Render Admin Setup

Render Windows Environment Setup

The intended purpose for this step is to create a non-disruptive, pre-configured environment for the users to work in with the aim of maintaining the simplicity and ease for the less technical savvy community. The following steps for Windows environment setup are best practices but not mandatory.

The initial steps are to set up the Windows environment before the install are,

1. Remove any blot ware.
2. Stop any unnecessary pop-up messages if any.
3. Update the computer OS and drivers with necessary security patches (that includes the BIOS updates).
4. Create a favorable/meaningful computer name and rename the computers. For instance, computers belonging to the Konongo project in Tanzania can be renamed to KON-TRN1 (Translator 1), KON-TRN2 (Translator2), KON-BT (Back Translator)etc. This process is also important in the next "Setting Up Render" stage since is makes working with meaningful computer names easier.
5. Create two user accounts.
   1. One should be an administrator account
   2. The other a standard user. This is will prevent standard project users from installing Render updates or change Windows settings that might interfere with Render. Accounts MUST be protected with different passwords.
6. Test all peripherals like headsets, USB flash drive, LAN router etc. to ensure compatibility with Windows.
7. It is advisable that all computer maintenance work is done on both Render and Windows is done by a technically knowledgable person.

Setting Up Render

The second set of steps involve setting up Render. Besides the computers, you will need a USB LAN sharing router and a flash drive of at least 128GB.

From the Standard user computer accounts

1. Install Render on Standard user accounts using this link http://download.renderpartners.com:9536. You will need the admin password to do this. At the moment Render has to be installed online. There is no offline install.
2. From the admin computer, enter the assigned computer names AS IS. For instance, if KON-TRN1, KON-TRN2 etc.

                       Admin->Configuration->Devices->Add

1. Admin should notify you after he has added all the computers to the project and synced before project members enter the project ID.
2. Enter the project ID for the project before Sync to download the project onto the computers. The project ID is provided by Faith Comes By Hearing and is a 32 character code e.g. 9g4f2c28-4490-956c-a660-325c81a8afe1.
3. The LAN then needs to be configured. First, you will need to make the USB flash drive bootable and formatted with FAT32. You can use a program like Rufus to create a bootable USB flash. Follow this link https://rufus.ie/ for further instructions.
4. Change the default admin password for the router for increased security.
5. Configure the LAN router to broadcast a unique SSID with a password so that the computers can connect to.
6. Configure the LAN router to share the USB flash drive with a new username and password.
7. Connect the computers and make sure each can browse the router LAN and access the USB flash drive under Windows network and file sharing services. You can try this by mapping the flash drive to the computers.
8. The next stage is to set up the LAN settings on Render. It involves changing a settings file in the program folder under C:\Render\*project ID folder*\Settings.txt. You will need the windows path and username and password for the network shared USB flash drive. Change the following lines to match the windows path, username and password set in the router for USB flash share. (Do not REMOVE any commas of quotation marks!) e.g.

                   ........."SharedDrivePath": "file:////RenderSync/sda1" 

                            "SharedDriveUsername": "rendersync "

                             "SharedDrivePassword": "render2014",..........

Test Render Setup

The 3rd Phase is testing Render before project deployment

1. Open and close Render a couple of times and make sure there no errors.
2. Test the network by Synchronizing to the LAN and also to the Internet. You should not get any failure messages or receive a red ‘x’
3. Set and test playback devices to be the external speakers while the headsets are the recording devices by default.
4. Test all the peripherals by using Render.