Welcome To WhosOn Installable Edition.
WhosOn enables you to track visitors on your web sites in real time and to engage your visitors via live chat and click-to-call-back. WhosOn will help to improve customer service and increase sales conversions by giving your visitors a fast and secure way of communicating with you whilst they are still on your web site. The Installable Edition of WhosOn is a self-contained, self-hosted live visitor tracking & live chat solution. It provides the same functionality of our Hosted edition, but without the on-going costs.
After installing WhosOn, start the WhosOn Administrator from your start menu. The WhosOn Administrator will ask for a user name & password. The default user is 'Admin' with no password.
When you start the Administrator for the first time, the Create Database Wizard will start. You need to run through this wizard to create the WhosOn Database. See: Creating The WhosOn Database
Once you have created the WhosOn Database, the WhosOn Administrator will start the WhosOn Server services.
Setting Up WhosOn Involves the following steps:
1. Adding a 'Site' to WhosOn
A 'site' is generally one of your web sites, or you can split a large website into multiple 'sites' in WhosOn. You can create as many sites in WhosOn as you need.
2. Setting Your Public IP Address
Before visitors can be tracked or chat requests can be taken, you must specify the Public IP Address or DNS Name of your WhosOn Server.
3. Embedding The WhosOn Tracking Code Into Your Web Pages
Once the public IP/DNS name is specified, you use the WhosOn Client to generate the tracking code for the 'site'. You then add this code to your web pages and upload the amended pages to your web server. It doesn't matter to WhosOn where or how your web site is hosted. It can be on any type of web server in any location.
4. Testing
Once the code is embedded and uploaded to your website you will start to see live visitor activity in the WhosOn Client. A 'click to chat' will appear on your web pages at the location where you placed the tracking code.
5. Add More Sites
Once you have verified that visitor tracking and live chat are working, then you can add more sites to WhosOn.
6. Distribute The WhosOn Client
You can install the WhosOn Client on any number of PC's to enable multiple operators to monitor your web sites and respond to chat requests.
The New Site Wizard will start automatically if no sites have been created. You can start the New Site Wizard manually by clicking the Add Site button from the toolbar.
If you are running IIS to host your website on the same server as WhosOn then you can import the site details from IIS itself. If your website is hosted elsewhere then unselect the Import A Site From IIS option. Click Next to continue.
Enter your site Name and Domain Name. Click Next to continue.
You can now select the Visitor Tracking Method.
WhosOn can track visitors using JavaScript 'Tracking Code' that you embed into your web pages (this method is sometimes called 'page tagging'), or by using the log files from your web server. Page tagging is the recommended option - since it provides faster performance and accuracy. Log files can only be used if WhosOn is being run on your web server itself. Select Use The WhosOn Gateway option and click Next to continue.
The Allow Remote Access To This Site Via The WhosOn Client option needs to be enabled. This will allow you to view the visitor activity for this site via the WhosOn Client.
You can specify a User Name & Password for this site. If a user name/password is specified then only users of the WhosOn Client that connect with the same username/password will be able to see this site in their visitor views and reports. If you leave the username/password blank then the default system-wide username will be assumed.
Click Next to continue.
Enter the Email Address and Contact Name for this site. WhosOn will can send various alerts and reports via email. Enter the address to receive these for this site. If the email address is left blank then the default email address will be assumed. Click Next to continue.
The Wizard is now complete. Click the Send Setup Email button if you want WhosOn to send a setup email to the address specified. This setup email contains the download link and login information for the WhosOn Client.
Click the Finish button to close the Wizard. The site will then be added to WhosOn.
You can edit the Site Properties for an existing site, by selecting it in the WhosOn Administrator and clicking the Edit Site button (or right-click the site and choose Site Properties).
Before visitors can be tracked or chat requests can be taken, you must specify the Public IP Address or DNS Name of your WhosOn Server. A 'public' IP address is the Internet IP address that is visible to other users on the Internet and is 'static'. A static IP address is one that does not change each time you connect to the Internet.
To set your public IP or DNS name, select the Public IP Setup Wizard option from the File menu:
Note: The 'File' menu is opened by clicking the large round button in the top left corner of the Administrator window or by pressing ALT-F.
Enter your Public IP address or DNS Name. If you have registered a DNS name for your public IP then you should enter the DNS name. Use the Lookup My Public IP button if you do not know your public IP address. Click Next to complete the wizard.
Users With Dynamic IP Address
If you do not have a static IP address you can use a service that maps a permanent DNS name to a dynamic IP. For example, http://www.nettica.com - once you have a permanent DNS name use you should specify this in the Wizard.
Checking Your Firewall/Router
If you are using a firewall, ensure that ports 8080 & 8011 are open. This will allow WhosOn page tagging requests and WhosOn Client users to connect from the Internet. If you use port-forwarding on your router, ensure that traffic on these ports are forwarded to the WhosOn PC (most routers will do this automatically).
Start the WhosOn Client from the WhosOn Start menu. The WhosOn Client is used to monitor your web site visitors and to view reports and take chat requests. The Client can be run on remote PC's. It connects to the WhosOn Server via TCP/IP port 8011.
You will see your newly added site in the Monitored Sites tree. Click it so that it is selected.
Click the Options tab on the ribbon bar.
Now click the Create Tracking Code button.
The code that you need to embed into your pages will be shown (for SSL pages select the SSL Pages tab).
Click the Copy To Clipboard button to copy the code to your clipboard. You can then paste it into the HTML of your web pages and upload the changed pages to your web server.
You can view a test page to check that everything is working. Click the Create A Test Page button.
If you do not maintain your web site code yourself, click the Email To Web Designer button to create an email message to send to your web designer.
You can customize that chat graphics on the Visitor Chat tab of the Site Properties.
Note: If you change your public IP/DNS name via the Public IP Setup Wizard then you will need to restart the WhosOn Client and re-generate your tracking code, since the address referenced in the tracking code will have changed.
Once the code is embedded and uploaded to your website you will start to see live visitor activity in the WhosOn Client. A 'click to chat' will appear on your web pages at the location where you placed the tracking code (you can change this image via the Site Properties in the WhosOn Client).
Once the code is embedded you will start seeing visitors appear in your WhosOn Client. Right-click a visitor to view visit details or send chat 'invites'. Visitors will be able to click the:
..link to start a chat session.
Open your website in your browser and click the Chat Link. The Chat Window will appear. Enter your name and click the Start Chat button. You will then be able to chat to yourself via the WhosOn Client.
Once you have verified that visitor tracking and live chat are working, then you can add more sites to WhosOn. Use the Add Site button in the WhosOn Administrator. Follow the same procedure to generate the tracking code. You can assign a user name/password to each site if you want different users of the WhosOn Client to only see certain sites.
You can install the WhosOn Client on any number of PC's to enable multiple operators to monitor your web sites and respond to chat requests. The WhosOn Client setup program can be downloaded from our web site at http://www.whoson.com/downloads.aspx - download the WhosOn Client .
The Client will work on your internal network, or across the Internet. If users are connecting across the Internet then they will specify the Public IP/DNS name of your WhosOn Server when connecting. Internal network users can use the internal address. You do not need to setup a database on Client PC's.
Use the WhosOn Client to watch your visitor activity and to respond to chat requests. Explore the Site Properties via your WhosOn Client (right-click the site in the WhosOn Client and select Site Properties). Upload your own click-to-chat graphics and try sending some proactive 'invite' requests. Read the WhosOn Client chapter in the help.
Visitor Tracking Not Working
1. Make sure the tracking code is referencing your public IP/DNS name and not 'localhost'. If the tracking code contains a link to 'localhost' then you will have generated the tracking code before setting your public IP. Try restarting the WhosOn Services and WhosOn Client and re-generating the tracking code.
2. Check that port 8080 is open on your firewall. If your public IP address is assigned to your router and not the WhosOn PC itself, then make sure that port forwarding is setup on your router to route traffic for port 8080 to the WhosOn PC.
3. Check no other applications are using port 8080. If so, you can change the port via the WhosOn Administrator - Program Options - Remote Access - WhosOn Gateway - Listen For Page Tagging Requests On Port. If you change the port you will need to restart the WhosOn Services and re-generate the tracking code.
4. Make sure the WhosOn Server service is started.
Chat Window Not Displaying
1. Make sure that IIS is installed and started on the WhosOn PC. Ensure that .NET Framework 2 is installed and enabled.
2. Check that the 'chat' virtual directory has been created under your Default Web Site (this should have been done automatically as part of the WhosOn setup).
3. Make sure that Default Web Site is started.
4. Check that port 80 is open on your firewall (and port 443 if you are using the chat over SSL).
5. If you have deleted or stopped the Default Web Site in IIS then you can create a 'chat' virtual directory under one of your other web sites. Point the virtual directory to the C:\Program Files\WhosOnV5\Chat\ folder. If you change the 'chat' virtual directory location then you will need to specify the 'chat url' setting in the WhosOn Administrator - Program Options - Chat Server - Chat URL. If you change this setting, restart the WhosOn Server service.
Client Users Cannot Connect
1. Make sure port 8011 is open on the firewall (check both hardware and Windows firewalls). If users are connecting over the Internet and your public ip address is assigned to your router and not the WhosOn PC itself, then make sure that port forwarding is setup on your router to route traffic for port 8011 to the WhosOn PC.
2. Make sure Client Users are specifying the correct 'Authentication String' in their connection options. The Authentication string is set in the WhosOn Administrator - Program Options - Remote Access - Remote Clients - Authentication String.
3. Make sure Client Users are specifying the correct User Name & Password. You can define a global user name/password in the WhosOn Administrator - Program Options - Remote Access - Remote Clients - Default User Name/Password. Users who connect with this user name will see ALL sites that you have setup. You can define 'site specific' user names against each site.
If you continue to have problems contact our support department. We provide, email, live chat and telephone support. We also offer an installation service if you want us to setup the WhosOn Server for you.
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