Some users get a message that there are problems communicating with the findme.netopia.com server after entering an email address in their Internet 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 Internet 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 Internet Locator. There is a workaround for Macs running Timbuktu Pro 5.2x.

   This workaround can be found at the following URL:

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

   Try taking the email address out of the General Preferences on the host, disabling the Internet Locator, and exiting and shutting down Timbuktu. Now have the host re-launch Timbuktu Pro from the Programs menu, re-enable the Internet Locator and re-enter their email address. 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.

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

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

5. Do the versions of Timbuktu Pro on both systems include the Internet 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 Internet Locator feature. The following versions include the Internet Locator feature: Timbuktu Pro 5.x and higher on the Macintosh and Timbuktu Pro 32 version 3.0 and higher.

6. 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 Windows Firewall Technote.

7. 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.

8. Does the host have more than one Network Interface Card (NIC)?

   If the host has more than one NIC card, Timbuktu Pro could be bonded to the incorrect IP address. Double-click on the Timbuktu Pro icon in your system tray and make sure that Timbuktu Pro is displaying the correct IP address scheme. If not, please visit the following URL for resolving multi-NIC issues:

   multihomed.html