Help on Managing Firewall Issues

One of the top challenges for developers today is building software that will compliment restrictive corporate firewall and security implementations (software and hardware). Applications want to take advantage of a the dynamic content of the web, while IT Departments want to control what data is going into or coming out of their network. Understandably there is a need to control the flow of this data to protect the network. Unfortunately, when a network is overly restrictive it can lose the power of the Internet and access to all of the data outside of a network. ArchVision is actively working to address this need with future versions of our products.

The ArchVision Content Manager (“ACM”) and ArchVision Dashboard are two applications which actively rely upon the Internet. These software tools enable users to access a growing database of RPC Content (33GB+) and drag and drop RPCs into scenes of various applications or download them to local drives. The only thing standing between this conduit of RPC content and plug-ins is a firewall. It is helpful to understand how our applications behave so that they can function in harmony within your IT department’s defined parameters.

Like an Internet browser, the ACM and ArchVision Dashboard communicate accross port 80, a common Internet port, to access the following sites:

• http://updates.archvision.com – to access new versions of software and plug-ins.
• http://www.archvision.com – to import licenses and order info.
• http://commerce.vismasters.com – to access downloads and order info.
• http://exchange.vismasters.com – to access the All Access Exchange database.
• http://help.archvision.com – to access ArchVision’s help documentation.
• http://s3.amazonaws.com – for files downloaded from ArchVision or VisMasters.

Usually opening communication ports enable the ArchVision Content Manager and ArchVision Dashboard should be able to coexist with Firewalls and Internet Security and function as intended. However, sometimes the IT department may restrict permissions for applications themselves. Make sure that Internet Security software is not blocking the ArchVision Content Manager application (rpcacmapp.exe) located in C:\Program Files (x86)\ArchVision\ArchVision Content Manager or ArchVision Dashboard (dashboard.exe) located in C:\Program Files\ArchVision\Dashboard.

Feel free to contact me if you have firewall experience, or feedback to share.