{"id":7573,"date":"2023-08-02T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T00:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/?post_type=ht_kb&p=7573"},"modified":"2023-08-04T19:04:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T19:04:59","slug":"user-accounts-vs-customer-accounts","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/user-accounts-vs-customer-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"User Accounts vs Customer Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article describes the differences between User Accounts<\/strong> and Customer Accounts<\/strong>. \u00a0 This is one part of the additional features provided by the Enhanced User Management<\/a> Plug_In.\u00a0 This Plug-In also enables the ability to restrict<\/em> any User Account in various ways to control their access to your NTRIP Caster.<\/p>\n

Every NTRIP Client<\/a> connection to the Caster (every user), requires a valid user name and password to connect (unless you are running your Caster in an open mode where no user account is required to connect).\u00a0 This is called a User Account<\/strong>.\u00a0 In Pro<\/strong><\/em><\/span> models of SNIP<\/strong><\/span>, this account can be ‘owned’ or assigned to a Customer Account<\/strong> which is used to manage additional contact information (phone, eMail, etc.) and business details.\u00a0 The use the Customer Account features is entirely optional, but of significant convenience.<\/p>\n

The object model; Users<\/strong> versus Customers<\/strong> \/ Clients<\/h3>\n

There are two fundamental ‘account’ concepts used in the SNIP<\/strong><\/span> Caster.\u00a0 The User Account<\/strong>, and the Customer Account<\/strong>.\u00a0 The user account<\/em> is used by NTRIP Client devices to connect-to (log in to) the SNIP<\/strong><\/span> Caster. The customer account<\/em> holds details, such as the contact eMail or billing address, about a real world object such as the person or a firm who ‘owns’ that\u00a0 user account.<\/p>\n

Every User Account is owned by one (and only one) Customer Account.\u00a0 [User accounts not assigned to any Customer are assigned to the Caster Admin]\u00a0 Any Customer Account may have zero or more User Accounts.\u00a0 This provides great flexibility regarding how you choose to set up your users.\u00a0 A few common examples are provided below.<\/p>\n

Every User Account<\/strong> consists of a unique user name<\/em> and a password<\/em>, and also an allowed number<\/em> of simultaneous (concurrent) connections.\u00a0\u00a0 Each individual user account can connect simultaneously as many times as you allow.\u00a0 Some SNIP<\/strong><\/span> deployments will set this value to one<\/strong>; in which case a given user account can make one only connection at a time.\u00a0 Such a deployment might create three user accounts for a customer who required corrections for three different devices.\u00a0\u00a0 Another deployment might chose to create only a single user account and allow all three concurrent connections using that single account.<\/p>\n

The various connection restrictions<\/strong><\/a> which can also be associated with any user account provide further control. For example; a given user account may also restricted that it can only connect to a specified list of Base Stations or that a specific type of NTRIP equipment must be used.<\/p>\n

Examples<\/h3>\n

Consider as a fictitious example of a farmer named “Martin” who needs to be set up with corrections for four tractors.\u00a0 Let’s presume these four devices are called John, Paul, George, and Ringo.<\/p>\n

In any event “Martin” would have a customer account created for him.\u00a0 This would contain his full name and contact details (address, phone, email, etc.) and well as various bits of information needed to manage the business relationship between the two firms.\u00a0 Other Plug-Ins, such as eMail or monitoring, will likely also be of value in managing the client relationship aspect of this.\u00a0 This customer account would then own<\/em> the user accounts that were created.<\/p>\n

The user account setup(s) for the four tractors would likely be created in one of the two ways below:<\/p>\n

[Aside<\/strong>:<\/span> Customer Accounts are also used with Base Station Reservations<\/a>
\nand can also have Staff Accounts created for their own staff personal to use the Web API.]<\/p>\n