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The escalation facility and the POP3 email interface are contained within the single program called NHServer.exe. This runs on a PC or a server and scans the database for important events, and scans incoming email for new requests and service events.

You don't need to use these features if you don't want to. You can run the program all of the time, or as a scheduled task when required.

Escalation

The escalation facility will keep its eye on the NetHelpDesk database and inform technicians of various events that have taken place so that they can react to them.

For example if a new call is logged then you can choose to inform all technicians of this event. Or you can just inform the technicians in the section, or just the technician initially assigned to the request.

Similarly events such as a call becoming overdue or cleared can be notified to technicians.

Also,you can choose to be informed of changes in service status such as a network link failing or virus alert being issued by your virus checking help desk software. (Requires service status module.)

There are two ways of notifying technicians.

A. By E-mail - An SMTP e-mail message is sent to the technician detailing the event. The technician uses his e-mail program to view the message.

B. By POP-UP message box - A tool tray icon can be made to change colour, beep or pop-up a message box when an event occurs. The message pops up on a designated PC for each technician and requires the tool tray escalatorclient.exe program to be running.

The type of action that occurs is defined for each technician using the technicians setup screen. A fine degree of granularity can be set to try to control the level of messaging which can be intrusive and counter productive if not set at an appropriate level.

You can optionally choose to send notification messages to a primary and secondary technician when requests for a selected Area/Client come in. See below for details.

Client Program

To use the POP-UP method, the technician's PC needs to run the NhEscalatorClient.exe program located in the NetHelpDesk programs folder. Simply startup this program in the PC's startup group.

Server Program

There is a program called NhServer.exe located in the NetHelpDesk programs folder that needs to run in order to carry out the escalation process. It scans the database at the frequency you choose. You can run this on a server or a workstation and leave it running minimized on the task bar. Once configured, you could run it as an NT service on an NT server or Workstation using the SRVANY command available in the NT Resource Kit.

There are two command line parameters available. The first is the name of the .udl file. The second can be 'AUTO' or 'ONCE'. If this is set to 'AUTO', then the program immediately starts scanning when activated. If it is set to 'ONCE' it runs once and exits. This is for use with the NT task scheduler. If neither value is chosen, you have to click the 'Start Scan' button manually.

The use of the 'ONCE' parameter and the NT/W2K task scheduler seems to be an effective way to run the NHserver program as it can be fine tuned to schedule around your backup and other tasks.

Sample screen shots are shown below of the configuration 1 and 2 tabs:

To set the parameters for the escalation system, run the NhServer.exe program without the parameter 'AUTO', and set the values required. Then click on save settings to save them to the PC's cnet2.ini file.

First Config Tab:

Set the POP3 parameters for incoming requests. This will be the name of the POP3 server at your site, and a username and password that is allocated by your POP3 administrator to the helpdesk email account. See below for more details about the POP3 interface.

You can scan up to two POP3 servers. If you only wish to scan one, leave the second server fields blank.

Set the SMTP parameters for outgoing emails from the escalator and the acknowledgements of users requests. This will be the name of the SMTP server that you connect to for sending emails. Set the address which you wish the email to appear to have come from. If the SMTP server requires that you authenticate before sending an email enter the username and password too.

Second Config Tab:

Set the values required for the new requests that are created from incoming emails such as who they assigned to way in which unmatched email addresses.are handled. See below for details of the POP3 Interface.

Having set these, tick the check boxes that enable the functions you require in the 'features and settings boxes'. If you are unsure of the correct values for the parameters it is sensible to check the boxes one at a time and verify that the function is working as expected.

You can also test out the messaging functions by using the test message options on the following screen:

An option to clear out any unsent or aborted messages is available on the server screen.

The status of services is displayed on the escalator screen too:

POP3 Email Interface

The POP3 interface is part of the NHserver program. It scans a defined POP3 mailbox on a mail server of your choice. Typically you would create an email address such as helpdesk@xxx.co.uk which you inform users about. End users should send their requests and problems to this email address. The POP3 interface then scans the mailbox associated with email address to retrieve and process messages.

To report a problem, users simply email this address. The subject and body of the email are used to create a new request in the database. For backward compatibility it is possible to format the message using a template, but this is probably more trouble to implement. Attachements can optionally be processed and stored in a folder that has the name of the helpdesk request id.

There are various options to do with the way in which incoming emails are matched to the NetHelpDesk area/client, site and user and lists. You set these options in the config 2 screen. The idea is to take the incoming email address and match or relate it to a NetHelpDesk user. If a match cannot be made, then either a new user is created, or a catch-all user can be used.

The email address used to send the email is matched to the Nethelpdesk user list. Each NetHelpDesk user has an email address field on the user details screen. If an exact match is found the request is logged against that user. If no match is found you can:

a) First choose to try to match the incoming email domain name to the sites in NetHelpDesk. Each site has a field that contains the email domain name for that site. If a match is found then the email is presumed to be related to that site and thus to a particular client. For example, you can use the site edit screen to set the email domain name for Client One/Site One to be 'acme.co.uk'. Then if an email comes in from 'john@acme.co.uk' it will be associated with the site called Site One.

b) If there is no match to the email domains, then you can choose to allocate all of the unmatched emails to a selected site. So all of the unmatched emails will go to that site. You can also choose which user name at that site should receive the emails. Since every site has a system user called 'general user', you may wish to use that user for unmatched emails.

c) Optionally you can create new NetHelpDesk users for unmatched email addresses. They will be created under the site which you have selected by the rules above. When the user is created you can choose to just use the 'name' part of the email address, or to use the whole email address as the user name.

Optionally the email is acknowledged and the user informed of the request id. This can be turned off at the user level on the user details screen.

In the following sample screen shot, two help desk request messages have been received from users via email.

Confirmation Messages are also optionally sent for requests that are entered via the Windows client. If the checkbox 'confirm by email' is ticked on the new requests screen, then the NHserver program will send an email to the user confirming his request.

The content of the message is controlled via the 'message' option button in the setup screen of the main NetHelpDesk program. A sample screen shot is shown below of the message types that can be amended as required:

The technician that the new request is assigned to is controlled seperately for the email interface. New requests that are entered via the Windows Interface and the Web Interface are assigned based on settings in the Windows interface new requests setup screen. For incoming emails the settings are set on the config tab of the NHserver program.

The requests can be assigned to one technician or you can choose to assign them based on the Area/Client for which the request is based. This option is chosen in the technician assigned to box. If you choose to assign based on Area/Client then you must configure each Area/Client using the edit area/client screen shown below:

Each Area/Client can have a primary and secondary technician. You can choose to assign requests to that technician. You can also choose to be notified of any requests for that Area/Client.

If you want to assign by Area/client, remember to choose that option in the NHserver technician box on screen config 2. If you want the Windows and Web Interfaces to also use that assignment method, then choose that in the Windows setup new request screen too.