When it comes to the cool little boxes that process our credit card payments we are generally satisfied when they are simply working as they should. That is the attitude with most of our technological devices. Is it working? Good. What's next on our to do list?

Not many people really know what the device is doing while it is sitting there under the counter. We look under there and see the lights on it and we know that it's on. But each of those lights do have a purpose and can tell us how our modems are running. I'm going to fill you in on what these lights mean for the TwinTran and IP Tran devices that we support. 

There are actually two sets of lights on each device; two on the front and two on the back. The Red Light on the front is the power light. If it is on, your power is good. If it is off, you need to check your plug. If that light is off and your device is plugged in, there is something wrong with the outlet, the cord itself, or an internal power component.

The Green Light on the front is telling us about the network. If the light is solid, then the device is successfully connected to the network. However, if it is flashing, it is trying to find the network. If it continues to flash for more than a  couple minutes, there is likely something wrong with the network.

On the back of the device there are two lights next to the Ethernet cable; a Green one and a Yellow one. The Green Light is similar to the Green Light on the front and lets you know if you have a successful link to the network. The Yellow Light lets you know about the traffic on the network. If the light is flashing, there is some sort of traffic currently happening on your network and if it is solid, then nothing is going on.

This is just a brief overview of what the lights on these devices mean. If you are having problems with your Credit Card Modem that is more involved than it not being plugged in, we encourage you to give us a call at 801-399-9200 so that we can thoroughly troubleshoot the device. 

As most of our clients already know, in the past we used a tool called Juniper to be able to view your desktops when you called in for support. However, a couple of months ago, without warning, these meetings were discontinued for use for the National Park Service. Since then we have established a way for our clients to continue to use remote meetings until the DOI releases a more permanent solution.

On this website we now have a Remote Meetings tab which brings you to a page that shows the three types of remote meetings we are using. They are JoinMe, WebEx and GoToMeeting. to figure out which of the three your park should be using, please speak with your local IT and have them advise you. These will require you to download the software from the services site.

When you have a support issue that requires us to see your screen, we will ask you to start a meeting which you can do right from our website. Depending on which service you choose, you will then either give us a code or send us an email so that we can join your meeting and see what you are seeing. The first time will always be the longest, but don't worry, it will only get easier after that.

These meetings are such an important tool when it comes to supporting your systems that we highly recommend that you speak with your IT as soon as possible and that you become familiar with whatever service you choose to use. Taking the time to do this now while you are not having a system issue will be a lot better than trying to learn everything during a crisis. 

If you do need help or have any questions, you can always give us a call at 801-399-9200.

Settled between the Mojave and Colorado Deserts lies Joshua Tree National Park. Coming to this area with such unique desert characteristics has always been one of our favorite things to do. The iconic Joshua Tree from which the Park derives its name, dots the landscape and attracts all sorts of wildlife. 

​On this trip, we were able to work with Cynthia, Jennifer and Lili to plan out some of the future projects the park will have with the Fee Program. Running a Fee Program is difficult enough in an ideal setting, but running one in the middle of the desert is quite a feat at which Joshua Tree is excelling. The biggest challenge is collecting fees at the remote locations, but we are excited about the solutions we are creating for them.

Crucial to the work of collecting park fees is being able to process credit cards and to process credit cards, you need internet. Getting internet out to Joshua Tree's more remote locations is something we are definitely working on. We have a lot of experience with getting internet anywhere we need it, but we also want to make sure that it doesn't have too much of an impact on the natural beauty of the park. No one wants to hike or drive around a National Park and see satellite dishes. We are excited to be working on this project. 

To visit the Joshua Tree National Park website, Click Here!

We have a long standing working relationship with the wonderful staff at Lake Mead National Recreation Area so our trip out here was certainly an enjoyable one. The views of the lake while driving through the area are stunning and with such amazing locations like the Hoover Dam, this trip was a great reminder of why we love our work so much.

​The big news coming from Lake Mead is that we are planning on setting up a new Entrance Station at the beautiful Willow Beach. Although there are always challenges with setting up new stations, we are excited to help make this area more available to all of the visitors who love to be here.

Lake Mead is a very large and very popular National Recreation Area and it is for good reason. We hope to continue helping them make their visitor's experience as memorable as possible.

To visit Lake Mead National Recreation Area's website, Click Here!

If you have been working with Point of Sale equipment for any length of time, you have experienced the frustration of a credit card not working. There are many reasons why the card may not work, and some are a bit more involved to troubleshoot, but we want to share with you what we always do first when trying to fix these errors. This process solves a large majority of the credit card issues you may face and the best part is that it's simple. (Note: This process is specific to our Touch Screen interfaces.)

Step 1: Find your Datacap Credit Card Modem. It is a small black box that is connected to your register. It may say Datacap, Datatran, IP Tran, Twintran, etc. 

Step 2: Unplug the Power Cord from the back, wait five seconds and plug it back in.

Step 3: Switch the register to PRG Mode. Type in 999. Enter and press Service Reset. (Note: If you type in this code in SRV Mode another option pops up called Master Reset. Do not press this unless we tell you to! It will put your register back to factory settings.)

Step 4: Once the register is back on, put in your Cashier # and make a sale with this credit card number: 5414 0301 1700 1491 then press Enter. The expiration date is 12/15. This transaction will not process and should give you an error message saying 206 Trans Denied. (Note: This is a fake credit card number that is only used to test your modem.)

If you were able to get that error message with the transaction, then you are good to go. Your modem and register just had to be power cycled. If the transaction did not work for you, give us a call at 801-399-9200 and we will help you do some more troubleshooting. 

We also sell test Credit Cards for $3.50 apiece that you can use instead of typing in the fake number. If you would like to order them, please call 801-399-9200 ext 731.