The best thing about working on a mac is that things work simply, nice and silently. You do not really need to know much about MacOS, its architecture, file system, application interfaces or protocols involved. You just use your programs and be creative. This applies for Merlin 2 as well. You do not need to know much about MacOS X to use it. You can let Merlin sync calendars with iCal. You see it accessing Address Book for the resources. You can get it to mail reports to project stakeholders, send budgeting information to Billings, publish your project to allow access via Bonjour from other Merlin 2 applications, a web browser or the Merlin iPhone app. It simply works like a charm!

Merlin really keeps it simple for you! There are cases though that you might get into situations where a bit of technical understanding comes handy to you.

For example when you enable sharing and try to access your projects being outside the company network. In such a case you will need to enable  ‘port forwarding’ and  have a router supporting UPnP. If this is not the case, the URL in the proxy which Merlin provides will contain the private IP address of the machine and times out by external access.

Does it sound complicated? Well maybe a bit. Usually a mac or a pc user does not care if he has a private or global IP address. And how many of us can tell upon seeing an address, whether it is private or not? Not many, but yet you will need a global IP address for such a case.

Please remember:

• A global IP address can be accessed through the internet (also known as public IP address)

• A private IP is accessible only within the ranges of its local network.

• A hint for recognizing a private IP address when you see one:

It starts either by a 10.  a 172. or a 192.

• A proxy URL  to connect to Merlin projects over ‘Remote open…’, a web Browser or iPhone starting by such values cannot work due to this internet protocol limitation and will time out by external access.

In case you want to read more about the private network, you may check the according  wikipedia entry.

Other useful stuff

• Port forwarding is something the router does, and forwards all incoming connections on Merlin’s sharing  ports to the machine where Merlin 2 with the sharing option or Merlin Server are running.

• UPnP allows devices to connect seamlessly and to simplify the implementation of networks in the home and in corporate environments for simplified installation of computer components. Merlin uses UPnP to configure the router accordingly.