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I am having trouble installing the software |
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If I experience an error in the software, how do I get support? |
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When the software detects a software error, it records that error in a
file to help us diagnose the problem. The name of the error log file is
IPPROT.LOG and is stored in the installation directory.
Start the IP Protector application and use this technique to create an e-mail to send to support.
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Or, to find the installation directory where this file is stored on your
computer click here.
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How do I make a backup copy of my time stamps and signatures? |
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You should regularly backup the files below to another location (e.g. CD
or floppy disk). It is crucial that the documents that you have time stamped
also be preserved without changing their contents.
Your time stamp certificates are stored on your computer in these two files:
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- IPPDB3.odb
- IPPDB3.odt
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To find the directory where these files are stored on your computer click here. This window also allows you to specify the directory used.
The directory name will be "eTime". For example, on my computer
it is stored at "C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\eTime"
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to a file on your computer. To use export, start the IP-Protector software
and click the "Export" button on the main window. This is described
here. |
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The software says "Failed Internet communications" when I try
to create a time stamp? |
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The problem you are seeing is related to the connection to the Internet.
You need to diagnose why the Java/IP Protector program is not able to access
the Internet. Ideas:
- Do you have local firewall software like Zonealarm, Blackice or some versions
of Norton prevent programs from accessing the Internet? You may need to
configure local firewall software to allow the DigiStamp software to access
the Internet. (The Windows XP firewall should not be causing this problem).
Please disable or turn-off the firewall and perform the same test?
- Establish and test your Internet connection before starting the IP Protector
software. Exit and restart the IP Protector software if this error occurs.
Symptom, what the software says when trying to create a time stamp:
Calculating Hash value for xxxx
Transmitting request to (SSL) TSA1
Communications failure will retry 1 more times Transmitting request to
(SSL) TSA2
Communications failure Failed Internet communications |
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I want to change where the software stores my signatures and time stamps |
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For example, you may want to store your data on a central network storage
device. There are two approaches. We suggest that you use the "export"
method below.
"Export" the time stamp and your data immediately after they
are created. This is described here. Using this method you would then have two copies, one copy in your local
environment and the exported copies. We suggest not using the "zip"
option for this purpose of creating backups as it makes your data a little
more difficult to manage. This method is convenient because you can readily
identify the file names of the documents and their time stamps in the export
target directory. This method is more reliable because it separates your
data from the use of IP Protector. That is, the two files created in an
export, e.g. "myData.doc" and "myData.doc.p7s", and
stored in a way that any software that understands signature/time stamps
can view the data - you are not dependant upon the IP Protector software.
Another alternative is to configure IP Protector to save its databases
in an alternate location. The configuration option is show here . This option is not available unless you have created at least one time
stamp. This is an advanced option and you should not use this unless you
are comfortable with moving files on your computer. Also, moving the database
files to a "network drive" can cause problems if that network
drive is not always available when you run IP Protector. We suggest that
you use the "export" method above.
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I get this error "Signature not verified - Unable to locate public
key certificate and could not verify the signature (6)..." |
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BACKGROUND: A time stamp is verified using a public key certificates. A
single public/private key-pair will be used to create many timestamps at
the DigiStamp server.
To resolve:
- Display a time stamp that has not verified in the right side of the "manage"
tab.
- Click the printer icon / button in the upper right. Scroll down in the
print preview window to the field labeled "Public key serial number".
- The serial number is part of the name of the certificate file. For example
for serial number 46, then you need to import the DigiStamp certificate
in the file DGS46.CER. Download that particular serial number certificate
from here
- Go to the third tab, called "user preferences". Use the import
button at the bottom left to "import" the certificate into the
section labeled "Trusted for this Application".
After the import you will need to close and reopen the IPP software to
force it to revalidate using the newly imported certificate. Also, there
is information here that demonstrates the relationship within the IPP software; see the two
camera / screen prints.
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What advice can you give me about long-term data storage? |
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Consider that floppy disks are a reliable storage for the 1-3 year horizon.
After that, there is risk of the floppy disk loosing some data. Time stamps
are sensitive to any data change. You may want to make two copies. Or,
if the storage period is longer, consider tape or the better choice is
copying to a CD-ROM.
Long term archiving of digital data is a challenging task. Especially when
preserving the data for 10, 50 or more years. There are many opinions on
this subject and the solution to your particular situation may vary. Long
term archiving of digital data is a subject of research for several government
and independent organizations. We provide some references at the end of
this section.
Below we provide some suggestions and ideas for preserving your digital
data.
Media decay - Storage of the media is a key factor in the longevity. Consider controlling
temperature, exposure to sunlight and pollution. Tape and diskette are
the most susceptible to handling the effects of the environment and some
opinions state that these mediums are reliable only for about 3 years.
Manufacturers of CD-ROMs sometimes claim their product is reliable for
a hundred years or more. The newer CD-ROM’s are more reliable; 25 years
seems a reasonable estimate. But the industry does not have sufficient
experience to truly know how long a CD-ROM will last. CD-R is probably
a better choice as compared to CD-W. Always choose high quality products.
Some opinions are the DAT or DLT are a good choice.
Another practical approach to minimize the risk of media decay is storing
several copies of your digital data. That would be, for example, writing
the data to two different CD-ROM’s or minimally writing the data twice
to the same CD-ROM.
Hardware obsolescence – This is the situation where the media you have recorded is not supported
by current hardware. We suggest a media like CD-ROMs will be available
for many years to come.
A solution to media decay and hardware obsolescence can be a practice of
“migrating to new storage” by moving you data to newer mediums over time.
This would be for example, copying you diskettes to CD-ROM today. Later,
copying the CD-ROMs to whatever is a predominant media in 5-10 year horizon.
Software obsolescence – This is the situation where the software used to create your digital
data is no longer available at some future point. It is unclear how significant
of a risk this poses. For example, there are common formats today that
are used heavily with millions of dollars invested in government and independent
archives. There is good reason to think that common formats like – PDF,
TIFF, Jpeg, MS Word, and others – will be, at a minimum, readable for a
long period of time. One practical suggest is to not “compress” the data
before writing to your storage media to remove the compression as a factor.
As reference:
- U.S. Library of Congress Services of the Preservation Research and Testing
Division and here
- An article by Jeff Rothenburg and Copublished by the Council on Library and Information Resources and the
Library of Congress
- A bibliography by Michael Day, University of Bath |
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How do I upgrade to the latest version of IP-Protector? |
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The software will query the DigiStamp servers for upgrades each time you
start the software (if you were connected to the Internet). If you would
like to check for manual updates (not recommended) then those are located
here. |
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How can I change which e-mail program is used for the export function,
e.g., use Outlook Express? |
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In the export to e-mail function of the IP-Protector, the software creates
a standard e-mail file (RFC822) with the file type ".eml". Then,
your computer is requested to open the .eml file with the associated program
configured on your computer. For most users, their system is already configured
to open a file of type "eml" with the appropriate e-mail software.
You can change which program is called to open the e-mail file using these
instructions.
- Using Outlook does not work. Using Outlook Express does. Outlook is not
able to read a standard e-mail file (RFC 822) even though Outlook Express
can.
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How do I uninstall and optionally re-install the software ? |
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You may choose to completely uninstall the software from a computer. Or,
you may want to uninstall and reinstall to refresh your copy of the software.
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How to open the Java Cache Manager? |
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This is a tool that was supplied as part of the Java environment: called
the Java Cache Manager. This Cache is the set of Java applications installed on your computer. |
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Windows
1) Click on the "Start" icon in the lower left hand corner of
your screen, followed by clicking on the "Run" menu choice.
2) In the run box, type "javaws -viewer" (w/o the quotes) and
hit "Enter"
Linux
1) type in the command "$JAVA_HOME/jre/javaws/javaws" on the
command line.
2) the application you need to clear your cache will then display itself
as "Java Application Cache Viewer"
Mac OS X
1. Open a Finder window,
2. Choose "Applications", "Utilities", "Java"
and open Java Web Start,
3. Click the Java Web Start menu and choose "Preferences",
4. Click the “Clear Folder” button. Then OK.
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Re-install the IP Protector software ? |
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After you complete the previous step of 'clearing the Java Cache', you
can reinstall the software and access your data again here.
More Details:
There are three groups of data that comprise the software: 1. Your data
that has been created by the software (e.g. your time stamps). 2. The IP
Protector software (in the Java Cache) 3. The Java environment itself .
For a very detailed look at where the IP Protector sofware is stored on
your computer click here.
If you want to uninstall both IP Protection and the Java environment. Use the add/remove programs function in the control panel. You will uninstall
the program titled: "Java Runtime Environment".
The files that contain your data (the time stamp and signatures) can be
deleted manually. You can backup your data before proceeding with the uninstall
process. The directory that contains this data is named "eTime".
The directory's location is described here. |
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Create or repair the shortcut for the software |
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To create or a shortcut use the Java Cache Viewer. Once started, highlight 'IP Protector', right click and select 'Install
Shortcuts'. |
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Alternatively, you can create a shortcut by using the link on our installation web page. Shown here:
Using that web page link that is used to start the IP Protector software,
you can right click and choose "save link as", or "save
target as". Save this link to your desktop. Then, you can double-click
on that desktop shortcut to start the IP Protector software. . |
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An existing shortcut can cease to work if, for example, you update the
Java software on your computer. In this case you will need to recreate
(delete and then create) the shortcut as described above. |
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Can I use the OpenTSA client libraries to access the time stamp service? |
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We have not been able to resolve the problem of using OpenTSA with HTTP
authentication. Our time stamp servers authenticate the user with their
user ID and password. The protocol for this autentication is HTTP authentication. It is our understanding the the OpenTSA software has not provided an
HTTP authentication option. |
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