Use this property sheet to create or modify the properties associated with a portal. The portal serves as the communication pathway between servers on a chat network.
Important Microsoft Exchange Chat Service version 5.5 Service Pack 1 does not support mixed-version chat networks. You cannot connect a chat server running this version with servers running earlier versions of the Chat Service product (Internet Chat Server 1.0 or Microsoft Exchange Chat Service version 5.5).
When you establish a network connection between two chat servers, you create a portal on each server that contains information about the other server. This information identifies the connection (portal name), indicates where to find the server (IP address), designates the specific protocol connection over which chat information will travel (port), and uniquely identifies the chat server (server ID number).
In addition to a network connection, servers on a chat network need a way to propagate their state information and to maintain a consistent record of it across the network. When you create a portal between a pair of servers, you must indicate which server will initiate the connection to acquire the other server's state information. You do this by selecting Uplink to server on the server you create the portal from.
Important Chat Service must be paused and then continued before any modifications to the portal settings can take effect.
This property sheet contains the following options.
| Option | Description |
| Portal name | Designates the name of the portal. The portal name is limited to 63 characters. You can use alphabetic characters (in the current language), numerals, the underscore, and the hyphen. The portal name must begin with an alphabetic character, an underscore, or a hyphen. |
| IP address | Designates the IP address of the chat server at the other end of this portal. |
| IP Look-up | Opens a dialog box that allows you to look up the chat server's IP address using its Domain Name System (DNS) host name. |
| Port | Identifies the TCP port to connect to on the chat server. A port is a unique, protocol-specific number that identifies the type of traffic on a network connection. The default server-to-server TCP port is 6665. |
| Server ID number | Identifies the chat server at the other end of the portal. Each chat server on a network must have a unique server ID number between 1 and 255. If two chat servers on the network have the same ID number, the Chat Service connection between those servers is dropped. |
| Uplink to server | Indicates that this server will initiate a connection to the chat server at the other end of the portal to acquire that server's state information. The state information includes the server's persistent and dynamic channels and their membership, users currently logged on to the service, and any access restrictions that are in effect, such as user bans. Uplink to server designates the direction in which the state information is sent. Important State information must travel in only one direction over a portal connection; that is, only one server can initiate the uplink. This prevents loops, or circuits, in a network of two or more chat servers. |