Some users get a message that there are problems communicating with the findme.netopia.com server after entering an email address in their IP Locator Preferences. These are a few of the common reasons users might receive that message:

1. Are you connecting to the Internet from behind a router running Network Address Translation (NAT)?

   If the system on which you've entered the email address in the IP Locator Preferences does not have a valid Internet IP address, but is instead using a locally valid, private IP address, you might have trouble communicating with findme.netopia.com. This is because the IP address that is sent to the findme.netopia.com server can't be reached over the Internet. When the system tries to register with the findme.netopia.com server, the server reaches back to the system to make sure it can find it. Since the IP address sent to the findme.netopia.com server is not valid on the Internet, users may get the message that there's trouble communicating with the findme.netopia.com or with the IP Locator. There is a workaround for Macs running Timbuktu Pro 5.2x.

   This workaround can be found at the following URL:

   http://www.netopia.com/support/howtodocs/mac/dynamicrouter.html

   It's not possible to connect to a Windows host using an email address if the host is behind a NAT router

2. Is your system connected to the Internet?

   If your system is not connected to the Internet you will have problems communicating with findme.netopia.com. To be certain, close your connection to the Internet and reconnect to the Internet. Also, often ISP's in order to conserve IP addresses, will not assign you an IP address until you actually browse the web. Try opening up a browswer and going to a website that you would not normally go to so that is is not cached. Then try to connect again.

3. Is anything entered in your IP Locator Advanced Preferences?

   There shouldn't be anything entered there unless you're behind a router running Network Address Translation (NAT). See item #1 above.

4. Sometimes the IP Locator feature does not refresh your IP address.

   Delete the email address in the host's IP Locator Preferences and re-enter it. In some rare cases, an errant character may have been entered and deleting and re-entering the email address will clear the errant character and allow the guest to connect to the host using the host's email address. Also try disabling TCP/IP incoming access (Setup:Preferences:Incoming Acces) and re-enabling it.

5. Are you entering the host's email address exactly as it's entered in the host's IP Locator Preferences?

   The email address is case sensitive and must be entered in exactly how it was setup on the Host system.

6. Do the versions of Timbuktu Pro on both systems include the IP Locator feature?

   You will not be able to connect to a host using it's email address unless both systems are running versions of Timbuktu Pro that include the IP Locator feature. The following versions include the IP Locator feature: Timbuktu Pro 5.x and higher on the Macintosh and Timbuktu Pro 32 version 3.0 and higher.

7. Is the host behind a firewall?

   It is possible to connect to hosts behind firewalls, but the firewall must first be configured to allow access via Timbuktu. For specific information on the ports used by Timbuktu, please refer to our Timbuktu Pro for Mac Firewall Technote.

8. Are either the host or the guest connecting to the Internet through a Proxy Server?

   Timbuktu does not support connections to hosts behind proxy servers. In some cases, guests can make connections outbound through a proxy server. For more specific information on Timbuktu Pro for Mac and Proxy Servers, please refer to our FAQ on that subject:

   http://www.netopia.com/support/faqs/software/tb2macfaq.html#proxyserver
   (This feature is not supported on Windows.)