Welcome to the Doors.NET full manual. This comprehensive document covers everything you would need to know to setup and use a standard Doors.NET access control system and the NXT-MSC controller types. The document consists of various step-by-step instructions and begins with installing the software. Once the software is installed, your Doors.NET system will need to be licensed. The license key determines what type of hardware/controller types can be used on your system, along with capacities: such as the maximum number of controllers, readers, inputs and outputs.
To license the Doors.NET software you will need a license key. A new license key can be created online - license.kerisys.com
This section covers activating your license key online. If you do not have an active internet connection, or if your internet connection is highly restricted, then you can activate your license key offline, via e-mail (you can e-mail your license key to Keri Systems tech support. The license file will be activated and e-mailed back to you.
Before further setup and configuration you should now log into the controller to add a new username and password (this will automatically remove the default username and password).
Select the controller on the hardware tree and the controller properties will display on the right. By default the controller properties will be in basic view mode. To view all the controller settings you will need to enable Advanced View:
Refer to the Doors.NET help file for further information about Advanced View.
The following section lists the general door settings that are available when using NXT-MSC controllers. To view the door properties go to the hardware tree (Setup >> Hardware Setup >> All), double-click the controller then select a reader:
Note: (Settings highlighted in blue will require Advanced View to be enabled for the reader properties).
6.1 | Presentation Enrollment |
Any reader on the system can be used for presentation enrollment. Presentation Enrollment allows you to present a new card to an enrollment reader and the card information is detected and added to the system.
6.2 | Manual Enrollment |
Block Enrollment allows you to create a generic set of credentials (using consecutive credential numbers) that can be, in turn, issued on an as-needed basis.
Enable the Advanced View feature set to perform Block Enrollment.
Access Groups are combinations of readers and the time schedules at which the readers should be active. These are, in turn, assigned to cardholders as the definition of where and when the cardholders can get access.
By using access groups, modifications to a large number of cardholders can occur from a change to their access group time schedule. A change to the time schedule affects all cardholders who have access groups with that schedule, and also affects any local linkage conditions that have that schedule or auto unlock schedules.
For convenience and ease of use, all access group setup and editing is performed on a single page.
Time Schedules are used in access groups to determine when cardholders can gain access. They are also used in local linkage, and automatic override modes for readers, monitor points and control points.
Notes:
We now have a Janitorial Staff time schedule that allows access on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 PM, on Saturdays from 9 AM to 11 AM, and per the instructions in Holiday Group 1.
The schedule can quickly and easily be enabled by selecting Yes/No from the Enabled section in properties.
Auto Unlock Time Schedules are used to automatically open and then close doors at certain times of day (they are assigned to doors as Auto Unlock Schedules).
An auto unlock schedule may have one interval consisting of a single start (open) time and a single end (close) time. This might be a front door for customers to gain entrance to the premises during normal working hours. The AUL schedule would automatically open the door at the beginning of the day and close it at the end of the day.
An Auto Unlock/Lock (AUL) schedule may however, have multiple intervals which will program a door to automatically unlock and lock at several different times during the day. An example might be perimeter doors at a school where the doors are configured to open and close in the morning, at break times, lunchtime and to remain closed at the end of the working day and throughout the weekend.
The AUL Time Schedule may be Suspended for a time and then Restored by an operator- this will allow the door to be manually commanded from the software without any interference of the AUL schedule.
Click here for further information about how Holidays are used in combination with Time Schedules.
Holidays are designated calendar days used to define exceptions to Time Schedules. A holiday overrides the normal, weekly time interval schedule preventing it from activating. If a time schedule does not activate, then access groups using that schedule and cardholders who are assigned that access group are inactive, preventing access. Local linkage conditions are also inactive. The software supports 8 holiday type lists, each holding up to 32 days. Time schedules can, however, be specified to be active on designated holiday types.
From the Home tab, click the icon and the Holidays window appears.
Click the Yes Button. Once saved, the date is highlighted in bold text on the calendar.
- Enter the description of the holiday, up to 50 characters.
- Select the Holiday Type (1 through 8) from the pull-down list. The Holiday Type drop down selection is a list of eight holiday types. Holiday types are used to categorize holidays into different groups and allow different weekly schedules intervals to be active on those groups. For example, you may define a Holiday Type 1 as a mandatory company holiday and a Holiday Type 2 as an optional company holiday. By combining the holiday types with the weekly schedule intervals, you can automatically deactivate all access groups on any holiday that is type 1 and selectively enable certain cardholder access on any holiday that is a type 2.
- Click in the Enabled tick-box to activate the holiday.
- If desired, you can set the holiday to be a Special Event. This selection means it will not affect other schedules using the same holiday type. For example; If you set the holiday as a Special Event and set it to Type 1 it will not have any effect on time schedules that have Type 1 holidays enabled or disabled. The Special Event option is not supported by PXL and NXT hardware.
A Holiday Date Range is a set of continuous dates treated as one holiday. For example, you can define December 24 and 25 as Christmas holiday.
To set a holiday date range, follow the instructions per the Creating a New Holiday section above, but in Step 4 click on the start date and drag the cursor to the end date. The selected range will be highlighted. Complete the steps as listed and the holiday date range will be saved.
Holidays can be immediately downloaded to controllers if desired.
Removing a Holiday is simply a matter of selecting the desired item and clicking the Remove icon from the Holidays icon group.
Please keep in mind that changing a Holiday name if that interval has been assigned to Access Groups will have a drastic effect on the system.
Depending on the hardware type you are using (or if you are using multiple hardware types) there are limitations related to the maximum amount of holidays that can be used. These limitations are as follows:
Gateway Type | PXL | NXT | Mercury Powered NXT |
Standard Mercury |
ASSA Aperio |
ASSA WiFi/POE |
Allegion |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Holiday Schedules | 3 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 8 |
Holidays per Schedule | 32 | 32 | 255 | 255 (a) | 255 (a) | 255 (b) | 255 (a) |
Intervals per Holiday | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 8 |
(a) Total number that can be applied across all Holiday Schedules.
(b) Holiday schedules are treated the same as time schedules. Applying a holiday schedule will subtract one time schedule.
Note: When using multiple concurrent hardware platforms the software will limit the number of holiday schedules to the lowest value of the gateways used.
By default, when you setup a Time Schedule Interval all holiday types are set to No. Therefore if you want a Time Interval to be active on a Holiday Date you have to enable the holiday type within the interval settings.
Live Events Status displays real-time transactions as they occur and includes system messages with the newest transaction at the top of the window. Each column can be sorted or grouped to quickly find a specific item.
If not already displayed, this window is opened by clicking on the icon in the Status group of the Home ribbon.
The field chooser can be accessed by clicking the icon located in the upper-left corner of the Live Events grid.
The field chooser list all the columns that can be selected or deselected for display on the Live Events grid. Place a tick against any column you wish to display and remove the tick from any column you wish to hide.
Filters are used by the system to specify which system generated messages are displayed in the software as live event transactions. Any events which are not selected in the filter will not be displayed in the live events grid of the administrative client.
The system has 4 different filter types predefined: Access Denied (the most common access denied messages), Access Granted (the most common access granted messages), Concise setting (defaulted to the minimum display of event transactions, which is basically; alarms, troubles, and access granted messages) and the standard setting is defaulted to a few more events than concise.
All the events assigned to these filters are listed with a check box, all of these filter types can also be changed and altered at any time, or you can of course create your own filters.
None of these filters are assigned to any of the hardware, by default, meaning all the events generated by the system will appear in the user client in Live Events. However note that these filters ONLY affect the display of the event only as all events are recorded to the hard disk in the messages table.
This filter example will be setup and assigned to a reader connected to an NXT-MSC controller.
The Device Types in the system are used with the event notification options configured in the monitoring tab of the controller, panel, reader or monitor point (input). The Device Types are user-definable groupings of sensor inputs or readers each with their own description, priority, and event type options. When a new event is received that has acknowledgment enabled, the event is displayed in the pending event notification dialog box in a priority ranking based on its device type. Each device types has a priority setting (0-99), a sound file selection and a sound repeat option is also available for each event type. There are many sample sounds which can be found in the C:\Keri\DoorsNET\Sounds directory in a .WAV format - you can also add your own sounds to this folder.
As well as being ranked by the device type priority they are also ranked by the event type (in the following order: alarm types, trouble types, mask types, clear types), then by the priority of the individual sensor and then sorted for the oldest event).
To add a new Device Type, click the 'Add Device Type' button.
Description allows the user to change the name of the device type from the default name and can accept any character up to a maximum length of 50 characters.
Priority sets the priority for event notification for this device type. The range is from 0 to 99 with 0 being the highest priority.
Display enables or disables the displaying of the selected device type in the pending Alerts window.
Make Active Window (Top Most) - Allows you to configure alerts as Pop-Up Alerts. When an alert is created Doors.NET will become the top-most application on the PC and in addition, the alerts grid will come to the front of the User Interface (for example) if you are on the hardware setup or cardholders page (or even if the alerts grid has been closed).
Do Not Delete on Confirm applies to certain event types that have an opposite event type. For example, a Monitor Point Alarm event has a reset of Monitor Point Secure event. In those cases, where the event type being confirmed has a reset event, the event will be marked as Confirmed and not automatically closed. The event will only be closed when the reset event itself is confirmed. Events that do not have a reset event from the selected device type are closed immediately. Any of the Access Denied or Access Granted events do not have a reset event associated with them and as such are closed upon confirmation.
Require Notes enables or disables the requirement for the operator to enter a note when confirming the event. The note must be at least 3 characters in length. When enabled the operator cannot confirm the event until a note has been entered.
Show Video displays the live video of the associated network camera.
Show Cardholder displays the photo of the cardholder when access events are displayed. This is used in conjunction with the Photo Recall settings found in System Options.
Must Confirm requires the operator to confirm the event before it can be closed.
Require Password on Confirm enables the password confirmation option. The operator will be required to enter the correct password for the selected device type before the confirm button is enabled. Note that the password is per device type and is not related to the login password or Windows password in any way. The length of the password can be up to 16 characters.
Text Instructions is a list of the available instructions that will be presented to the operator when they are working with an event. You can add, modify, or remove the list of text instructions by clicking the editor button in the drop down. Each instruction can be up to 8,000 characters.
Audio Instructions lists the .wav files installed in the DoorsNET/Sounds directory. You can add your own custom sounds to that directory. This file is available to the operator when working with an event from the selected device type and allows Sound Alerts to be created.
Alarm Sound lists the .wav files installed in the DoorsNET/Sounds directory. You can add your own custom sounds to that directory. The selected file will be played when the type of event occurs and the acknowledgement of that event is required.
Repeat plays the sound file once (no repeat) or at the specified interval until the event type is acknowledged or superseded by a higher priority event.
Doors.NET system alerts are any critical event types that have been configured to require special attention. Alerts are created using a combination of filters and device types. The filter defines which event types will create alerts and the device type settings determine how the alerts should be dealt with.
You can configure alerts with the following options:
Further information about acknowledging events can be found in the 'Event Acknowledgement' section.
This next section covers setting up an alert for a door-forced event at a specific door on the system. The alert will be setup so that it requires confirmation and also a password to be entered by the system operator.
A filter needs to be setup that includes the event type that you wish to use as an alert (Door Forced). A filter allows you to determine which event types are generated by the hardware object that the filter is assigned to. Therefore it is important to ensure the filter includes all message types you wish to be displayed in Live Events. For this reason it may be easiest to make use of the existing Standard or Concise filters. Further information can be found in the Filters section.
A device type now needs to be created. The device type is what handles how the alert is acknowledged/dealt with. For this example, we will just be configuring the alert to require a specific password before the alert can be confirmed.
The specific reader must now be configured with the filter and device type. You will also have to enable the require acknowledgment option again. That allows multiple readers to be able to use the same device type but for the alerts to only be configured for certain readers.
You should now test the alert to ensure the event appears in Live Events and at the same time the alert appears in the alerts grid. For the door forced event you will need to have door contacts installed at the door, but you will also need to ensure the door contact is enabled in the reader properties:
Note: The steps for enabling the door contact varies in terms of the hardware type being used. Standard NXT controllers only need the option set to Yes. PXL and MSC controllers also allow you to define whether door forced or door held events are used.
You can now also configure the alert as a 'sound alert'. When the event occurs and the alert is created, you will have a .WAV sound continuously play at the PC until is has been acknowledged by a system operator. There are several .wav sounds that are included and added automatically when you install the software. The can be found at the following default location:
C:\Keri\DoorsNET\Sounds
For this example we will continue to use the same Door Forced alert that was setup in the previous sections.
Note: Setting up multiple device types allows you to specify a different sound to be played for different event types, different locations or perhaps different hardware types. Many event types also have an opposite event type (the opposite of door forced is door closed). You can also configure the filter and the device type to play a different sound when the door closes using the Clear Sound audio option.
16.0 | Hardware Status |
Status tabs are found at the bottom of the work space/data display field.
The example above displays the Status tab. Each tab has unique data sets.
Temp Unlock can be performed via one of the following methods:
If a reader related event appears in live events, such as door forced or access denied, the system operator can perform a temp unlock on that door. An example might be if the operator has visually verified the identity of someone who has perhaps lost their card or who has accidentally been assigned incorrect access rights.
18.0 | Database Backup |
This guide explains how to quickly and easily create a backup from within the Doors.NET software:
IMPORTANT NOTES
If you are migrating your Doors.NET system to a new PC and you are using encrypted administrator passwords (Doors.NET v4.0.3 onwards), be aware that you will need to re-use your existing license key. Contact Keri Systems inside sales with your existing Doors.NET license key and it will be modified so that it can be re-activated on the new PC.
Instructions for Restoring an SQL Database in Doors.NET
Notes:
- performing this task will completely overwrite ALL data in the existing Doors.NET database.
- this backup procedure pertains to Doors.NET databases using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 however, the procedure is almost identical to other versions of SQL Express.
- If you are migrating your Doors.NET system to a new PC and you are using encrypted administrator passwords (Doors.NET v4.0.3 onwards), be aware that you will need to re-use your existing license key. Contact Keri Systems inside sales with your existing Doors.NET license key and it will be modified so that it can be re-activated on the new PC.
Stop all Doors.NET services.
Login using Windows Authentication.
Expand “Databases” in the left hand pane and find DHS_MAIN.
In the Restore Database DHS_MAIN window, click on the check box for the selected database.
Click OK to start the restore procedure. Check the “Progress” box in the lower left hand pane in the Restore Database DHS_MAIN window to know when the backup in completed.
Restart all Doors.Net services.
To move a database from one PC to another, run a backup on the old install of Doors.Net. Retrieve the latest backup file on that PC from the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Backup folder and move that file to the same directory on the PC with the new install. Then restore using that backup file and the above procedure.
- If you are migrating your Doors.NET system to a new PC and you are using encrypted administrator passwords (Doors.NET v4.0.3 onwards), be aware that you will need to re-use your existing license key. Contact Keri Systems inside sales with your existing Doors.NET license key and it will be modified so that it can be re-activated on the new PC.
20.0 | Using the Doors.NET Help File |
Doors.NET has a comprehensive and easy-to-use help file included with the software, which you can use to learn more about setting up, maintaining or using a Doors.NET access control system. The contents of the help file are automatically installed when you install the Doors.NET software.
20.1 | Accessing the Help |
You can click the Windows Start Menu >> All Programs >> Doors.NET >> Help File.
Again, select English as the preferred language, then click the OK button. The help file will open on the Welcome screen.
3. The third option is to press the F1 key while logged into the software. The help file is context-sensitive, so when you press the F1 key while on the Cardholders page, for example, the help file will open up to the Cardholders section.
Similarly if you are on the Access Groups page, Time Schedules, Holidays, Hardware Setup or on one of the status grids, those are the topics you will automatically be taken to when you press F1.
20.2 | Locating Information |
When you open the help file, you will see the Table of Contents listed on the left.Locating specific information is fairly self-explanatory. For example; if you want to know how to block enroll cards, simply click on Cardholders which will expand the cardholders section, then select Block Enrollment.
The Index includes a list of common search terms (keywords). Click the Index icon to display the Index pane.
In the Index search text, field type a keyword for the topic you wish to find information about. For example; ‘Access Groups’You will immediately see a list of the help topics which are related to access groups.
Or type in ‘Cardholders’ and you will see the list of Cardholder-related topics.
Simply click on one of the listed topics and the appropriate information will display on the right.
The search facility is similar to the Index but it searches all text-content, not just keywords. When you type in a word or phrase then click Search, you will see a list of pages where that word or phrase appears. (It is ranked in order of how often the search-criteria appears).
The help viewer also has a Favorites pane where you can add your favorite topics and searches.
To add a favorite topic, open the topic and then click the ‘Add Topic to Favorites’ icon, as highlighted here:
To add a favorite search, perform a search on the search pane, then click the ‘Add Search to Favorites’ icon, highlighted here:
Click on the gold star to display the saved Favorites. These will then be listed every time you open the help viewer.
The glossary contains a list of specific access control terms and their accompanying definitions.
Simply click the term or phrase and the definition will appear directly beneath it.
20.3 | Printing Topics |
You can print an entire topic by clicking File >> Print and then selecting the printer.
If you click on Print Preview there is also the option of removing headers and footers before printing.
If you have Adobe Acrobat installed you can alternatively select to print to an Adobe PDF (this will create a standalone PDF which you can further edit).