The Network Database
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8–1
8
The Network Database
8.1 This chapter
This chapter deals with the Network Database - how to define it, how it is
used and what each entry means.
8.2 The Role of the Network Database
Information about the devices on your network is stored in the Network
Database. Each device has an entry in the database containing
everything PCNC needs to know in order to connect to it and process its
alert messages. Current status information received from the network
itself is also stored. The contents of the database are displayed in the
Network Inspector window.
Each device is identified, both internally and by PCNC, using a unique
Poll number. However, PCNC allows you to assign a unique
name to
each device in the database. This could be its location eg ‘Glasgow
Depot’ or anything else that will make it obvious which device it is. Once
the device is defined in this way, PCNC refers to it by name rather than
by its Poll number, making network supervision much easier.
This database is stored within PCNC, but is saved periodically (at
intervals defined in PCNC.INI) to a disk file called PCNC.DAT. When
you exit the program, the latest version of the database is saved. When
you reload, PCNC automatically reads the database back from this file.
It is a good idea to keep a safe backup of this file to ensure that
