Top Operations and Installation Items that all MyPMS clients should be aware of


Operation

  1. Single Click in BookingCenter – ALWAYS. Being a web based system, you never need to double click, only single click within BookingCenter.
  2. Re-boot all workstations at least once a day during your down time; you can do this twice perhaps on a typically busy day.
  3. Run the Windows Update at least once every four days to check for Windows and IE updates.
  4. If things are slow – watch the IE browser (Windows logo; top right hand corner) screen and make sure the request has fully processed before clicking any button again. Please be patient, as clicking any button twice will send two requests to the BookingCenter server, thus slowing down things even further.
  5. Make sure you have only one session (one browser) open that is running BookingCenter.
  6. Only use the buttons within the Booking Menu (Front Desk, Reservations, Reports, etc). Never use the Internet Explorer Toolbar buttons; for example, ‘Back’, ‘Forward’, ‘Home’, ‘Refresh’, etc.
  7. Keep all other software off or closed when running BookingCenter; look at Task Manger to see what applications or resources are taking up memory.
  8. Make sure you run and keep you Virus Scan updated; do not do this while BookingCenter is running.

Installation

  1. Make sure you are running Internet Explorer (IE) version 6.0 or higher.
  2. Ensure that Java is installed and running properly. This can be tested by going to http://mypms.bookingcenter.com/applets/ and if you see “Applets work” you are fine. If you do not see this result, see below under the heading Installing the JVM for MyPMS to fix the problem.
  3. Keep your cache settings up-to-date within Internet Explorer. Please check that they are correct. They should be as follows:
    1. In Internet Explorer (IE), you can get to these options by the top toolbar of 'Tools' -> 'Internet Options'
    2. Under the 'General' tab, you will see in the middle of the screen, there is a page called 'Temporary Internet Files' -> Choose the last button "Settings".
    3. For 'Check for newer versions of stored pages:' - It should be 'AUTOMATICALLY'. Then click "Ok"
    4. Shut down your browser and then re-start it.

ActiveX Errors in Internet Explorer 7 or Vista

To fix an annoying ActiveX pop-up message on Internet Explorer 7 when you go to a new page on MyPMS, do the following: Tools, Internet Options, Security, Custom Level, Automatic Prompting for ActiveX controls should be enabled. This may NOT be enaqbled for your browser, so make it ENABLED for your browser.

Modify Folio and Right Clicking the Tape Chart Errors in Internet Explorer 7

This problem is specific to Internet Explorer 7.0 browser. IE 7.0 blocked the prompt option at the default security level.

Following configuration requires to support the feature.

  1. Click on the menu Tools -> Internet Options -> and click Security Tab.
  2. Click on the button 'Custom Level'.
  3. In the new window, scroll the 'Settings' list until
    you see the 'Allow the websites to prompt for information using scripted windows
  4. Select the "Enable" radio button.
  5. Click OK on the second window and then click OK on first window
    close the browser, start the browser again.

It should work for editing folio lines and tape chart right click menus.

Installing the JVM for MyPMS

MyPMS requires a JVM to be loaded so that the feature for linking to past Guests, Companies, Agents, and Sources can load automatically. It is a free component and is usually installed with all new Windows computers. We are experiencing problems with making this work for Macintosh computers.

Simply visit: http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

When you go to this page, you should get a message saying "Java Software Installed". If Java is NOT installed, it will automatically start the install process and detect your OS and all that stuff.

Preventing Access to Other Websites besides those recommended in the MyPMS Manual.

It is best to use a proper router/firewall/proxy, and many consumer level router have the required features to limit access to teh list of websites required. * see the MyPMS Manual for a list of sites to allow access through.

However, if you don't want to invest in a router, there is a 'cheap fix' that does produce the expected results that can be done on each computer. There is instructions for doing so at http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBG/TIP3100/rh3162.htm.

Security of MyPMS

Some customers have worried that their employees, by using a web browser system, will waste too much time surfing Interent sites. There are two ways to 'help' them avoid doing this:

The Gateway/Router approach

This is the easiest way to settle this dilema. This approach makes it so that your staff CAN NOT override the browser settings nor download a new browser to search the web would be to make a very simple change to your local router. Even consumer routers will allow you to set which traffic can come and go - and no matter what happens at the individual PC level, the router will deny traffic to any resources that have not been specifically allowed. Ideally, a customer would have a firewall enforcing that the only access to the web is from the proxy/router machine.
We recommend the following settings for most standard routers or proxy servers:

  1. Make an Admin name/password login to your router so that it can be set and altered only by qualified personnel.
  2. Set the 'IP Filtering' to only allow IP traffic on Port 80 (HTTP requests) and 443 (SSL requests) to the IP address of the BookingCenter servers and and other IP addresses or domain names (such as google.com or your corporate websites) that you want to be able to access.
  3. Save the changes.

After this has been set, when a user attempts to visit, say, www.Yahoo.com, the router will not allow them out and will provide a 'restricted' message.

The browser configuration approach

There are ways of using Windows 2000 and XP to restrict User Logins. This could be used, for example, to enforce that User1 makes no changes to their Internet Explorer environment that was set to only allow access to certain websites, but User2 might be able to visit more websites, and User3 could visit all websites without restriction. This approach allows restriction to be set per user's web browser - allowing some users total access, others limited access. Managing User logins like this requires a system administrator or other technical resource.

Locked Out Users - user gets told to contact support after 3 errant login attempts

A security feature was added in order to prevent automated login attempts. The locked account can be unlocked by the hotel manager or support team from the user setup screen. Your manager user simply has to log in to the property, go to Front Desk > Setup > Hotel > Users, find the locked out user, and click the link attached to the ID, uncheck the "locked" checkbox. and click DONE.

Connection Issues - can not find MyPMS.BookingCenter.com

There is an in-depth discussion on this topic in the BookingCenter Manual, but for a quick fix for not being able to connect to the BookingCenter servers, one might try the following:/p>

Try opening http://www.bookingcenter.com and then try opening http://mypms.bookingcenter.com once the computer has resolved where ' BookingCenter.com ' resides. Often this works fine for DNS errors and this forces teh DNS server to update its listing.

If this still doesn't work, go direct to another interface we keep available at: http://205.237.197.198 and that ought to work OK. Do not use this host as a standard, however, as it frequently changes.

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