FAQ: TeamWox Groupware installation

How to set up the remote access to TeamWox collaboration software from the Internet?

To access TeamWox groupware system from the internet you will need to allocate a public static IP address - this is the permanent real IP address which is allocated by your internet provider. If such a public static IP address is available, your server will be accessible from any location in the internet, from any computer connected to the internet.

If your company doesn't have its own public IP address, and your are planning remote working with TeamWox collaboration software from the internet, you'll have to contact your internet provider requesting a public static IP address.

If you already have a public IP address, then you probably have one of the following cases, when the computer with the installed TeamWox Groupware is located:

1. at your hosting provider with an allocated public IP address;
2. in a local corporate network behind firewall with an allocated public static IP address;
3. in a local corporate network behind firewall (Internet access point) with an allocated internal IP address like 192.168.х.х.

Let's consider setting up of the remote access to the TeamWox Groupware server from the internet for each above mentioned case separately. Suppose our TeamWox Groupware has the following installation parameters:

The computer where the TeamWox Groupware server is installed is located at the hosting provider

The TeamWox groupware server is installed on a computer with the allocated IP address 205.134.70.31. In this case a special DNS entry should be added in DNS servers of the provider who maintain the domain yourcompany.com. This special DNS entry will assign to your domain a static IP address of the TeamWox Groupware server in the internet (external IP address), e.g.:

Not all hosting providers provide direct access to their DNS servers. So, probably you will need to contact the support team of your provider requesting to add the corresponding record on their DNS server.

The computer where the TeamWox Groupware server is installed is located in the local network behind firewall with an allocated public IP address

If there is no proper DNS server in your corporate network, you will need to perform the actions described above, i.e. you'll need to add a special DNS entry in the DNS server of your internet provider.

If there is a DNS server in your company, the corresponding entry should be added to it.

The computer where the TeamWox server is installed is located in the local network behind firewall with an internal public IP address like 192.168.0.138

In this case you will need to perform the following actions:

1) Either in your provider's DNS server or in your own one, add a special DNS entry like this:

2) On the firewall add mapping or redirection of external requests of the domain name team.yourcompany.com to the real internal local IP address of the computer where the TeamWox server is installed (192.168.0.138).

In other words, when you enter the url address of your TeamWox server (https://team.yourcompany.com) in the address line of your web browser from a remote (home) computer, first you access the DNS server of your provide, which returns the IP address (205.134.70.31), at which connection with the TeamWox server is performed. 

That is, for the internet, your TeamWox server with the domain name team.yourcompany.com is located at the public static IP address of your corporate network (205.134.70.31), but global DNS servers don't know that actually the server is located in the local network and has its own internal IP address (192.168.0.138).

Use port mapping for redirecting incoming requests at port 443 (HTTPS) to a necessary computer. For this purpose, the below entry should be added to the gateway:

Here 192.168.0.138:443 is the address of the server where TeamWox Groupware is installed.

3) For your employees in the office to be able to enter TeamWox collaboration software at https://team.yourcompany.com directly from a local network addressing the internal IP address of the server without having to use complicated routes via internet, public addresses or proxy servers, the following entry should also be added at firewall or inner DNS server:

Why do we need a domain name?

Domain — a distinct subset of the Internet with addresses sharing a common suffix.

A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).

TeamWox Groupware is a web server. During TeamWox installation, one needs to specify a unique domain name that will then be used for accessing the server, for example, the third level domain "team.yourcompany.com". In order to enter TeamWox business management system, users will type https://team.yourcompany.com in the address bar of their web browser. Besides that, a unique server license issued during TeamWox installation will be bound to the specified domain name.

How to configure the firewall in Windows 7 to let the TeamWox Groupware traffic through?

Open the "Windows Firewall" window in the advanced security mode. To do this, the following actions should be performed:

• open the "Start" menu, select "Run" and enter mmc
  
• in the appeared window press "CTRL+M"
• select " Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" 
  
• press "add", indicate "Local computer" -> Done -> ОК.
  

In the appeared window create two rules for the incoming and outgoing connection. First select "Inbound Rules":

In the appeared console window set a new rule ("New Rule"):

Indicate what the rule shall be applied to. In this case select Port:

Set the list of TCP ports that are used for the TeamWox Groupware operation:

Select the action required:

Specify networks the rule should apply to:

Set a name for the rule created:

That's it. The "Outbound Rules" are created in a similar way.

What is the best browser for TeamWox collaboration software?

For the best operation of TeamWox Groupware we recommend using the latest versions of the following web browsers: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, Chrome, Safari with the installed Adobe Flash version 9.0 and higher.