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Doorway Client/Server on the Company Intranet


The Doorway PC software with both SeaChange and Trend Control Systems Ltd BMS Local Area Networks is well proven. The BMS lan allows peer to peer communications by controllers as well as permitting multiple Doorway Supervisors. Historically each Supervisor PC's RS232 port has been connected to an adjacent BMS lan hardware node SLT, CNC or equivalent. The BMS lan cable has to be routed to every PC which wishes to access the BMS. Screened twisted pair cable lengths run between nodes with very small data rates by modern standards. Remote sites have been linked in the past using modems or even legacy BMS modems such as TMN-MNC using proprietary messaging methods.

The Company Intranet (IT Network) is a key business resource, enabling E-mail and group working products such as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise. Users can also access central resources such as file servers, or perhaps expensive items such as colour laser printers or large plotters for CAD drawings. The deployment, management and maintenance of a company wide IT network is managed by trained IT staff. IT networks use industry standard components using Ethernet with data rate of 100 Million bit/sec and now Gigabit (1000 million bit/sec) data rates to the PC. By contrast the 19.2 or 78 thousand bit/sec data rate of BMS lan's is very small.

Doorway's Client-Server feature allows authorised users to access the BMS from potentially anywhere on the company wide IT Network. The File server for software and data may be located anywhere. One or more RS232 connections to the BMS hardware are made at the server or any conveniently located PC which runs the Doorway IT Gateway software. The gateway can also handle messages simultaneously from several remote users, data throughput limitations in the BMS hardware means a sensible limit is six simultaneous users per hardware connection.

IT Network Security is maintained by all existing network security mechanisms. In addition there is no mechanism within the Doorway software to transmit any messages other than BMS message packets encapsulated within industry standard TCP/IP datagrams. Datagrams are also used by other network services, and are monitored and managed by the same network administrative software used for configuring IT network fileservers, bridges and routers. The IT network data traffic generated per Doorway client will average a modest 500 bytes per second when a page requesting BMS data is displayed.

Windows versions for IT Networking:
Windows 8-32, 7-32, Vista and XP.

IT Network Fileserver:
Doorway may be installed on a file server, which can simplify support. Pages can load as fast from a fileserver as from a local hard drive. Doorway Server version installed on a file server allows a single software installation to serve up to 25 simultaneous users. Each user has a home folder and retains individual settings for alarms, snapshots, choice of start page etc. Doorway Server version permits multiple copies of Doorway to run on one PC, allowing multiple graphics screens.

Doorway Software Updates are currently available free of charge from the Internet:


Available from your regular BMS specialist or directly from:
E-Mail: sales[at]doorway[dot]co[dot]uk
Telephone: +44 (0)7973-223643
Doorway Systems is based in the UK.