WHAT IS ERS-Connect?

ERS-Connect is a stand-alone (not part of EZTerm or your ERS System) instant messaging (chat) program.  This program enables you to securely send and receive encrypted "instant" text messages to and from other users on our network  (This network includes only ERS employees, MicroSabia (creators of Ashell) employees and all credit unions using ERS-Connect.)

Unlike most instant messaging programs, such as Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, MSN and email, ERS-Connect uses strong AES-256 bit encryption, so it is a safe way to send and store confidential information without fear of outsiders seeing the text of your message.  Your messages are saved in Message History, which is also encrypted using AES-256 encryption.  ERS-Connect also provides the ability to search for specific words or phrases contained in your Archive History.

COST FOR ERS-Connect

This program is being provided to ERS Linux users at no cost.  

INSTALLING ERS-Connect

Install ERS-Connect on your computer by clicking on the ERS-Connect link at http://ezterm.ers2000.com.

After you install ERS-Connect the icon displayed above will appear on your Windows desktop. Double click the mouse on the ERS-Connect icon to run ERS-Connect.

NOTE:  Only one instance of ERSConnect can be active on a terminal, so install using your Username and Password ONLY on your terminal.  

THE MAIN WINDOW

Example:  Main Window for ERS

The Main Window shows all of the users at your credit union and their current status. (The above example is the window for ERS Employees local network.)  When a particular user is logged in to ERS-Connect his or her Username will appear in bold font. Those users who are not currently logged in will appear in a non-bold font.

Your current status will be displayed on the bottom status area, showing as linda – Available in the above image.

When ERS-Connect is running, a small yellow smiley face will be placed within the lower right area of the Windows desktop known as the System Tray.  The following example shows the ERS-Connect icon, along with several other icons of programs currently running on this computer.   

You can click on the X in the upper right corner of the Main Window to close the window, while still keeping the program active.  Anytime you want to display the Main Window, double click on the yellow smiley face in the System Tray and the window will be displayed.

LOGGING IN FOR THE FIRST TIME

Each user of ERS-Connect is known by a Username which is unique at your credit union.  (When sending or receiving messages to/from another credit union or ERS, the top bar on the Message Window will identify the sending Credit Union, so your Username needs to be unique only to your credit union, not the whole network.)    You must choose a Username by which you wish to be known, and then click on Login in the upper left corner of the Main Window.  

Choose Login from the drop down menu.  The following Login Screen will appear.   

Check the New User box and fill the Username and Password fields with the username and password you have chosen. Leave the other fields set at system default values unless you have a special reason to change them. Now click OK. This will create the new ERS-Connect user account for you and log you into the system.

By default ERS-Connect will run and login automatically when you login to Windows. If you ever find that ERS-Connect is not logged in, simply click on Login at the top left corner of the Main Window and choose Login.  After your initial login, leave the New User field UNchecked, enter your Username and Password (if it is not already provided for you), and click OK.

LOGGING ON USING YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD ON SOMEONE ELSE'S TERMINAL

Click on Login in the upper left corner of the Main Window and choose Logout to log out the person currently signed on to ERS-Connect at this terminal.

Click Login and fill in the Username and Password fields with your information, and uncheck any boxes below the Password field.

You can now send and receive messages at this terminal.  When you are finished be sure to Logout or this person will see any messages sent to you.  

CHATTING WITH ANOTHER USER

To chat with another user, double click the mouse on their Username in the Main Window. This will open a chat window for you and the user you selected. You may then begin typing your message in the bottom input pane. When you want to send the message, click on the Send button or press the Enter key. After you send the message, it will appear in the top output pane. When your chat partner sends you messages, they will also appear in the top output pane. All messages will appear in the time order in which they were sent.  If you have messages to or from other users they will appear in a separate Chat Window.  You can have several Chat Windows open with active chats going at the same time.

CHANGING TEXT ATTRIBUTES

Chat windows have several features that make chatting more useful and fun. You can set these attributes to your preference using the buttons that appear in the area between the top Output area and the bottom Input area in the Chat Window.  The B, I, and U buttons represent  Bold, Italics, and Underline text attributes. Text color can be changed by clicking on the paint pallet icon to the right of the U.  To change the font face, click on the down arrow by the field now displaying Verdana in the above example and font size using the arrow beside the 14 (the larger the number, the larger the size of the text letters).

When you are typing text, the text attributes will always be whatever the current B, I, U, color, and font settings are.

If you want to change the text attributes of part, or all of the text you have already typed in the Input field, but have not yet sent, you can mark the text you wish to change by click the mouse on the first character of the section you’d like to change, and dragging the mouse (while holding the mouse button down) over all the characters you want to change. This will cause the text to be “highlighted” indicating it is “marked.” Then you can change the text settings, B, I, U and font to something else.

EMOTICONS

Several emoticons are available and can be inserted into messages by clicking on the smiley face.     When you select an emoticon, it will insert the text codes into your message that represent the emoticon. For example, the first smiley emoticon will cause :) to be place into your message. When you actually send the message, it will show up in the top output pane as the graphical emoticon. You may also directly type in the text code for emoticons,  For example typing and sending  :) will display the first smiley shown above.

SPELL CHECKING

To check spelling before you send a message, click on the Check button. You will be notified of any words that are not found in the ERSConnect dictionary. You can choose the currect spelling from the list provided, and click REPLACE, click IGNORE to leave the word as it is, or click Add to Dictionary to add this word to the ERSConnect dictionary.

Click on Resume Editing after making a correction to continue spell checking the remainder of your text.

If you would like to have all messages you Input spell checked automatically (without having to click the Check button every time) you can specify this in the Options window. (See SETTING OPTIONS section below.)

SENDING A MESSAGE TO A USER WHO IS OFFLINE (NOT CURRENTLY LOGGED IN)

When you send a message to a user that is offline (not currently logged in to ERS-Connect), the message will be stored and displayed immediately the next time that user logs in.  

RECEIVING A MESSAGE

When you receive a message from another user it will be displayed in one of the following ways.    

• If you currently have a Chat Window opened with that user, the message will appear in the upper Output portion.   
• If you do not currently have a Chat Window opened with that user, a new window will automatically be opened with their message in the upper Output portion.  You may then proceed to chat with the user by entering your reply in the bottom portion.

SENDING MESSAGES TO ERS PERSONNEL OR OTHER EXTERNAL USERS

To send a message to ERS personnel, display the ERS-Connect Main Window.  Double click on External Users. The External Users window show a list of Locations, which will include ERS and each of the credit unions associated with ERS. Select ERS in the Location field, and you will see a list of all ERS personnel. Select the desired user and click OK. This will bring up a Chat Window that you can then use to chat with the user you selected.

RECEIVING MESSAGES FROM EXTERNAL USERS

If a local user (a user belonging to your credit union) sends you a message, you will always immediately receive the message if you are logged in to ERS-Connect. You have a choice of 2 options for managing External (not from your credit union) messages.  

• To receive all External messages in the same manner as local messages, click on Login in the upper left corner of the Main Window and click on Accept Chats from External Users.  A check will appear to the left indicating you want to accept messages from all External users in the normal fashion.  (i.e. A Chat Window automatically opens containing the message and allows you to respond.)   If you do NOT respond to this message within 15 seconds the following auto-response will be sent::  "The recipient is not available for a chat at this time. The message will be handled and you will receive a reply in a timely manner."

If you do NOT check the Accept Chats from External Users option, the sender will automatically receive the following message: "The recipient is not available for a chat at this time. The message will be handled and you will receive a reply in a timely manner."  You will hear a sound indicating that an External message has been received and the ERS-Connect icon in your System Tray will change in color.  To read the message click on Tools, then Read External Messages.  A Message Window will open for each External user who sent you a message and allow you to read and respond to each individually.   

MESSAGE HISTORY

ERS-Connect maintains a message history of your chat conversations. The number of days history you want saved can be set in the Message History Options window, and history may be disabled altogether. (See MESSAGE HISTORY OPTIONS below)

To display the History window, click on Tools on the Main Window, and then click Message History.

VIEW HISTORY FOR SPECIFIED USER AND DATE

To view the history of a particular user, click on the username in the Users list on the left. After you do this, the Dates list will be filled in with all of the days for which chat conversations exist between you and this user. When you click on a date from the Dates list on the right, all the chat messages on that date between you and the user will be displayed in the text area.

SEARCH HISTORY

This feature allows you to search for chat conversations regarding a specified subject when you are not sure of the date of the conversation.  In the example below, we are searching for conversations with Don regarding HSA accounts.    Choose the User from the list on the left and click on Search First



Enter the word or phrase for which you want to search such as IRA or IRA Fees (remember, it is going to find only an exact match), click the appropriate fields and click Find.  The program will search thru History beginning with the most current message, and display for you the first instance it finds that matches your search criteria.  To continue searching for older occurrences click on Search Next.

PRINT HISTORY

To print the entire history, first display it on your screen, then click on Print.  When the Print Window appears choose the printer (your Windows Default Printer will automatically be selected), choose Print All Text at the bottom of the screen and press OK.

To print only a portion of the history, use your mouse to highlight the text you want to print.  (Click the left mouse button on the first character, hold down the left button and move to the last character to print and release the mouse button.)  Click on Print, choose Print Only Selected Text at the bottom of the screen and click OK

SETTING OPTIONS

To personalize the program settings, click on Tools at the top of the Main Window and choose Options.  The following window will appear.  You can adjust any of the settings above the black line.  Click OK to save your changes.

MESSAGE HISTORY OPTIONS

ERS-Connect allows you to determine how many days of History are saved (to a maximum of 365 days), and how much history you want displayed on new messages.  To set these parameters click on Tools at the top of the Main Window, and choose Message History Options.  

The first field indicates the number of days you want chat history saved.

The second field indicates the number of days history you want displayed when a new Chat Window is opened.  The default is 3, which indicates that the program should display any previous messages you received from this user in the past 3 days any time a chat window is opened with them.  This allows you to close the Chat Window and still be able to scroll back thru previous conversation you had with this specific user the next time a window to them is opened.  

To delete all message history that is stored in ERS-Connect, press Delete Current Messages in History.  This will remove all message history from your login Username and Password, and it cannot be retrieved.