Does TimeTrex dial home?

[Nox]

Does TimeTrex talk to your servers after it has been installed? Using Google Analytics or something?

[pcTechs]

i noticed the same thing.

[Nox]

I assumed from the silence, that it was a yes. We are moving to a new building and in the new network redesign there will be additional firewalls that will block this extra traffic we are seeing from the machine.

[shaunw]

By default TimeTrex attempts to take the path of "least" resistance to carry out what it needs too. So yes TimeTrex does contact our servers to obtain some information like updated currency rates, check for new versions, online unversity information, and since v3.0 it attempts to send notification emails through our servers so you don't have to setup your own SMTP servers and deal with all that additional configuration hassle. It also uses Google Analytics just like many other web sites to track how people use the software so we can remove problem areas and improve its design.

[Nox]

Thank you for the clarification. I don't like bumping posts, so I assumed that you were either too busy to respond or didn't want to disclose the reasons for the extra traffic. We haven't found any of the traffic to be a security risk but we really will be trying to put tighter reigns on our servers and where they go.

Is any of this communications essential to the operation of the software and if so, what ports do we need to open?

[shaunw]

I apologize, your post was likely just missed, TimeTrex is open source software, so we have nothing to hide.

It all depends on what your definition of essential is. If you don't have a local SMTP server setup and TimeTrex configured to use it, and you feel email notifications are essential, then yes, it would be essential. If you use multiple currencies and want automatically updating rates, then yes it would be essential. If you use our Online University, it would be essential. If you want to be notified of new versions of TimeTrex, it would be essential. If you feel providing us with usability information through Google Analytics so we can further improve TimeTrex is important, then it would be essential.

TimeTrex uses outgoing port 80 (SOAP over regular HTTP) for all its outside communication.

[joako]

How do we disable this? I was already aware of Google paralytics and have disabled it on all our installations... but how do disable all the other phone home activity in TimeTrex?

[shaunw]

They are disabled on the System Settings page of the installer.

interface/install/SystemSettings.php