CometAnywhere provides remote application processing capability for LANs, WANs, and the Internet. CometAnywhere consists of two types of machines: a host system and one or more remote clients. The host system does not need to be a "dedicated" machine. It can be any Comet system, including a machine that's used for local Comet applications (and even other Windows applications).
  • The host system runs Comet and has one or more remote console sessions configured. A CometAnywhere license is required to enable this feature.

  • The remote client runs the "front end" of Comet and establishes communication with the host system via a network or over the Internet.

  • All Comet application processing is done on the host system. The remote client is simply a virtual workstation.
Thus, it is possible to build a CometAnywhere network where one machine does the processing and others perform the input/output. CometAnywhere uses TCP/IP to transmit data packets between the host and remote systems.

The host system consists of a complete Comet installation, while the remote system requires only a few files. Setup is accomplished by running CAInstall.exe on the remote. CAInstall.exe is a universal installation program for all Comet Anywhere Clients regardless of the version of the host computer. It installs all of the files required by the client:

  • Comet.exe - The program used to startup Comet
  • CosW.exe - The Comet session; the window in which Comet runs
  • CosP.exe - The Comet printer driver for Windows, pdf, and archiving printers
  • All required .dlls
  • A shortcut in the Comet Anywhere folder to start the client
  • Optionally, a desktop shortcut to start the client
  • Uninstallation capability which may be run from "Add/Remove Programs"
When you run the installation, you will be asked to select a destination folder. The default is: C:\Program Files\Signature Systems, Inc.\CometAnywhere Use the "Browse" button to select a different destination.

You may optionally specify a host server so that Comet Anywhere will automatically connect when started. This may be an IP address or server name such as OurCompany.net. This will be appended to the Comet Anywhere startup command line following the /NET: parameter. If you do not specify a host server, you will be prompted for the host information each time Comet Anywhere is started.

If the version of CosW installed by the installation is not the same as the version running on the host, the client can be updated either automatically when it connects (any version of Comet) or manually by running CAUPD. Therefore, you need not worry about which version is running on the host when you install the client. There is only one version of the installation program.

Once installed, the remote client sessions are configured using the SYSGEN configuration utility. Your CometAnywhere license determines how many remote sessions may be configured. A remote session is a Type 3 session. Here's a sample line from a configuration file showing the configuration of sessions 002 through 010 as remote sessions:

Session = 002-010,P02,3,F0,80,FF,F0,B0;

Users are not sessions. Thus, a remote user who wants dual screen capability requires two sessions on the host machine.

Remote sessions are assigned dynamically, as needed. For example, if you have 5 remote sessions configured, they can serve one user with 5 sessions, 5 simultaneous users with one session each, or any other combination adding up to 5 sessions. Here's an interesting application of this assignment scheme. Suppose you have 50 remote users. However, at any given time suppose you expect no more than 10 of them to be connected to your host system. You could configure (and license) 10 remote sessions that would serve these users 10 at a time.

 

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