Summary

A firewall can prevent the Laserfiche client from accessing a Laserfiche repository. This occurs when a firewall is filtering the communication between the Laserfiche Server and the client. This article explains how you can configure the Laserfiche client to access a repository across a firewall.

Important: The instructions provided in this article are only meant for installations of the Laserfiche client that are separated from a Laserfiche Server by a firewall.

Symptoms

If a firewall is preventing the Laserfiche client from communicating with the Laserfiche Server, then you may experience the following symptoms:

• Network repositories hosted on the affected Laserfiche Server may not be listed in the Start Page.
• After attempting to open a previously attached network repository, you may receive the following error message:

  [6505] Server not found.

Resolution

The first step that you need to take is to make sure that the Laserfiche Server has been properly configured. For detailed instructions on how the Laserfiche Server should be configured to be firewall compatible, please refer to the following Laserfiche Knowledge Base article:

1000765 Configuring Laserfiche to be Firewall Compatible.

After configuring the Laserfiche Server, you will need to install the client version of the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component on the computer where the Laserfiche client is installed. Once it has been installed, you should turn off the client's automatic reception of repository connection information, as that information will not contain the correct port information. You should then attach the desired repository. When attaching the desired repository, you should specify the Laserfiche Server using the following notation: an IP address, a colon, 1888, two colons, and the TCP port assigned to the Laserfiche Server.

To allow the Laserfiche client to view a repository across a firewall

1. Make sure that the client version of the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component is installed. If you are unsure as to where the installation can be found, please refer to the To locate the client version of the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component procedure below.
2. Disable the Laserfiche client's automatic reception of repository information. For detailed instructions, see the following article:
   
   1011020: INFO: Disabling the Laserfiche Client's Automatic Reception of Repository Information.
   
   
3. Open the Laserfiche Client.
4. Click Attach.
5. Select the Network Repository option.
6. In the Laserfiche Server option, type the following:

   IPAddress:1888::ServerPort

   IPAddress is the IP address specified in the FCC configuration file on the Laserfiche Server.
   
   ServerPort is the port that the Laserfiche Server has been configured to use with the Firewall Compatibility Component.
7. In the Repository name option, type the name of your Laserfiche repository, or select it from the list.
8. Click Attach.

Note: The repository name, server, and port specified in steps 6 and 7 above are stored in the registry at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Laserfiche\Client\Profile\IPDatabase.

To locate the client version of the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component

Note: The following procedure is not necessary for Laserfiche 7.2. The client version of the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component is automatically installed as part of the Laserfiche Client 7.2 installation. There is no need to locate and run a separate installation.

1. Insert the Laserfiche Client/Server installation CD into your CD/DVD drive. The Laserfiche installation menu should appear. If it does not appear, then you should double-click Autorun.exe from the root folder of the installation CD.
2. Select More Options and then choose Install Firewall Compatibility Component (FCC) 7.1.
3. Select the Install: FCC (Client) option. The installation for the client version of the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component will appear. Step through the installation wizard.

More Information

Keep in mind that it is not sufficient to simply install the Laserfiche Firewall Compatibility Component on the computer where the Laserfiche client has been installed. Installing this utility only allows the Laserfiche client to use the syntax described above to communicate with the Laserfiche Server on a different port. The client cannot automatically detect the port on which it must connect to the Laserfiche Server. In order to facilitate communication between the Laserfiche Server and client with the Firewall Compatibility Component in place, you must specify the port that the Laserfiche client should use to connect to the Laserfiche Server.

The default port used by the Firewall Compatibility Component is 2040. Note that this is distinct from the usual Laserfiche Server TCP/IP port number, which is 1888.