently active on the network.

In order for your protected application to find the Security Dongle over the network it must either be compiled using Kfunc32MTn or Kfunc32MDn(32-bit)/ Kfunc64MTn or Kfunc64MDn (64-bit) or use the networking DLL (NWKL2_32.DLL(32-bit), NWKL2_64.DLL(64-bit)) These files are compiler dependent and can be found in the sample code for the corresponding compiler.

We strongly recommend that you use the latest version of our installer in order to make sure that you always install the latest versions of our DLLs. Click here to download the latest version of the installer.

Please note that it is strongly recommended on a TCP/IP network that the 'subnet mask' be set the same for both the server and clients. Network 'properties' can be used to acquire the subnet mask. Another method to acquire the subnet mask and other platform related data is to issue the command 'ipconfig -all'.

In some cases it may be possible to communicate across subnets using TCP/IP networking. The details are dependent upon your specific network configuration, so we can not provide specific recommendations concerning how to implement communication across subnets. As a starting point, however, we recommend that you try using a TCPIPSVR.DAT file to point the client to the server.

Check to make sure that klserver.exe is installed in \Windows\System32 (32-bit OS) or \Windows\SysWow64 (64-bit OS) and that it is running as an automatic service.

You can check to make sure that klserver is running by going to Command Prompt, typing 'net start klserver', and pressing Return. The system should respond that the klserver service has already been started. If you get a response that the klserver service has been started successfully, go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services and make sure that klserver is listed and that it is set to automatic to make sure that it starts each time the machine is booted. 

In order for a client application to communicate with a dongle server via TCP/IP, verify that no firewalls or security software on client or server or routers settings is blocking communications.

All firewalls, security software, and routers must be set up to allow klserver.exe to communicate via TCP/IP, and must allow communications via TCP/IP port 4242. In addition, if you are not using a TCPIPSVR.DAT file to point the client to a specific server, all firewalls, security software, and routers must be set up to allow UDP communications between client and server.

Put a KLTCPIP.DAT file on the dongle server.

By default it is set to 540 minutes (9 hours) and the TCP/IP client will stay connected to the server (as long as the server is running without interruption) even if the session is idle. In order set a fixed timeout (in minutes) for idle dongle session clients, put a file called KLTCPIP.DAT in the same directory as klserver.exe on the dongle server. The file should be a standard ASCII text file (such as those created by Notepad) containing one line with the number of minutes that can pass with no activity from a client session before the session times out and is disconnected.

NetKeyMonitor is a company unique utility that scans the system for active TCP/IP dongle servers and reports the maximum number of simultaneous sessions reported and the number of session currently in use.

KEYLOK supplies a copy of NetKeyMonitor set up for our DEMO dongles on our DEMO SDK and a copy set up for your production dongles in your Company Unique SDK. In either case, the file is located in the \Networking directory. It will also be installed into the \Program Files\KEYLOK\Networking directory on your computer when you install the SDK.

To use NetKeyMonitor, double-click on the file to start the program. Click on Status Monitoring to start monitoring. A window will appear showing all active servers that can be accessed from that machine (up to a maximum of five). The maximum number of simultaneous sessions supported and the number currently in use for each server will also be shown. If the program displays No/Wrong Dongle instead of a number, it indicates either that no dongle is currently attached to that server or that the dongle attached does not have company unique codes matching the version of NetKeyMonitor in use.

Use either WinDEMO or KLTool to set the maximum number of users.

Multi-user keys are shipped with the maximum number of simultaneous users set to 1 by default. If you wish to support more users, you must set the maximum number using either the WinDEMO or KLTool utilities supplied on our DEMO and Company Unique SDKs (in the Demos directory). You can set the number to any value from 0 to the maximum number of users supported by the hardware of the key. We also have API’s to set the maximum number of users. It is not just limited to the utilities.