Should you encounter any problems when using Teleffect, please review the following troubleshooting guide. Most problems are easily addressed by one of the suggestions below. If you do not find the solution to your problem, please contact your Teleffect vendor's Technical Support department.
Before you begin troubleshooting, please verify the following items:
After you have verified that Teleffect is installed, configured, and running on supported operating systems on computers in your Teleffect system, you can use Teleffect's status messages to help determine what is wrong. To find Teleffect's status message, refer to "How to determine Teleffect's status".
The following tables list each possible Teleffect status message and offer suggestions for correcting the system.
These are the status messages can be displayed on the Teleffect Slave.
| Message | Suggested Actions |
| Teleffect Unconfigured! See User's Guide. | Configure Teleffect. See "How to configure Teleffect". |
Disconnected -- Mismatched security policies. Disconnected -- Check security passwords. Disconnected -- Check security settings. |
Check that the security settings on both the master and the slave computer match. Either both computers must be using "No authentication or encryption" or both must be using "Password based authentication and encryption". If they are using password-based security, the passwords must be identical on both computers. |
| Trying to connect to <Master Computer Name>. | Verify that <Master Computer Name> is the name of the computer whose mouse and keyboard should be used to control this slave. If it is not, change the name. See "How to configure Teleffect". Verify that Teleffect is installed, configured, and running on the master computer. Verify that the network connection between the master and slave computers is working. |
| Authenticating <Master Computer Name>. | If this state lasts for more than a few seconds, stop and restart the Teleffect slave. See "How to Stop and Start Teleffect". Verify that Teleffect is installed, configured, and running on the master computer. Verify that Teleffect has the same security settings on both the master and the slave. |
| Disconnected -- Connection broken. | The Teleffect slave lost its connection to the master unexpectedly. It will attempt to reconnect in about 5 seconds. If this condition persists, verify that Teleffect is installed, configured, and running on the master computer. |
| Disconnected -- Running on master computer? | Check that Teleffect is only running once on each computer. In particular, make sure that the Teleffect Master is not also running the Teleffect Slave software. |
| Disconnected -- Running twice? | Check that the Teleffect Slave is only running once on each computer. Check that the Teleffect Slave is not running on another computer with the same name. |
| Disconnected -- <Slave Computer Name> is unknown to master. | Check that this Teleffect Slave is listed in the Teleffect Master computer's layout. |
Disconnected -- Mismatched versions. Disconnected -- Mismatched security versions. |
Ensure that the same version of Teleffect is being run on all Master and Slave computers. |
| Disconnected -- Lost contact with <Master Computer Name>. | Verify that Teleffect is still running on the master computer. If it is, verify that the network connection between this slave computer and the master computer is still working. |
| Connected to <Master Computer Name>. | This Teleffect Slave is connected to the Master. If the system is not working properly, check the Master's status. If the Master is working properly, you may need to stop and restart this Teleffect Slave. See "How to start and stop Teleffect". |
These are the status messages that can be displayed on the Teleffect Master.
| Message | Meaning & Possible Fix |
| Teleffect Unconfigured! See User's Guide. | Configure Teleffect. See "How to configure Teleffect". |
| Initializing... | If this status persists, verify that Teleffect is only running once on this computer. |
| No slaves connected. | The Teleffect Master is running, but has no active connections. If the Slave has not connected to the Master, check the Slave's status. If the Slave is functioning correctly and the network is operational, make sure that you have the Slave configured to contact the correct Teleffect Master computer. |
| Controlling n slave(s). | The Teleffect Master is running and has n connections. If n is lower than expected, and if the non-connected Slave has not connected to the Master, check the Slave's status. If the Slave is functioning correctly and the network is operational, make sure that you have the Slave configured to contact the correct Teleffect Master computer. |
Teleffect implements a shared clipboard between the computers in the Teleffect System. If you are having trouble cutting and pasting between computers, please verify the following items:
Ensure that you have not placed too large of a text selection on the clipboard.
There is essentially no limit on the amount of text you can place on the Teleffect shared clipboard. The amount of text you can place on the clipboard without noticing a delay when you change screens is a function of the speed of your computer and the bandwidth of your network. Using Teleffect's security feature may also lower the amount of text you can cut and paste without noticing a delay. (If you are using a standard 10MBit ethernet connection between machines, you should be able to cut and paste several kilobytes of text without delay.)
If copying a tiny text selection to the clipboard eliminates the delay when crossing between the screens, you have placed too large of a text selection on the clipboard. The contents will be transferred between computers as you move the Teleffect pointer around, but it will cause a delay. To alleviate the delay, select a smaller text selection as soon as you have transferred the selection to the destination computer.
You may be experiencing extreme network load. Teleffect only requires a small percentage of your total network bandwith to function smoothly, but if the network becomes completely saturated, even Teleffect will be affected. Ensure that you are not running any network intensive applications, such as full motion video streaming or large file transfers. Also, check that others on your network subnet are not consuming large amounts of network bandwith. When the network becomes less saturated, responsiveness will improve.
If the source of network saturation is coming from other users on your subnet, you can limit outside network traffic from interfering with your local Teleffect Group by using a switched network router rather than a hub. Contact your system administrator for details.
Rarely, excessive CPU usage on the master or the slave can also slow the responsiveness of Teleffect. When CPU usage drops to a normal level, responsiveness will improve.
The Teleffect Master's computer layout does not match the physical layout of the computers. You can fix this by editing the layout on the Master computer (see "Configuring") or by changing the physical layout by moving the monitors.
Teleffect 1.0 is capable of controlling an arbitrary number of slave computers, but the user interface only makes it easy to control 2 or 3 computers. If you would like to control more than 3 computers, please see "Advanced Configuration"
Ensure that you are running Teleffect on a supported operating system. Unsupported operating systems, such as Microsoft® Windows 95® and Microsoft® Windows 98® may have trouble with some key sequences. Your Teleffect vendor will be unable to help you with problems related to running Teleffect on an unsupported platform.
If you are running Teleffect on an unsupported platform, visit http://www.electricarc.com to learn about problems that you may have and learn about potential workarounds. You can also visit Electric Arc's web site to learn about future support for your favorite operating systems.
If you are having trouble with Ctrl-Alt-Delete or Alt-Tab on a computer running Microsoft® Windows NT ® and rebooting the computer does not solve the problem, your computer may be using unsupported device drivers. Watch the "blue screen" while Windows NT® is booting. If it displays messages saying that Teleffect failed to initialize, please refer to the Teleffect FAQ online at http://www.electricarc.com. If your problem is not addressed by the FAQ, please file a bug from the Electric Arc website.