Equipment, Hardware and Supplies

[wsmfmail]

We have just put in a new DM300c which is supposed to connect to the internet to download stamps and check our postage balance. When we try to get a postage balance it times out. We had a support tech out and he said we needed to enable "chuncking" in our firewall. We had our IT person enable Active TCP Streaming by enabling 'ASCII only Response Headers" in our checkpoint firewall. That didn't resolve the issue. Ports 80 and 21 are open and we can FTP to the PB datacenter. Any help is appreciated.

[PB-Jeremy]

wsmfmail,

Thank you for your post!

I believe these instuctions are related to the problem you are experiencing.  Let try this first.

Your Network Administrator may need to change some firewall settings to allow the ICC to communicate over the Internet to Pitney Bowes. Specifically, the ICC may need access to Pitney Bowes’ Servers by allowing outbound HTTP (80) and FTP (21) access to 199.231.32.0/20 through your firewall.  

If your Network uses Static IP address, then the Network department will need to provide an IP address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway for entry into the ICC.

Otherwise, here are some other options to consider.

  

Dynamic or Static IP Addressing

 The DM Series™ Mailing Machine using the ICC supports both static and dynamic IP addressing. The IP address is defaulted to getting its IP address assigned automatically from a DHCP Server. You will be required to identify the following using the ICC menus:  

Dynamic IP Addresses            

1. Press the Menu key on the ICC            

2. Choose Set up            

3. Choose Phone/Network Set up            

4. Choose More Options (down arrow)            

5. Choose Network Settings            

6. Choose Mailing System Network Settings            

7. Choose Get IP Address            

8. Choose Get IP Address Automatically  

Connecting the ICC to the Network                         

1. Connect the Compact USB Network Adaptor to an available USB port on the Mailing Machine or USB Hub (not the ICC).            

2. Connect the LAN cable to the RJ45 port on the USB Network Adaptor and your network jack  

Enabling the ICC  

The ICC comes with the LAN feature enabled, but this feature must be selected for use before it becomes active. Once Internet access has been enabled through the firewall, by your IT representative, LAN connectivity needs to be established by doing the following:

1. Press the Menu key on the ICC            

2. Choose Set Up            

3. Choose Phone/Network Set Up            

4. Choose Modem Type            

5. Choose Use LAN            

6. Choose Ok, Restart Now  

The ICC will now be enabled for use over the LAN. To check connectivity, you can do a balance inquiry by following the steps below:                     

1. Press the Funds Key          

2. Choose the Get Postage by Phone® Balance          

3. The following should occur in quick succession          

a. Display of Requesting Balance          

b. Display of Processing          

c. Display of Actual Balances          

4. Press Done to Exit  

If an error message is delivered, you must go back over the Set Up instructions contained herein with regards to the ICC and check the firewall parameter settings before continuing.

[wsmfmail]

Jeremy - Thanks for your response. The menu selections you've given do not match up with our machine which is a DM300c.

 As previously stated ports 80 and 21 are open through the firewall and we can FTP to 199.231.32.0 from a pc. The stamp machine automatically gets it's IP address from our DHCP server.

Our Main Menu selections are Printing Options, Setup, Reports, Accounts, Preset Options, Text Message, Maintenance, Data Center Options, Advanced Features.

In the Data Center Options the selections are;

Check for Updates, Phone Settings, Distributor Settings, Network Settings, Firewall Settings, Connection Mode

The Phone Settings are Tone and it's set to dial the 866.297.8025 number

The Distributor settings are Account ID (Internet.pbint.uspb003) Password ( xxxxxxxx) IP (10.60.0.2), Server Port (7676)

Network Settings are Get IP - Auto

Firewall Settings are Ping (enabled), Trust (ALL), Trusted Host (199.231.32.0)

Connection Mode - Auto

Perhaps something here is set incorrectly?

Thanks for your assistance-

[PB-Jeremy]

wsmfmail,

I am sorry, I did give you the incorrect directions on how to check these settings. The directions I gave were for the DM500 - DM1000 mail machines.

Reading through the settings on your meter in your previous post, everything seems to be correct.

• You are using a Dynamic IP Address that you acquired from your DHCP server
• Your network settings are Get IP Auto. This means you did not set up a Static IP Address
• Your distributor settings are using the correct account ID, IP and server port
• Your firewall settings in the meter are set correctly
• Your connection mode in set to auto
• The phone settings would not apply because you are using your network instead

This would start to point towards the service representatives thoughts about it being with the chunking in your firewall. I am not familiar with what chunking in a firewall is. I can suggested using google to find information on what chunking is. Usually wikipedia is a good source for this kind of information.

Message Edited by PB-Jeremy on 08-13-2008 12:39 PM

[hlardieri1]

HI

I was wondering if this issued has been resolved and what was the outcome?

I am having this same exact issue.

Thanks

Hope

[kygeek]

obviously this isnt an open forum..... more than likely the moderators will find a reason to delete my post for telling the truth about this product. Its terribly implemented from start to finish...technicians that come out and try to 'install it' have no clue at all what they are doing....customer service has no clue... they will sell u this product and not tell you anything about the requirements... if you do not have a firewall/proxy that has a 'chunking' option then the device WILL NOT work properly via the internet. So its quite possible that your device will NEVER work properly. Technical support is almost as useless as the guy that came out to install our device.... he couldnt spell 'netowork' the next guy couldnt do much better. They promised over and over to make it work ... then passed the buck on to me blaming my network and firewall.... im sorry ... over 200 devices function properly on my network... even the ones that require network connectivity to the outside world. This company has a terrible support structure...their sales team didnt even know that a network device even existed and i was told that the new 'digital' postage meters required 'analog' phone lines ... now thats an oxymoron !!! this silly paper wieght is just as useless as the first one we had.... we have no more analog lines in the building as we are moving to all VOIP which was the whole reason for the 'upgrade' and extended lease. BEWARE of pitney bowes.... i would suggest looking elsewhere. i was promised by the moderator here some kind of action, but as i have been promised action before i will not hold my breath as its usually just something they tell u to get off the phone.

Message Edited by kygeek on 12-11-2008 10:43 AM

[jtwestmo]

Just for anyone else who comes across this issue, I put an exception into my web filter (Barracuda). Once I allowed the IP address of the machine full access out it worked just fine. Also note my firewall doesn't block Ports 80 or 21 outgoing.

[Kwin81]

I am having this same issue, and like you I've made an exemption for the IP in my B'Cuda Web Filter. When I use PB's test app, called 'Constant Connection Testing Utility', all 4 tests say 'OK'. PB's answer to this is that their application is wrong, even though they are the ones who told me to run it.

Assuming the problem is not my B'Cuda, would my ASA be to blame? I find it strange that the PB machines can't work on my network when every other device ever has absolutely no issue. I'd certainly appreciate any further suggestions.

thanks

[PB-Jeremy]

Hi Kwin81,

I agree with you in that it seems strange that you are having this problem (timing out when trying to make a connection) given the fact that all 4 tests from our testing utility come back as okay and also the fact that no other devices on your system have problems sending/receiving data.

It will be much more effective for me to understand the specific settings on your postage meter, as well as some of your network settings, to find the cause of this problem.  For this reason, could you send me a private message with the model and serial number of your postage meter?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[ShannonS]

Welcome to the Community, Kwin81! We hope that Jeremy has been helpful in responding to your question. We'd love to see you stop over to our Welcome Thread and Introduce Yourself. This is a great way to get to know the folks around here!

Be sure and let us know if we can be of any assitance for you!