NetSeries Settings

Serial Numbers

The Question Tools NetSeries has a serial number scheme that provides a lot of flexibility. If you log on as a Service Manager and press the Settings button and then the Serial Numbers button you can see the licences at the bottom of the screen (you may need to scroll down).

The default licence is the one for your own tests, surveys and exercises. There are a small number of results records that can be collected without buying a licence, and this is there to allow you to try out the software before buying a licence.

The free licence, as the name suggests, is for content that is available free. Only Question Tools can create these free tests, surveys and lessons. No licence is needed to either use this content, nor collect results with it. If free content is used in a NetSeries application where a licence has been purchased and a serial number entered, then the results will not count against the paid-for licence.

Other licences for paid-for content are also possible. This allows publishers to create content for delivery using NetSeries, and for the Question Tools serial numbers to enable their content sales.

Records or users

Licences can work in two ways — limiting the number of users or the number of results records that can be saved.

User and time-limited. A licence can be for a set number of users for a period of time (usually one year). The advantage of this approach is most of us are familiar with it. The disadvantage is that if you have more than once licence in a NetSeries application then the maximum number of users you can have defaults to the smallest number of uses in all of the licences.

Records. In this approach there is no practical limit on the number of users. Instead, the number of results records you can save is the limit. A results record is one user taking one test or survey (lessons do not count).

Customization

Buttons and User Level. These settings allow you to determine the level of user that can see the different buttons at the side of the screen. For example, if you select Tutor for the Help button then only tutors and above will be able to see the Help button.

Logos and images

You can select and upload replacement icons. It is recommended that you use either JPEG or GIF graphics for these. You should also ensure that they are the correct size. If you upload graphics that are not the size indicated then they will appear either squashed or stretched.

Rights

Messages. Can Tutors and Learning Managers create new messages, only edit existing messages, or neither create nor edit messages?

Courses. Can Tutors and Learning Managers create new courses, only edit existing courses, or neither create nor edit courses?

Content. Can Tutors and Learning Managers create new tests, lessons and surveys, only edit existing content, or neither create nor edit tests, lessons and surveys?

Users. Can Tutors and Learning Managers create new user accounts, only edit existing users, or neither create nor edit user accounts?

User groups. Can Tutors and Learning Managers create new user groups, only edit existing user groups, or neither create nor edit user groups?

Can upload content. Can Tutors and Learning Managers upload content to draft tests, lessons or surveys?

Tutors can access all content. This is selected by default, and allows all tutors to access all content. This is convenient for small systems. However, as the number of tutors grows this can become cumbersome, and it is often better to deselect this so that tutors can only see and manage content for which they are listed as an owner.

Tutors can manage other Tutors. This can allow tutors to create and delete other tutor accounts.

Allow number-of-attempts changes. Can Learning Managers and Tutors change the number of times trainees/students/users can attempt a test, lesson or survey?

User Groups determine content access. This is off by default. In small systems it is convenient for all students to be able to see all content. However, once the numbers of students grows, and the amount of content increases, it can be helpful to select this. Once selected a student/trainee/user has to belong to a user group that has access to certain courses in order to see and take lessons, tests and surveys. The advantage of using user groups to determine access to content is that it prevents confusion where some trainees/students take content intended for others. On the other hand, the disadvantage of user groups determining content access is that it can create confusion when some students cannot see content they expect to see (usually because they do not belong to the correct user group, or because the content has not been added to a course that belongs to the appropriate user group).

Language

CharacterSet. You can select the characterset, such as Japanese or Russian, that you wish to use. However, note that in doing this any changes you have made to the style sheet in the Customization section will be lost and replaced with the default stylesheet.

Enable Translation. This turns on the translation features. If you select Edit Language then any changes you make will have no effect unless translation is enabled. Enabling translation often causes the server to pause for between 0.5 and 1 second. However, after this pause translation has no effect on performance — a translated version will work just as fast as an original version.

Help. Note that translation also allows you to edit the help text that trainees/students/users see when they press the lhelp link or click on a Help button (if available).

Legal and Licence. Translation allows you to replace the text the users see if they click on the Legal or Licence text links (if available) at the bottom of the screen. This will only work if Enable Translation is selected.

Service and Security

Purge Time. In most databases records are marked as deleted, but not really removed until a purge is performed. During a purge the database has to be shut down, and if purges are not performed frequently these purges can take a long time.

The NetSeries performs a rolling purge. This means that it does not have to stop — it requires less attention. If you delete a record then some time later NetSeries will remove the record permanently. The Purge Time is the time in hours that NetSeries waits before properly removing the record—it is the time you have to recover an accidental deletion.

The default purge time is 30 hours. If you make the purge time very short then you will have little time to recover any deleted records. If you make the purge time several days then there is a chance than a lot of data will be waiting around to be deleted. The maximum purge time is 120 hours (6 days), while the minimum is just one hour.

Maximum Upload determines the maximum size of the test, lesson or survey that can be uploaded. This is an approximate figure, as it is really calculated during upload according to the number of packets sent — a more accurate calculation would slow down NetSeries.

Encrypt logon details. This causes usernames and passwords to be encrypted with the equivalent of a one-time pad. It means that for a 'man-in-the-middle' attack to succeed both outgoing and incoming data must be captured and matched.

Valid IP Addresses and Address Ranges. This allows you to specify a range of IP addresses that are legitimate. The advantage of this approach is that even if some of your users lose their usernames and passwords, they are useless to anyone who does not log on from a legitimate computer. The disadvantage of this approach is that you can inadvertently lock yourself out of your server. It is best to try IP addresses and ranges on a single user account first, and check that they can still log in, before you use the address or address range in the settings area (i.e. for all users).

Please note, it is possible to have more than one address and more that one address range. These are best separated using Returns.

Host / DNS name. This setting has no effect on DNS. This host name the name that will be shown in Direct Link fields. By default, NetSeries will detect and display the IP address of the computer upon which it is running. This host name setting allows you to display a different IP address, or a DNS name. It should be set to either nothing, or to the name set in the DNS. This could be 'www.mydomain.com' or 'qt.intranet'. If this is set to be empty then the NetSeries application will use the IP address it picks up from the network connection. If it cannot get this it will default to using 'localhost'.

Server

The server settings allow you to list all logged on users. Multihosting servers can also list, create, start and stop whole services without stopping the server.

Log Level. This determines the logs that are kept. Less logging improves performance.

User Time Out. This determines the amount of time a user can remain inactive before timing out.

Socket Time Out. This sets the maximum time a socket can be open for and yet remain inactive. Most browsers close sockets before the server, and so this setting usually has little effect.

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