TypingMaster Pro for Organizations
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

For version 7.00
Updated April 12, 2006
Copyright 1992-2006 TypingMaster, Inc. All rights reserved

Note: The format of this page has been been optimized for printing.

Contents 

Note! This FAQ contains only the topics related to the network installation and the organizational usage of product. 

For the general TypingMaster topics, please read the End-User FAQ located here.

Please also read the TypingMaster Pro Network Installation Guide.

Setup Questions

Network Usage problems

Network Installation problems

Other questions

Importing the Users and Groups

TypingMaster Manager has Integrated User Import Tool that is designed to create new users for TypingMaster User Manager from an existing list. Information such as name, group and password can be taken from any .csv file (i.e. comma separated user list file), usually an Excel or database file.

To access this feature, choose File/Import menu from Manager tool. Also Export feature is available there.

Study Material Customization

Free TypingMaster Study Material Editor is designed to help teachers, trainers and translators to modify the existing exercises in TypingMaster Pro. Make sure you choose to install Editor tool during the Setup.

How can I protect the user access to Database folder more securely?

You might want to prevent your users from Deleting files or modifying files in TypingMaster Database folder. Otherwise users can even delete the important study progress information from other users using the File Explorer.

In order to do this, you must set the File Security Permissions properly on your server:

1. Uncheck the option Inherit security.. (Win 2000) from the database folder

2. Remove the Change permissions, instead, grant only the Read and Write access for User Group: This removes the Delete right from your user group and the files cannot be deleted using Explorer.

Advanced tip: MAXIMUM security is possible when each user has a separate user account:
1. Grant Everyone for Read access to database folder
2. Choose advanced button and enable for Everyone also "Create files or write data" advanced security option
3. Add new security user called: "creator-owner" (choose from list)
4. For this creator-owner, choose Change access to database folder files.
NOTE: If you activate this advanced security, Manager cannot so easily create the user names.

How to store the Study Data to the individual home directories on network?

This option can be used when the Centralized Management and User Reporting are not needed, but it is required that each student can continue their studyings from any workstation on the network. The advantage of this method is a high security, since only the corresponding user can access his/her study data while it is located in a personal home directory.

Follow these steps to setup the User Database into home directories:

1. Complete the workstation installation with Netsetup or using Stand-alone Setup to each workstation, or install TypingMaster into a shared folder on your file server.

2. Use Notepad or similar text editor to create a file TMNPATH.INI into TypingMaster folder (make sure the filename is not .INI.TXT), containing following data:

[Path]
DataPath=H:\TMPRO

Replace the H:\ with a corresponding drive letter referring to the individual home directories.

3. To make sure that Typing Test texts appear properly, open file Policy.dyn located in your TypingMaster folder with Notepad, and set there name of the folder where texts should be loaded from:

CustomStoryPath=C:\Program Files\TypingMaster\Texts

4. Copy the following files/folders from TypingMaster folder into each users H:\TMPRO folder:

Policy.dyn, 0.grp, tmaster7.net, DATABASE (folder)

NOTE: With this configuration, User Manager is not available for the reporting.

Error #1550 The user database file is already in use (locked)

When students are trying to log into the TypingMaster, the error #1550 is displayed when the users do not have required change permissions (both read and write access) to the DATABASE folder. You can confirm if this is the case by testing if the program works OK when logged in as Administrator.

To fix the situation, make sure you have granted the Change-permissions to DATABASE folder after the installation according the section 2.2.3 in Network Installation Guide.

There is also an easy tool to apply the fix automatically under Windows 2000/XP.

Network connection errors during login/use:
#7216 Network directory not found
- File server cannot be connected
#-4000 Win32 Error 6 server dropped connection

When students are trying to log into the TypingMaster from the workstations, the error #7216 is displayed in the following cases:

* If the name of the File Server or shared UNC path (installation folder on the server) has been changed since NETSETUP was executed last time: Solution-> Re-execute NETSETUP to fix the situation (or update manually a new path into TMNPATH.INI located on the workstation).

* Maximum amount of Inbound Connections for your File Server has been reached. Note, that all Microsoft Windows Server products (Small Business/Advanced/NT/2000/XP) shall drop oldest client workstations to off-line when there are no more Windows Client Licenses (seat licenses or server licenses) left. Make sure that your Windows Server has all your licenses entered to it's License Manager. See Control Panel / Licensing for the amount of inserted licenses.

NOTE: If you are trying to use Workstation version of Microsoft Windows (e.g. Windows NT Workstation, 2000 Professional, XP Home or XP Professional) for the File Server purposes, please note that there is a major limitation in Windows: No more than 5-10 workstations can be connected into another workstation at a same time. You can read more about this here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q314882 and http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q122920

As all the networked applications, also TypingMaster requires that you have a real Windows Server product for File Server purposes. There is no legal way to use Windows Workstation as a File Server in network for more than 5 users.

When students are using software from the workstations and server suddenly drops the connection, TypingMaster shows error #-4000. Additional Win32 errorcode 6 tells that server cut the connection for some reason. Most common reason is that server has reached limit of Windows Client licenses and it does not allow e.g. more than 10 users to work at same time.


Check also if the problem exists on your LAN Network Cables: TypingMaster is quite exacting software from local area network point of view. The cables / hubs / switches / routers / network adapters must be fully working since software keeps several files open during a normal daily use.

Manager cannot create new users / User Database is corrupted

If you have problems when creating new users and/or deleting users using TypingMaster Manager, e.g. when the following error message is always appearing when creating a new user: "Entered user name is too similar to existing name XX"

The solution is to execute the TMDBFIX database analyzer to check and repair the possible corrupted database. This tool recovers both corrupted index files and .USR data files. The tool can be used also in read-only mode.

The Netware server does not support long file names, installation fails

The TypingMaster Pro installation package has a few files containing long file names. 
It is recommended to upgrade Netware server to support long file names.

However, to install the TypingMaster to the Netware server which does not support longer than DOS 8+3 file names, you can complete the following steps:

  1. Install the TypingMaster Pro to any Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP workstation as server installation
  2. Copy all the files from the program directory (c:\program files\TypingMaster) to the Netware server, excluding the *.HTML and *.GIF files containing long file names.

Why the Satellite does not appear on Workstations

By default, the Satellite is not installed by NETSETUP.  You need to enable Satellite distribution from TypingMaster Manager, see the administrator manual for details.
 

Windows 95/98 workstations under NT/2000/XP Server that has OpLocks enabled might cause network timeouts and random hangs.

Under some environments, Windows NT server OpLocks feature can cause network timeouts when the cross platform workstations are Windows 95/98. Some parties have reported this to occur when Anti-Virus software is installed into clients.

There are several products from various vendors that are affected by this opportunistic locking. Even Microsoft seem to have problems with some of their products related to the OpLocks.

If these time out errors appear, the recommended solution is to disable opportunistic locking on the Windows NT Server system. Doing so will prevent the workstations from caching data locally and will prevent the Windows NT Server from caching file handles.

For Instructions how to disable OpLocks, see Microsoft support article below. Just Set the EnableOplocks registry entry to zero.

Windows NT: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q129/2/02.asp

Windows 2000/XP: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q296/2/64.asp

Below are a few more links to the informative OpLock pages provided by third parties:
http://www.phoneslips.com/nav.htm
http://www.dataaccess.com/whitepapers/opportunlockingreadcaching.html

TypingMaster Satellite in Schools

From TypingMaster Manager / Common Settings, administrator can choose if the Satellited is visible to students and if it will be installed to the workstations with NETSETUP. By default the Satellite is not installed via NETSETUP because of it is usually not needed on schools.

When the Satellite is launched, it will monitor the students' real-world typing skills while using Word Processor or similar applications. If the student uses a different workstation time to time, problems may occur when student sometimes does not remember to Logout from the Satellite after a session. TypingMaster user database files are locked by Satellite and the student cannot login from another workstation until the launched Satellite is closed first.

The easiest way to uninstall Satellite from the workstation is to visit the PC and stop Satellite from bottom right corner (yellow icon). In order to remotely remove Satellite, first rename the KBOOST.EXE file located on TypingMaster folder the Satellite and reboot the workstation.

For above reasons and security, TypingMaster, Inc. does not recommend schools or companies to use the Satellite on their shared local area network installation.  The Satellite concept is designed for the local single user installations.

Accuracy is always 100% if Error Factor is zero

From TypingMaster Manager / Common Settings, you can adjust the WPM Word Length / Error Factor setting.

It affects the way how the WPM and accuracy is counted. 
The default value used is 5 (Standard English Word length)
Reasonable values to use are from 5..10.

If it is set to zero, accuracy remains always 100% even if user makes typing mistakes.

The changes made to common settings affect immediately after TypingMaster Pro is restarted.

Why centralized settings do not affect immediately? (Win95/98/ME as server)

This problem occurs if Windows 95/98/ME is used as File Server to share a TypingMaster folder/resource.

Reason: Windows 98 keeps the INI settings sometimes in an internal cache memory and does not save these to the hard disk immediately.

 

Resolution: It is recommended to use Windows NT/2000/XP Server or other server Operating System for the server purpose.  If using Windows 95/98/ME, please remember to reopen the User Manager to make the settings appear immediately.

 

How to password protect TypingMaster Manager?

The Server File Permissions can be used to limit the Manager usage for the authorized users only.

Remove Read permissions of MANAGER.EXE from the students/normal users. 

Reset the High Scores

In school use, from time to time, its a good idea to reset the high scores for new students. You can do this very easily:

A) Open TypingMaster Manager tool

B) Click Common Settings Tab and choose Erase Game Scores link

Alternatively you can do it by removing the following high score files from server TypingMaster\ DATABASE folder: wordtris.tmt, bubbles.tmt, clouds.tmt, abcgame.tmt.

More teacher tips are available in Teaching Guide, available also on the Support pages.

Is TypingMaster compatible with Windows Terminal Server?

TypingMaster Pro (version 6.20.381 and newer) are Windows Terminal Services aware. Under Terminal Server remote session, the workstation specific settings are stored based on the actual client name.

Licenses

For the flexible Terminal Server usage, TypingMaster Concurrent Licenses are recommended. Otherwise, each time a separate client workstation contacts Terminal Server, one TypingMaster Workstation License is reserved.

256-color mode

TypingMaster Pro automatically detects and supports the limited 256-display color mode. This can improve system performance also on Citrix MetaFrame, when admin manually enters a value 256Colors=true into policy.dyn file.

How can I disable Games from the TypingMaster menu?

It is possible to disable the Games option from the menu in TypingMaster. This is handy if you are teaching a touch typing course and want the students to focus on the course. To disable games in TypingMaster visit Manager / Common Settings.

Why users appear as locked on Manager?

Manager displays users with the lock symbols in case when the user is either using the software at the moment or the Satellite was activated using a this user account on some computer on the network.

Why users do not appear in correct groups on the Login Page?

Under exceptional circumstances some (or all) student user names are visible only in All Users Group. Their names are not shown on the corresponding group they belong into. This behaviour can occur only on TypingMaster login screen, not on the User Manager.

The most common reason for this behaviour is a data corruption on the Group Index files (*.IDX) located on server's TypingMaster DATABASE folder. Corrupted index files can be either out of date or these are totally empty (file size 0 bytes). Sometimes a reason is that user accounts do not have the change permissions to IDX files.

In order to fix this situation quickly, please complete the following steps to rebuild all indexes:

A) Open TypingMaster Manager tool first!

B) Click Common Settings Tab and choose Rebuild User Index link

NOTE: Index rebuilding occurs also when User Manager is used to rename, remove or add new users.