The WolframOS Network Scanner scans for WolframOS instances that are starting up and offers a link to their web UI. This is useful in situations where the WolframOS instance will not have internet access to report its IP address to OnTakt Central and looking up the IP address it was assigned by the router is difficult for any reason.
Instructions
- Download the scanner.
- Configure your firewall according to the instructions in the Firewall section below.
- Open the scanner executable by double-clicking it. On Linux, if you are not root, run
sudo -E ./scanner_linux - Start (or restart) the WolframOS instance and wait for it to broadcast after startup.
Limitations
Only instances meeting the following criteria will be found:
- A license is currently applied. However, it will still work even if it is expired.
- The daemon version is 0.5.9 or newer.
- The PC running the scanner must be on the same subnet as the WolframOS instance, or the router must be configured to forward UDP broadcasts from the instance's subnet to the PC's subnet.
Only the first instance to send a WOLF-SYNC packet will be detected. The OnTakt daemon sends a WOLF-SYNC packet at startup and then on an hourly schedule. If another instance is starting up or sends its hourly broadcast, it will be detected first. If this happens, simply restart the scanner.
Firewall rules
The scanner requires incoming traffic on UDP port 38733 to be allowed through the firewall.
On Windows, this will be configured automatically the first time you run the scanner; just click "allow" when prompted by Windows Firewall.
On Mac and Linux, there have been problems allowing the specific port or application through the firewall, so it is easiest to just disable the firewall before opening the scanner and re-enable the firewall after using it.
On Mac, the firewall must be disabled before opening the scanner. If the scanner is opened while the firewall is enabled, the operating system will not release the port, and the Mac must be restarted before trying again.
WOLF-SYNC packet format
As of ontaktd version 0.5.10, WOLF-SYNC packets have the following format:
WOLF-SYNC
LN=License Name Goes Here
LE=1676056850
The lines end with just \n and the order of the key/value lines is not important as long as the WOLF-SYNC header line is first.
Supported keys
- LN is the License Name
- LE is the License Expiration date as a UNIX timestamp
Future versions may add more keys as needed for additional functionality but the format should not change.