​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.  

​Here at NPS Support, we answer over 7000 support calls a year. Some of these calls last only a few minutes while others can last several hours. Through this experience we have learned a few things about what makes a support call go smoother and how to make it less stressful. We want to share some of these things with you so that the next time you call in for support, we will be able to fix the issue faster and with less stress.

1. I have brought this one up in a previous post, but it really helps. When you are calling in for a support issue in Advantage or anything else on your office computer, it is likely that we will need to see what you are seeing. Having a remote meeting ready to go before you call really speeds things up.
2. For hardware, make sure that you are at the unit that is having the issue and plan on not being able to process transactions while we are working on it. We understand that some locations can't be shut down and don't have a backup so we can definitely be flexible.
3. If you are not 100% sure of how to fix an issue, call us immediately. If you play around with buttons or hardware before you call us, you run the risk of making the issue worse.
4. With hardware or register program issues, we very often are not able to see what you are seeing. We depend on your descriptions of what's going on during the troubleshooting and repair process. The best way to make this process go smoothly is to only do what we ask you to do. We will give you step by step instructions on what buttons to press or other things to do. Please don't press anything else than what we tell you to, even if you think you know what the next step is. It throws us way off track on what is going on and makes it difficult to proceed. We will sometimes give a code to type in, hear the person we are working with type that code in, hear them say "Oh, I see", and then hear a bunch of other keys being hit. This will most often be followed by a question of what they should do next, but we have to start over because we don't know what they did.

We understand that every support issue is unique and that some of these things may not be possible for each call in to us, but they will make the process of fixing the problem much easier. Don't hesitate to call us for any support issue or questions you may have. We love to help the National Parks and the amazing people who work in them!

The registers we provide and support are pretty incredible machines. They are equipped with enough abilities to customize your system in nearly any way you want. Have you ever thought to yourself that you wish your register would be able to do something different? Well, it is likely that it can!

We have been working with the National Park Service for many years and over that time we have customized the program to a point where it fits the needs of most parks very nicely. However, each park is different and has different requirements for its registers. Maybe you need some special passes programmed or maybe the layout just isn't right for you. We can help with that. If there is anything about your register program that you would like to change, give us a call and we will let you know if it is possible.

There are a few things that we won't be able to do, and most of those are due to compliance. We want to help you keep your systems safe and compliant so that you won't have any major issues down the road. These necessary parts of the program are not generally a hassle, so you probably won't even realize they are there.

If there is anything at all you would like to change, give us a call and we will do the best we can to make it happen.

The National Park Service is such a unique client because of how diverse their locations are. It is very easy to set up registers with excellent network communications in a store in the middle of a city. However, very few of the machines we support are like that. Most of the registers are considered to be in remote locations. Some of them are so far in the wilderness that you literally have to fly to reach them. It is hard enough for those people who have to get electricity to these places, but how can we establish a network with enough power to process credit cards and provide communications back to the main office software?

The answer is Cradlepoints! Over the years we have tried many different solutions to make communications better in remote locations, but our favorite is Cradlepoints. These little devices run off of cell signal to provide a very sustainable network. We have implemented dozens of these units and we are very happy with the results.

You may be asking, "But what if some of our locations don't have cell signal?" Don't worry, we have found a way to make them work even in signal desolate locations. These units are completely compatible with a variety of Satellite Antennas that improve the signal and provide your register with what it needs. We have installed many of these as well and they are doing a great job.

As far as credit cards, many parks choose to use an easily accessible Dial Up connection to run transactions. This option is fine, but very slow. Even if you are comfortable with these speeds, how much would the life of your remit people improve if they didn't have to copy all of the transactions off of a z-tape or use USB sticks? If your main office computer can communicate with your registers, they can remotely gather all of the data they need and not have to worry about dealing with z-tapes or losing a USB stick. 

We have a lot of reasons why we recommend these Cradlepoint devices so highly. We have seen them work and know the wonders they can do for Fee Programs in the National Parks. If you want to know more about how these units could save your park a lot of time and hassle, give us a call at 801-399-9200 and we can answer any of your questions.