QuickServerCheck On-Line Manual: Difference between revisions

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===Menu Items===
===Menu Items===
The "File" menu provides actions to save and load your current list of hosts.
The "File" menu provides actions to save and load your current list of hosts.
[[file:QuickServerCheck_File_Menu.png|center|Dark Mode Screen Shot|150px]]
[[file:QuickServerCheck_File_Menu.png|center|Dark Mode Screen Shot|250px]]
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The "Check" menu provides actions to clear and register a number of sample hosts so that you can see the app in operation somewhere near your location.  Note that some of these host may change or block pings over time.  They are provided only for initial testing.
The "Check" menu provides actions to clear and register a number of sample hosts so that you can see the app in operation somewhere near your location.  Note that some of these host may change or block pings over time.  They are provided only for initial testing.


[[file:QuickServerCheck_Check_Menu.png|center|Dark Mode Screen Shot|200px]]
[[file:QuickServerCheck_Check_Menu.png|center|Dark Mode Screen Shot|300px]]
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Revision as of 13:53, 27 September 2021

Start Up

Open QuickServerCheck and you will see a map with a red pin centred on your current location. As you add hosts, the map will automatically zoom out to show the additional hosts.

Access to Your Location

On first use, you may be prompted to allow this app to determine your location, and this is required for correct operation. If your location cannot be determined, QuickServerCheck will not be able to show your location in relation to other hosts on the map, or to show lines when these hosts are pinged. It will however still be able to ping the selected hosts and provide graphs and detail reports.

Dark Mode Screen Shot
Dark Mode Screen Shot


Monitoring Hosts

You can enter a host into the text field under the host graphs. Press the [+] button to register the host. The host can be entered as a IP4, IP6, domain name or web address.

If the host IP cannot be determine you will see a popup message.

If the host IP is valid, the host is registered and remembered by QuickServerCheck and will still be there if you restart the app. An extra ping graph will appear in the list. Within a few seconds, the GPS coordinate and other details of the host are looked up and displayed when the host graph is selected. This information is cached in the app to minimise the number of lookup requests.

Buttons on each host graph allow the host to be enabled or disabled for pinging. You can also unregister a host with the [-] button.

Dark Mode Screen Shot
Dark Mode Screen Shot


The text field at the bottom of the host graph list allows hosts to be registered. The buttons allow all hosts to be either enabled or disabled for pinging with a single click.

Dark Mode Screen Shot
Dark Mode Screen Shot


The Map

Registered hosts are shown on the map provided that their GPS coordinates can be determined.

When pinging hosts, dotted lines are drawn on the map from your current location to that host. For hosts on the other side of the planet, the line may be curved because of the geodesic distortion of the underlying map.

The map will automatically pan and zoom to show all hosts on the map where possible. It will automatically return to showing all possible hosts when resized or the map is dragged and released.

Double tapping a point on the map will popup details of that location.

Single tapping a pin will cause the map pin to briefly glow orange and select the corresponding host graph.

Host Pinging

Many hosts can be registered and pinging does not start automatically. You must enable selected or all hosts for pinging before pinging starts.

QuickServerCheck only ever pings one host at a time on a round-robin basis for the hosts that have pinging enabled. Pinging any one host is limited to one ping each 2 seconds.

Menu Items

The "File" menu provides actions to save and load your current list of hosts.

Dark Mode Screen Shot
Dark Mode Screen Shot


The "Check" menu provides actions to clear and register a number of sample hosts so that you can see the app in operation somewhere near your location. Note that some of these host may change or block pings over time. They are provided only for initial testing.

Dark Mode Screen Shot
Dark Mode Screen Shot


If you would like to create a list of hosts from a different source, the simplest way is to save a couple of hosts to a file then replicate this JSON format with your own data. The "Load Host List" can then be used to load the list of hosts. These will then be remembered on each restart of the app.

Screen Layout

The QuickServerCheck window is resizeable. There are also splitter bars between panels that allow resizing. Whenever the size of the map changes, it re-zooms to show all possible hosts.

Limitations

It should be noted that some hosts do not respond to pings either because of configuration on that host or firewalls between you and that host. In these cases a red status message will be shown on the host graph.

The GPS coordinates of some hosts may not be publicly available and in these cases the host will not be shown on the map, but will be listed in the host graph listing.

The Apple Map used to display hosts has a limitation of +/- 90 degrees span of the planet, so there may be situations where not all hosts can be shown as pins on the map simulateously. You can see them by dragging on the map.

Technical Notes

Some notes about the QuickServerCheck Technicalities for those interested in the gory details.

Credits

Many thanks to Erin Collett for her brilliant work on the icon for this and other Acacia apps and overall design advice.

Acacia wish to acknowledge the following developers and sites for their hard work.