The ISS workstation provides several services to the Windows computers with which it shares the trailer network in the field, mainly Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and SMB remote directory sharing.
DHCP allows the Windows hosts to configure their TCP/IP network properties automatically. Choose Network from the Control Panel. Select TCP/IP from the list of protocols, then press the Properties button. Under the DNS Configuration tab, select Disable DNS. Then under the IP Address tab, click on Obtain IP Address automatically. The rest of the network configuration probably does not need to change. Click the OK button to save the changes and perform a reboot.
For DHCP to work, the ISS workstation must already be up and running so that it can provide the DHCP service. When the Windows host boots, it will broadcast a DHCP configuration request. The ISS workstation will answer with an available IP address and with itself as the DNS (Domain Name Service) server. The DHCP server on the ISS workstation will lease an IP address to the Windows host for a period of three days. After three days, the Windows host will renegotiate its lease.
The sounding and profiler computers feed sounding and profiler consensus data to the ISS workstation through the data_source directory service. In addition, the sounding computer reads surface weather measurements from this directory for sonde initialization. A Samba server, which starts up when the ISS workstation boots, provides remote access to the workstation's /data_source directory using the Windows SMB protocol. Profiler and sounding programs refer to the remote directory as the K: drive, so the K drive needs to be mapped to the SMB service.
Find the Network Neighborhood icon, right click on the icon and choose Map Network Drive from the menu. Choose K: as the drive letter, then enter the service name as follows:
\\datasource\data_source |
The \\datasource part of the service path refers to the ISS workstation, while the \data_source part of the path selects the particular service from that host, in this case the service which provides access to the \data_source directory on the workstation.
The K: drive needs to connect automatically whenever the Windows host reboots, so that option needs to be enabled with a checkmark.
The ISS workstation provides datasource as a NETBIOS alias in addition to allowing connections to its hostname. This reduces the amount of configuration required for Windows hosts since the \\datasource path will work no matter which ISS workstation is deployed with them. See Samba Configuration.
At the end of the project, various files need to be backed up from the sounding and profiler computers onto the Jaz data disk on the ISS workstation. To this end, the ISS workstation provides a second Samba service called jaz which allows reading and writing of the Jaz disk. Unlike the K: drive, the jaz service does not need to be continuously mapped to a network drive.
The Windows host may already have a shortcut on the desktop for opening the Jaz directory. If so, just open the folder to see the contents of the Jaz disk currently in the drive. If no disk is in the drive, the open will pause and eventually report an error.
If there is no shortcut yet, it can be created by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New shortcut from the menu. In the text window for the command or file to browse, enter the service path shown below:
\\datasource\jaz |
Select the default name for the shortcut, and the new shortcut jaz on datasource should appear on the desktop. Open the folder shortcut to see the Jaz disk directory.
The Jaz disk can also be accessed by temporarily mapping a network drive, such as J:, to the jaz service. Right click on the Network Neighborhood icon and select Map Network Drive to bring up the dialog window. Leave the Reconnect option disabled, else the computer may pause on reboot if there is no disk in the Jaz drive.