​It is no wonder why the National Park Service is so much busier during the Summer. Everyone is vacationing and what better place to go than our beautiful parks! But with the influx of visitors, our Fee Programs take on a huge burden. The increased use of the systems can cause more equipment, network and software issues. We want to make sure that we can all continue to meet the expectations of the visitors for the rest of the season, so here are a few tips to keep everything running smoothly.

1. Remember that your registers are computers and just like you they don't like to overheat.  Make sure they are not smothered by other pieces of equipment and keep them out of direct sunlight. If you have a modular keyboard or touchscreen register, the silver CPU gets pretty hot naturally so don't panic. Avoid making it worse.
   
2. Now is also an excellent time to clean the dust bunnies out of the vents and card swipes. Keeping it clean will reduce any shorts internally and credit card misreads.
   
3. If you are using touchscreens and you see some obvious wear starting to form on the most popular buttons, it may be time to consider screen protectors. We have tested several different protectors and we have found some solutions that work great.
   
4. Increased sales volume means increased data being sent to your Advantage software. If your file size becomes too large, the functions will not work properly.  This file is usually in the C: Advantage: Data file. If you have any issues with this, please give us a call and we will check on it for you.
5. Finally, we want to let you know that there are some updates coming up for Advantage that will make your Fee Program even more efficient. We will post more details in a couple of weeks and the update roll out will be soon after that.

Just doing a little bit of maintenance can really help reduce your register downtime. We also recommend that you speak with your IT staff to check if they have any other maintenance they would like you to do. We've made it this far through the season and we want the rest of Summer to go just as well. As always, give us a call if you have any issues and we will work with you to resolve them.

​Your Register is basically a computer that has very specific Point of Sale programming on it and as such, is subject to a lot of the laws that govern computers. One of the most annoying ones is that it does have limited space on it's hard drive. Most of that space is filled up by the program itself and the rest is slowly being filled with the daily transactions you run on it. Over time, this data can build up and one day you will walk in to a message that says the "Buffer is 80% Full".

This is where we usually come in. The solution is simple; if transaction data is taking up too much space, we need to clear it. This is why it is so important for you to perform your remits as often as possible. As soon as you use the Comm2000 software or download the data onto a USB stick, it will be cleared from the register and your hard drive will never be full.

A lot of times people call us when the buffer is full, but say they always do perform their remits. This implies some sort of communication issue. If you were receiving the data from the register, it would be cleared, so for some reason there has been a connection failure between your register and your back office computer. A good place to start is to do a service reset on the register and try communicating again. If that doesn't work, give us a call and we will run through a few different troubleshooting procedures.

These little interruptions in your daily fee collection routine are annoying and slow everything down. We know how awful it is when a register goes down and you have a line of visitors wanting to enter the park. At least this hard drive issue can be avoided by performing remits often and making sure all of your registers communicated successfully. If you are having any problems with this at all, we can help to fix it and get your registers back online as quickly as possible.

Every year, at least one big storm blows through all of the parks we support. There can be a lot of things for Park Personnel to get done to prepare for imposing bad weather. Nearly all of those things have to do with protecting sites or equipment that are exposed to the elements, but one very important thing tends to get overlooked. Your cash registers that sit safely inside your entrance stations and visitor centers can be very susceptible to these storms because big storms tend to bring lightning with them.

Now we all know that electrical equipment plus a bolt of lightning isn't a great combo, but how can it possibly reach the registers inside? The average lightning bolt carries about 5 Billion Joules of electrical power which really likes to travel along power cables. A lightning strike that is even in the proximity of cabling can find the wiring and travel along it. That is why we plug all of the register equipment into a special surge suppressor. These power strips are designed to self destruct (on the inside) if a power surge of a certain size tries to pass through it. 

The surge suppressors can protect your equipment, but you have to replace it every time lightning strikes. The best way to prevent your equipment being destroyed is to unplug the surge suppressor and phone lines from the wall before the storm hits. We understand that it can be hard to do this when you have visitors coming through, but when a heavy lightning storm starts, most people probably won't be trying to get into a National Park.

​A little bit of planning ahead can save a lot of money in surge suppressors, or worse, brand new registers.  

​240 years ago, our founding fathers declared our independence from Great Britain. It was a gutsy and rebellious move to make, but they knew that this land was meant for something greater. Our country grew rapidly and more refined due to the intense pressures of the wars and struggles we had to face. It did not take long to become an overwhelming world power and that still holds true today. We are a country built on ideals, diversity, dreams and the faith that undying determination can overcome any obstacle. This American spirit is what we celebrate today!

We here at NPS Support want to wish everyone we work with a Happy Independence Day! We are so lucky to be working with all of you in the National Park Service. We know that our National Parks tend to be busy during this weekend, but we hope that you all get a chance to celebrate as much as you can! We also want to thank all of you for working in this inspired government service. All of you are truly helping to keep America great!