Chat Blazer Gold

After you have installed the Chat Blazer Gold files, the next step is to start the Chat Blazer Gold server. As explained in our software architecture page, Chat Blazer is a client server software. You need to start the server in order to allow chat users to communicate with one another. The Chat Blazer Gold client runs on the web browser as a normal Java applet while the Chat Blazer Gold server runs on your server machine.

There are two ways to start the Chat Blazer Gold server. By menu option and by command line. We will explain to you under which circumstances do you use either of the start up methods below.

Menu Options

If you intend to run the Chat Blazer server on your local machine, please continue with the next paragraph sub-titiled "For testing on local machine". If you intend to run the Chat Blazer server on your remote machine (virtual server or dedicated server), you will need to Telnet or SSH into your remote machine to start the Chat Blazer server. Telnet is an application that allows you to connect to the remote machine and run system commands within the remote machine. SSH (A popular SSH application is "putty") is a secure form of Telnet. For this example, we will use Telnet. Most probably, your Operating System will have a copy of the Telnet application installed. For Windows user, click on the START button on the lower left task bar and select the "Run..." option. You will see the Run window being displayed. Type "telnet hostname". (E.g. if your hostname is www.mydomain.com, then type "telnet www.mydomain.com"). You should see the Telnet application window showing on your screen. Login with your username and password assigned to you by your system administrator. For UNIX users, telnet should be readily accessible just by typing "telnet hostname" at the system prompt. Go to the next two paragraph sub-titled "For testing on remote machine".

For testing on local machine
To start the Chat Blazer Gold server, simply open a DOS session window (for Windows user: click on the Start button on the lower left task bar->Programs->[MS DOS PROMPT] or Start->Programs->Accessories->[MS DOS PROMPT]. Actual location of the MS DOS PROMPT option depends on the Windows version.) or UNIX session and navigate to the directory where you had unzipped all the files during the installation phase. (e.g. "cd chat" if the files are unzipped to the /chat subdirectory).

For testing on remote machine
After you have successfully telnet'ed into the remote machine, you need to navigate to the directory where you had uploaded all of the Chat Blazer files during the installation phase. (e.g. "cd chat" if the files are unzipped to the /chat subdirectory).

Starting the Chat Server

Next, enter the following command (where '>' is the Operating System prompt and it varies): 

> java chat 

If the chat server is started successfully, you should see a menu appearing as follows:

Current Server Mode Settings :
1) No Logging of Chat Conversation
2) No Logging of Users' entry/exit time
3) Current Port Number : 7999
4) Chat Server Status Update is OFF

************************************************

Please select an option :

1) Log Chat Conversation
2) Log Users' entry/exit time
3) Specify Port Number

4) Start Chat Server

5) Toggle Chat Server Status Update
6) Set Chat Server Status Update Interval

7) Quit

************************************************
Your Option (1-7) >

To start the Chat Blazer Gold server, simply enter '4' at the menu prompt. You should then see the following status message:

Chat Server Started on Port : 7999
Press to stop chat server

Listening for connection...

At this point, the Chat Blazer server is started up successfully. You can terminate the Chat Blazer server at anytime by pressing the CTRL-C buttons. 

The Chat Blazer server needs to run in order for you to test the Chat Blazer chat clients.

The list of the Chat Blazer Evaluation Server features will be explained in the next section "Configuring the Chat Blazer server".

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Command-Line Startup

For Windows dedicated machine, most probably, you would have started the Chat Blazer server with a PCAnywhere or Windows Terminal session. So, it will not be relevant to use a Command Line startup. Upon purchasing our commercial software, we will provide Windows users a Windows Service Enabler application.

You should use the command line startup option if the Chat Blazer server is running on a remote machine, be it virtual or dedicated. This is because you will most probably be using Telnet to login to your remote machine. Clients using UNIX machines will find this applicable. 

Note: Some hosting companies only allow SSH, a secure form of Telnet. SSH is perfectly acceptable as well. Examples of an SSH application is Putty.

After you are connected to the remote machine via Telnet/SSH, navigate to the directory where you have installed/transferred the Chat Blazer .class files during the installation phase.

The syntax for command-line startup is explained below. (Note: The command-line startup "java chat" may vary according to the syntax that is required to start the Chat Blazer server as given in the Troubleshooting Guide above.)

> java chat -updNN [y|n] [y|n] 7999

For UNIX system, you can start the chat server in the background using the command line:

> nohup java chat -updNN [y|n] [y|n] 7999 &

If you start the chat server in the background (UNIX only), you can exit your current telnet/SSH session and the chat server will still be running. Otherwise, you need to maintain the telnet/SSH session in order for the Chat Blazer server to run continuously. The Chat Blazer server needs to run in order for you to test the Chat Blazer clients.

java --- This starts the Java Runtime Machine chat --- This is the "chat.class" file (the class code) to be executed by the Java Runtime Machine and is the starting call to your Chat Blazer server. -updNN --- This causes the chat server to output the chat server status in NN interval, where NN is between 1 to 60 minutes inclusive. [y|n] [y|n] --- These two fields are optional and default to 'n'. The first specifies logging of chat transcript, while the second specifies user access logging. Use 'y' to toggle either of or both of the logging. If you use only a single 'y', it denotes chat transcript logging. Leave this blank if you do not want any logging. 7999 --- This is the port number for the Chat Blazer server to listen to on the same machine. You can change this number to a value permitted by your network administrator. This value has to be between 0 and 32767, but common services occupy the range between 0 and 1024. Example:    java chat -upd30 n y 21333 Start the chat server on port 21333 with status update output at 30-minute intervals and do not log chat transcript but log user access. Example:    nohup java chat -upd30 n y 21333 & Same as above with the server running in the background.

Windows users		For Windows users, the chat server process will not continue to run in the background after you logout of your Telnet session. You will most probably require the assistance of the system administrator in charge of your server to do the command line start up as above. If you are running the Chat Blazer on an NT or Windows 2000 Server, we will ship you the service enabled Chat Blazer server edition, that will allow the Chat Blazer server to run as a service. This edition is available only on purchase of our Chat Blazer license. For the purpose of evaluation, you need to maintain your Telnet connection to your Windows server in order to run the Chat Blazer Evaluation server.
UNIX users		UNIX users should use the "nohup" command which will inform the OS not to kill the chat server after you have finished your Telnet session. This command is used by prepending it to the above chat server startup line. The use of & is also advised as this is a shell command which causes the chat server process to run as a background process. This leaves you room to do other things in your session. Append this to the startup line. Example:    nohup java chat -upd30 n y 21333 &

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