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Major components and their roles

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Major components and their roles

Connection Point Services (CPS) consists of two major components: Phone Book Service (PBS) and Phone Book Administrator (PBA).

Phone Book Service

Phone Book Service (PBS) is an Internet Information Services (IIS) extension. When users query your phone book server, PBS automatically compares their phone book versions with the most recent files in your database and then downloads the appropriate updates to the Connection Manager profiles residing on their computers.

To run PBS, your server must be using IIS running both File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and the World Wide Web (WWW) services. The FTP service accepts updated phone book information posted from Phone Book Administrator (PBA), and the WWW service handles Connection Manager queries. For more information about PBS and security, see Security information for Connection Point Services.

Phone Book Administrator (PBA)

PBA enables you to do the following:

  • Create and edit up to one hundred unique phone books. Each phone book is a collection of POPs, each one represented by a local access number for a specific region within a country or dependency.

  • Choose service types (connection settings, such as ISDN access or multicast connection) for each POP. Service types, also called POP settings, help users to easily find POPs that suit their needs.

  • Add and delete new regions and POPs.

  • Associate POPs with network configurations defined in Connection Manager.

  • Publish new phone book information to PBS.

  • Using the command-line interface, import phone book information from other applications for distribution to end users.

Before publishing, or posting, to the server, PBA uses a utility to compress the phone book files, increasing the speed at which you can download the new information to your users.

Connection Manager

Connection Manager is not an actual component of CPS; it is a companion software package that you must have in order to use CPS.

Connection Manager is a client dialer and connection software tool that you can customize by using the Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK), which is a wizard that you run to build a customized service profile (a set of files that you distribute to your users so they can easily install and run your custom version of Connection Manager). Connection Manager supports a variety of features:

  • Branding: You can customize the graphics, icons, logon messages, and Help.

  • Custom actions: You can customize functionality, including your own programs to enhance the connection experience for your users.

  • Simplified distribution: You can create a self-installing executable file that can be distributed on compact disc or downloaded by your users.

  • Custom phone books: Using the CMAK wizard, you can specify the phone books to be provided to your users. Using PBS, you can provide automatic phone book updates when your users log on. And to simplify maintenance, you can combine existing phone books by merging existing service profiles.

Notes

  • PBA and PBS need a TCP/IP connection in order to post phone book information through FTP.

  • FTP service must reside on your server. If you do not want FTP to run while PBA is not in use, stop the service through the Internet Services Manager and then enable it when you are ready to post. Do not uninstall FTP, because doing so will automatically uninstall PBS.

  • You can use the current version of PBS with earlier versions of PBA.