nChronos Study Guide Chapter 4 - Connect to nChronos Server from Console

Product Version: Since nChronos 3.0

Target Audience:

• All nChronos users (including Evaluation users)

In last tutorial we've learned:

1. What is Network Link on nChronos Server
2. How to start a link monitoring mission

Before heading into this chapter, please make sure you've fully got the answers to these questions. If you have doubts about them, you are recommended to go back to take a look at last chapter first, or you can turn to us for help on your specific case.

From this chapter on we’ll move our focus to nChronos Console program because the server’s mission is to monitor and analyze the traffic and we don’t need to change the settings now and often on it. nChronos console is the software component that we use to view the analysis statistics and conduct in-depth analysis, etc. nChronos console is able to interactive with the server, such as retrieving analysis stats from the server and sending operation commands to manage the server, etc.

nChronos Server Network Connection Setup

We can install nChronos Console and Server software on same machine if we just want to know how they work. But that’s not how they are designed to make the most out of their remote and distributive advantages. If to install them on different machines we need to make sure they can communicate to each other smoothly.

1. Both the server and console machines can communicate on the network. Note that if you use nChronos server to capture packets from a switch’s mirror port, your server might not be able to communicate on the network. If that’s the case you need to add an additional network card and connect it to a normal port of the switch to communicate with nChronos console.
2. The firewall on the server needs open the TCP port number that the console can use to connect to the server. The default port number is TCP #3,000.

Then we can use nChronos console to try our first connection to nChronos server. Run nChronos Console and follow the instructions bellow to establish a connection with the server.

1. Double-click nChronos Console icon on the desktop to run the program.
2. Click Click to add server link on the left-side Server Explorer panel.
3. Enter the IP address of the nChronos server.
4. Enter port number.
5. Enter account name and password. This user name and password can be the one you use to login the server’s administration portal. It’s the admin account.
6. Enter a label for this server (can be ignored) and click Save.
7. Double-click the server name or right-click and choose Connect from the context menu on the Server Explorer.
8. Double-click the network link name to view analysis statistic on the right panel.

If we've followed nChronos Server Network Connection Setup to make sure the server is connected to the network we should be able to connect to the server successfully. But if it turns out to be any error while trying to connect to the server, we can do the following step to troubleshoot the connectivity.

1. Username or password error: it means the server can be connected but the account isn't correct to login. We should check entries of step #4 and #5.
2. Unable to connect to the server: check the IP address entry in step #3 and retry. If it fails, try a PING test to see if your machine’s able to talk to the server. Then check firewall setup of the server machine.

Connect to nChronos Server from the Internet

There is also a requirement of connecting to the server from the Internet. For example, there is an nChronos server implemented in your network, and you want to check your network status from your home. We know we can’t access the private IP address from the internet. So we can use our preferred methods to help us access nChronos server from the Internet. We can either use a VPN connection, or assign the server with a public IP address, and so on. If you still have issues with connecting to your nChronos server, please feel free to contact our support or leave a comment below.