Many Timbuktu Pro users have routers on their network, that are running Network Address Translation (NAT). Many customers have read our how-to-guide regarding configuring their routers to export the Timbuktu Pro services. Although most often this works fairly well, one problem seems to persist. With the growing popularity of broadband internet use, many ISP's have resorted to assigning dynamic IP addresses. This causes a problem for Timbuktu Pro users because they have no way to know the public address to use to connect to the remote system because their routers receive this dynamically assigned IP address.

A new feature has been implemented on our IP Locator server that solves this problem. The Timbuktu Pro user will enter in an email address like normal. The only difference will take place in the Advanced IP Locator menu. The user must enter in 0.0.0.0 in the "Override Register IP Address" field. Forcing the Timbuktu host to register 0.0.0.0 will cause our IP Locator server to substitute the private IP address of that Host with the current router's public IP address.

Directions for Timbuktu Pro for Macintosh, v5.2 - v6.0.3

Note: If the router changes IP addresses, the IP Locator will have the old address until the Timbuktu Pro host next registers. Timbuktu Pro registers whenever TCP/IP Incoming Access is turned off and on, when the host wakes from sleep, and when the host starts up or restarts.

Steps to configure:

1. Configure the router to export the Timbuktu Pro services.
2. In Timbuktu Pro, from the Setup menu, choose Preferences
3. Select the IP Locator
4. Enter the email address, if it has not been entered already.
5. Click the Advanced button
6. In the "Override Registered IP Address" field, enter 0.0.0.0 (If the user has used AppleScript to configure a different contact port, the port must be included, e.g. 0.0.0.0:1843).
7. Click OK.
8. Click Save.

Now when Timbuktu registers with the IP Locator server, the server will translate the 0.0.0.0 into the address of the router.

Directions for Timbuktu Pro for Macintosh, v7.0

Note: The IP Locator will check the findme.netopia.com server every 30 minutes to check for router IP address changes.

Steps to configure:

1. Configure the router to export the Timbuktu Pro services.
2. In Timbuktu Pro, from the Setup menu, choose IP Locator
3. Enter the email address, if it has not been entered already.
4. Click the Register public address button
5. Click Save.

Useful Links:

• How to connect to a system behind a router running Network Address Translation (NAT).
• List of routers we have directions for setting up for Timbuktu Pro use