Can Aloha FOH and BOH functions run on one machine?

[ctm1029]

First of all I know very little about Aloha systems, although I have extensive experience with other POS terminals that process credit and debit card transaction.

I am in the process of developing a "host" interface to accept credit card transactions from an Aloha system via an Internet connection. A Radiant P1220 POS terminal was purchased as a test machine in order to generate credit card transactions.

The terminal is running Aloha POS version 5.3.34 and also runs EDC.

It was expected that this terminal could be configured to generate the transactions and send them to the host interface for routing to the appropriate card association. It appears that the terminal purchased was part of a multi-terminal system and probably was one of the FOH terminals. After some trials, the terminal will come up now in "table service" mode, but won't do much else. Attempting to logon or swipe a card always results in "System Redundancy limit reached!" error. Attempting to start the Aloha manager in order to perform the "restore fileserver" function (as recommended by previous posts) results in a "Aloha license is missing or corrupted" error.

The first question is, can one of these terminals be configured to run stand-alone, that is can one Aloha terminal function as both FOH and BOH and connect to the Internet to submit real-time credit card authorization requests?

The second question is what advice is there to get past the errors that are appearing?

Thanks

 

[coorsman]

Ok,

1. The license is missing or corrupt shouldn't prevent you from going into Aloha manager and doing a File Server Recovery.

2. Do you have a software key (USB or Parallel) attached to your terminal?

3. If you need more inforamtion on EDC / process and the files associated with Aloha I can help. I don't think you need a functioning terminal / working system to duplicate the process that Aloha uses for EDC.

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[ctm1029]

This terminal does not appear to have any attachment to a USB or parallel port. Is it necessary to have one?

 

[coorsman]

Yes that is the software key. Without it the terminal won't run.

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[ctm1029]

Thanks for the information Coorsman. I had to shift gears and work on something else but now I am back on Aloha terminal. The seller claims there was no USB device attached to this terminal, and there is no Parallel port on this device. Could the key have been on the BOH file server machine, if this terminal had been part of a multi-terminal configuration? Reading other information online there are statements indicating that the software key (aka license) is usually connected to the main server to which all other terminals connect. I wonder if what we are trying to accomplish is feasible? The only Aloha hardware in our possession is a Radiant 1220 with Aloha 5.3.34 software. We simply want to run this terminal in a stand alone mode - not connected to anything except our server (not Aloha server, but a credit card transaction acquirer processor). On this connection the terminal will send credit card authorization requests which will be processed by our server . I suspect if it is possible to do this, additional Aloha software may be required? It has been difficult to get answers to these questions from the local vendor. Maybe since we have only one terminal and are a software company and not a restaurant? Thanks.

 

[posrescue]

Since your terminal is running a version newer than 3.8x the HASP key would have been on the fileserver. If Aloha Manager is installed on the terminal then likely it was running as BOH/FOH. Either way without the HASP you bought yourself a big paperweight although using a 1220 for that will likely offend the paper.

 

[ctm1029]

Thanks for the information. So you are saying this terminal is worthless unless we buy another software license which would include a new HASP key?

 

[coorsman]

What exactly do you need a running terminal for. It sounds like you are trying to intercept cc transactions. Not hard to do in the 5.3 world. All cc txn's have encrypted mag info after ver 5.3.

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[ctm1029]

Yes we want the terminal to send the CC transactions to a configured URL/IP address and port, where they will be processed real-time and sent to the appropriate card association for authorization, then a reply would be sent back to the terminal. Then at settlement time, the terminal would send the transaction batches to the same URL/IP address and port.

 

[coorsman]

The terminal and foh is not where you need to be looking. Aloha EDC is the program that communicates with te terminal and then the processor. Just about every version of aloha, there are about 6 or so have different file layouts for txn files. AlohaEDC is the only program you need to worry about. You won't even need a key to use it.

Cheers,
Coorsman