Why are some Places (CmapServers) grayed out in the Views Window?

Answers to the questions most commonly asked about CmapTools and CmapServer.
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cmapadmin
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Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:22 pm

Why are some Places (CmapServers) grayed out in the Views Window?

Post by cmapadmin »

A grayed out Place (CmapServer) means that CmapTools is aware of the existence of the Place, but is unable to establish a connection to it. This could happen because of several reasons:
  1. If only some of the Places appear grayed out, it means that those Places that are grayed out are not accessible at this moment. This could happen because the CmapServers for those places themselves are behind firewalls, in which case they register with the Directory of Places making their existence known, but your computer cannot access them. These Places will continue to appear gray unless the firewalls that are protecting them are configured to allow connections to come through. Or, the Place may be grayed out because CmapTools "remembers" it has contacted that CmapServer before, but at this point the CmapServer is not responding (the CmapServer may be down, or its connection to the Internet broken). CmapTools will periodically try to contact the CmapServer until it establishes the connection, or, after a few days, will give up and remove it from its list of known CmapServers. If the CmapServer comes online again, CmapTools will add it to its list after finding out about it through the Directory of Places.
    • If all the Places are grayed out, and have always been grayed out, then you need to check whether your computer is behind a firewall or uses a proxy server to access the Internet (see the FAQ: Cannot access the Places or Cmap Cloud).
      • If all the Places are grayed out, and CmapTools has been able to access some Places before (the have appeared "colored"), your connection to the Internet is probably down. CmapTools remembers those Places from the list it keeps, but is unable to contact them. Check your Internet connection (e.g. dial up-connection has disconnected, cable connection to DSL or cable modem is disconnected, etc.) You may want to test whether other programs are able to connect to the Internet (e.g. a Web browser) to ensure the link is working.
      CmapTools periodically updates its list of Places (CmapServers). You can force it to perform this update by selecting the Edit/Refresh menu entry in the Views window, or with the F5 function key.
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