Deciding upon Site type(s)

A 'Site' within Ticker Tape merely represents a collection of computers on which the Ticker Tape Agent has been configured to look in the same place for updates from the Ticker Tape Administrator software. A Site may contain a few, hundreds or even thousands of computers - the critical thing is that all the computers that are part of a particular Site will be looking in the same place for their Message Control File and will therefore all display the message currently intended for that Site - for more information regarding some potential options around how to segregate your workstations into Ticker Tape Sites see the "What's a Ticker Tape Site?" topic

Once you've decided how you'll segregate your computers into Sites - by physical office or department for instance - you'll have some idea of how many Ticker Tape Sites you'll need; this will influence whether it's possible for use to use the free - but three Site limited - unregistered version of Ticker tape or whether you'll need to purchase a license to enable the management of additional Sites. See the "Frequently asked questions / Is Ticker Tape Free? " topic for more information.

The next decision is the type that each Site will be - three distinct types of Site are available within Ticker Tape;

'UNC'-based Sites
'FTP'-based Sites
'HTTP'-based Sites

Of the three, the first, UNC-based Sites are the default and preferred Site type, being used in the vast majority of cases where Ticker Tape is deployed within a 'normal' well-connected WAN / LAN environment (one in which your workstations may well be in different physical locations but still use your company's private LAN / WAN infrastructure to communicate) - unless you have a particular need to use one of the other Site types below, you are advised to use this default UNC-based Site type as it's the simplest to get up and running.

FTP and HTTP-based Sites were introduced into Ticker Tape in version 1.5.0 and allow you to use Ticker Tape to update a Site's Message Control File hosted on a FTP or HTTP server (rather than UNC path) - allowing messages to be sent to Agents which are not normally - or never - connected into your corporate infrastructure. As long as the Agents can query he appropriate Internet-accessible web page, they can 'pick up' the message. Although more complicated to initially configure, this type of Site allows Agents to be completely 'stand-alone' and have no reliance upon your corporate infrastructure, they just need an Agent installed and some 'basic' access to the Internet. Note that workstations that connect into your corporate infrastructure using a VPN (home or mobile workers for example) don't normally fall into this category; the VPN software effectively links them directly into your corporate network.

The difference between a 'FTP' Site and a 'HTTP' one is the mechanism by which the Administrator software updates any Message Control File locations stored on them. If FTP-based, the Administrator software will upload the Message Control File via the FTP protocol (therefore the host must be an FTP server!); if HTTP-based, the Administrator will attempt to 'post' the Message Control File to a receiving PHP-based script for the Site hosted on the HTTP server. Note that whether part of a 'FTP' or 'HTTP' Site, the Agents always download the Message Control File via HTTP, they will never require any FTP access.

As you can see, the type of Site(s) you choose influence how complex the deployment of Ticker Tape will be - in summary;

Site Type	Advantages	Disadvantages	Notes
'UNC'-based	- Easiest to setup and maintain	- Can only be used with Agents that are normally connected directly to your corporate infrastructure	Default and preferred Site type, use if possible.
'FTP'-based	- Can be used with Agents that are not normally connected directly to your corporate infrastructure	- More complex to configure than UNC-based Sites. Requires that you have an appropriate server running both FTP & HTTP protocols available. - Requires that the Administrator software has access to upload, via FTP, to the server. - Requires that the Agents have HTTP access to download their Message Control File from the server.	Useful for Sites where a FTP/HTTP host is used as a 'regional hub' for a group of Agents
'HTTP'-based	-Can be used with Agents that are not normally connected directly to your corporate infrastructure - Provides the same advantages as an FTP-based Site but without the need for a FTP server.	- Most complex to configure as an additional PHP-based script has to be deployed to the HTTP host server to handle each Site's Message Control File upload also. - Requires that the Agents have HTTP access to download their Message Control File from the server.	Useful for Sites where a HTTP host is used as a 'regional hub' for a group of Agents

Choose from the following topics;