Technical Support

W0015 (Revision 17 )

SuperSpell 2 Database Server Connection Problems

Platform: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2 or later; Mac OS X
Program(s):

You get a message when you try and start SuperSpell 2 or the Teacher Utility saying that the Database server is not running.

Solution:

You will need to:

  1. Ensure that the database server service is running on the server.
    Windows Server: You need to use the Services administrative tool to do this. You should see SuperSpell 2 Database in the Name column, Started in the Status column and Automatic in the Startup Type column. If the status is not Started you need to right click on SuperSpell 2 Database and choose Start from the menu.
  2. Ensure that the database server port is accessible through any firewalls.
    If you have a firewall enabled (this is the default on Windows 2008) then you need to allow TCP port 4901 to be accessed though the firewall on the server.
    Windows 2003 or later: The easiest way to do this is to download and run ss2dbfirewall.cmd on the server
    or to use the following command on the server:
            netsh firewall add portopening TCP 4901 "SuperSpell 2 Database"
  3. Ensure that the server is accessible via TCP/IP
    To do this from a client you can either

    1. Download SS2DBFinder (Windows) or SS2DBFinder (Mac OS X) and run it on a client machine.
      SS2DBFinder lists all SuperSpell 2 Database servers running on the client's subnet. It also reports servers which accept connections on the SuperSpell 2 Database port (TCP 4901) but are not running the SuperSpell 2 Database on that port.
      If your server is not listed but is running you need to ensure that a firewall is not blocking TCP port 4901.
      If your server is listed as not running the SuperSpell 2 Database there is a conflict for port 4901 on the server and the SuperSpell 2 Database lost. You may need to change the order the services are loaded. For windows servers see Microsoft knowledge base article 193888 for details on how to do this. You need to make the conflicting service dependent on the SuperSpell 2 Database service.
      You can then use one of the IP addresses listed instead of the server name when installing and in the SuperSpell 2 NetSettings utility.
    or
    1. Windows & Mac clients: Use the following command:
              ping server_name
      where server_name is the name of the server.
      If a message is returned saying that the host could not be found then try the ping command with the server's IP address instead.
      If it works with the IP address then use the IP address instead of the server name when installing and in the SuperSpell 2 NetSettings utility.
      If you can ping the server then you need to use the SS2DBFinder above to check that the SuperSpell 2 Database service is running and using TCP port 4901.