Firewall Information

Q: What network ports do I need to open to allow the Flexicast Terminator system access to its servers. ?

A: Flexicast have multiple servers on duty at all times out of an extended pool. It is probably not practical to list all possible servers in your router config so you should consider adding an allowed service instead.

The Terminators connect outbound only on port TCP 745.

They do use DNS however, and will need access to the DNS server which is referred to by your router's DHCP config. If your establishment will only allow access to specific servers on port 745 then you can request the current server list by emailing support@flexicast.com but these may fall out of date unexpectedly and cause the Terminator systems to fail to connect.

Click here to test your venue's firewall.

Q: Our network administrators say that they cannot grant access to the units to connect out. What can I do ?

A: Unfortunately there are some sites that network administrators find it necessary or desirable to lock down very tightly. Fortunately most of these administrators have enough insight to understand that the world is moving inexorably towards using commodity public networks for many upcoming technologies and that businesses in the modern age will be disadvantaged by policies stuck in the last century if they are not capable of securing a network without severely limiting the usefulness of that network. These insightful administrators will have implemented a demilitarized network zone where appliances can reside. It will typically sit in a network segment outside of the internal private network without weakening internal security. If this has not been done by administrators and they are unprepared to grant access to the appliance on the internal private network then there is little we or indeed you can do other than request that the network administrator suggest a resolution. If there is no joy there, the only other option is to establish a secondary ADSL connection to an ISP to establish a seperate LAN with public access.

Another possibility for very strict sites is to request the MAC address of each unit be supplied so that the DHCP system can be configured to assign known IPs to the Flexicast units that have special routing. For example they could be /27 sub-netted and a rule entered to allow only that subnet egress access on port 745. If you need a list of your mac addresses even after the machines have arrived, please email support@flexicast.com as we database all of these and can easily supply them. In this case however it is worth while considering a spare standby unit as getting your admins to add another mac address to the pool in the case of failure may add delay in some cases.

We maintain a list of at least 4 servers which are currently available for service as Flexicast servers. If you wish to configure your router using FQDN entries instead, you should enable as many of these as you can;

• svr1.flexicast.com
• svr2.flexicast.com
• svr3.flexicast.com
• svr4.flexicast.com

If only one or 2 are listed the screen may blank for extended periods when switching channels while the system attempts to find an accessible server. Please also note that these may change without notice based on which servers from our pool are on duty. Some routers may not refresh these entries until rebooted. See your routers documentation about how often it will resolve these and re-establish rules.

For complex firewall issues please call (07)5563 3599 to discuss work-arounds.