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NComputing L230: Firmware 

Info

The Info screen on my L230 reports: Version: 5.4, Build: 14328, Date: 10.04.08(CE)

BIOS

There is no industry standard BIOS. When the client starts up there is a (brief) message at the bottom left of the screen: Setup F10 while it gets an IP address and then tries to load the latest client software from the server. Pressing F10 actually takes you to the same screen that you get if you subsequently click on Options and then Setup once the system is running.

In my case the L230 setup was password protected - which was annoying as the L230 was set to use a fixed IP address rather than DHCP. Google came to my rescue (eventually). Most solutions I found were: email support@NComputing.com. Some suggested solutions - such as press and hold the reset button for 10/15/30 seconds - came from people who obviously had never seen an L230 (there is no reset button).

<rant>
Whilst forums/boards etc are wonderful places for sharing user experiences, asking for help and so on, I do find it frustrating sometimes having to wade through pages and pages of rubbish before (maybe) finding the actual solution/accurate reply to the original question.
</rant>

I found one cry for help which mentioned that the password 1776$admin hadn't worked for him. Luckily it worked for me. This appears to be a master password that lets you in whatever password is actually set rather than being a default password you get following a 'factory reset'. Note: Having entered the password you need to explicitly click on the OK button. Hitting Enter on the keyboard has no effect.

Protocol

The L230 uses NComputing's proprietary User eXtension Protocol (UXP) for connecting the host so you need to run NComputing's vSpace server software on it in order to be able to use the L230.

vSpace

Luckily the vSpace software is downloadable from the NComputing website - all you need to do is fill in some personal details along the way. It's available for a number of platforms including Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows XP and Ubuntu 10.4. Initially I downloaded the Windows 7 (32-bit) version. However towards the end the install failed:

Install error message

..and then rolled back to the start and suggested I try again. This I did and this time it failed fairly quickly with:

Install error message

Rebooting the PC before running the installer again got me back to the original error. Obviously the roll-back of the installation attempt was not 100% and something was left hanging around that needed a reboot to get rid of.

Having ignored the original suggestion to disable my anti-virus software and firewall I tried again with these disabled...to get exactly the same error message. At this point I gave up on Windows 7 and fired up an old Windows XP system and tried the XP version...which installed perfectly.

Having checked that the L230 connected OK and that I had a working remote session I went one stage further and did the online registration of the software. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this completed without error or any kind of request for money. (If you don't register the software, client sessions automatically disconnect after 1 hour. After 30 days everything stops working).

 


Any comments? email me.    Last update December 2011