BIM Server Access - internally and remotely with a fixed IP

[Chadi SAROUFIM]

Good morning,

Working on ArchiCAD and having some issues while connecting from outside the office to the BIM server. In ArchiCAD 17 and earlier the BIM would recognize if we were inside the office and use the internal IP address our outside of the office and use the fixed IP of the server and connect accordingly.

Now in ArchiCAD 18 it is not the same case. The inside or outside connection are two BIM servers. So I opted for the users working outside the office to use the fixed IP all of the time. The problem is that whenever they are inside the office ArchiCAD keeps on popping and asking for the username and password to access the BIM server from inside the office and not through the fixed IP. If one falls in this trap and puts in his/her credentials, the files are no longer accessible from outside the office.

Is this the correct way?!

[Ed_Brown]

From v18 and on, you should avoid ip addresses and non-qualified machine names to access the BIM Manager.

An example:
The computer you installed the BIM Manager on is : BIM-ManagerComputer
You used the default port: 1228
Your domain is: example.com

Then within the local area network and outside it you would use:
http://BIM-ManagerComputer.example.com:1228

Your browser and ArchiCAD will add the "http://" part so you can also type in simply:
BIM-ManagerComputer.example.com:1228

Your DNS server will redirect this name to the appropriate ip address.

If you use other methods there will be surprises, like missing libraries. I think you have bumped into those. Here is another you might see. Suppose in the above example somebody uses \\BIM-ManagerComputer:1228 (* note: the domain is not used only the machine name *) to share a project. Another person using an IP address will not see the libraries of that shared project. So the moral of the story is use a Fully Qualified Domain Name.

One other pointer: If you choose to use port 80, then in your browser you only need to type:
BIM-ManagerComputer.example.com

(For the http protocol port 80 is the default, so if you use it when setting up your BIM Manager, then it doesn't need to be supplied when you connect)

Hope this helps,

Ed

[Chadi SAROUFIM]

Dear Ed, thank you for your reply.

I have followed your advice but have bumped into one issue:
the BIM server address is http://BIM-ManagerComputer.example.local:1228 and when accessing from outside the office it does not work.

The domain.local is used inside the office and not domain.com

Any ideas?

Thank you for your help.