Discovery Wizard
The built-in discovery wizard is a useful tool for folks who want to run SynaMan on a machine that uses a Dynamic IP address. Consider the following scenario where using the Discovery Wizard comes in handy.
- You are running SynaMan on your home computer and want to connect to it from your office
- The Internet in your home runs on a Dynamic IP. This is the case with most ISP for example, Comcast, Verizon FIOS, etc.
- Since the IP address of your home network changes frequently, you cannot connect from your office machine by typing the IP address in the browser's URL.
- The Discovery Wizard helps you located your home machine from anywhere on the Internet using a static URL.
How does it work
Following happen when you enable the Discovery Wizard.
- You choose a one-word name for your machine. This becomes the part of your domain name. For example, if you choose myhome as this word, you will be able to connect to your home machine by typing http://myhome.synaman.com in any browser.
- Your installation of SynaMan will frequently ping our web server, which records the IP address your ping comes from.
- When a user on the Internet types http://myhome.synaman.com in their browser, the request comes to our web server, which then redirects the client to your home machine.
- Once the client's browser is redirected, our web server no longer stays in the picture and the client talks directly to your host machine.
Enabling Discovery Wizard
The discovery wizard is disabled by default. Follow the steps below to enable it.
- Log in to SynaMan using the admin account.
- Click Discovery Wizard's link under Quick Links on the right hand side.
- Click next until it asks for a one-word name. Specify a unique name that you can remember and share with other users.
- Complete the process.
