Network servers

To be able to connect to a remote computer, Ultra Fractal must be running in server mode on that computer. The server accepts connections from other computers running Ultra Fractal and performs requested calculations.

To start the server on Windows, click Programs on the Start menu, and then click Ultra Fractal Server. (The name can differ slightly depending on the version number.) On Mac OS X, locate Ultra Fractal Server in the Applications folder and double-click it. If you can't find it, download Ultra Fractal again and make sure to drag the Ultra Fractal Server application from the downloaded disk image to the Applications folder first.

To run the server on another computer, just install Ultra Fractal on that computer. You do not need an additional license to run Ultra Fractal in server mode on a separate computer.

The server shows a list with the current connections and a log that displays all activity. In the status bar, the number of connections and the current IP address are shown.

By default, the server listens on port 8691 for connections, but you can change this if it causes conflicts with other programs. If there is a firewall on the server computer, you need to configure it to allow incoming connections on this port.

To set connection and security options for the server, click Preferences on the File menu (Windows) or Ultra Fractal Server menu (Mac). See Security.

Notes

• On Windows, if you want to keep the server running continously on a remote computer, copy its shortcut to the Startup folder in the Start menu. By minimizing the server window, it will run unobtrusively in the taskbar tray area. On Mac OS X, you can right-click the dock tile for the server application and make sure Options > Open at Login is checked.
• The computers that run Ultra Fractal Server do not require any fractal formulas (they are transmitted with calculation requests), so there is no need to have an updated collection of formulas on those computers.
• On Windows, you can manually launch Ultra Fractal in server mode by passing the /Server argument on the command line.

Next: Connections

See Also
Network calculations