STS

Shipper-driven Traffic Simulator

Version 4

Installation and Start-up using either XAMPP

or UniServer on Microsoft Windows

November 2020
 Installing STS utilizing XAMPP or UniServer on a Windows Computer

The Shipper-driven Traffic Simulator (STS) is a web-server based software system that was, and continues to
be, developed on a Raspberry Pi single board computer. The software involved is all open-source, free-to-use,
and free-to-share. Since the software platforms that are used by the simulator can also be found on computers
running Microsoft's Windows operating system, an easy installation process for those types of computers has
been developed using some free-to-use web server & database server platforms.

The one that has been used with STS for several years is XAMPP, which stands for “​X​ (Cross Platform) ​A​pache
/ ​M​ySQL / ​P​HP / ​P​erl” and more information about it can be found at this link:

https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html

XAMPP has been developed and is supported by people around the world so do not be confused if messages
are displayed in multiple languages.

Another web server & database server platform with good reviews is UniServer. This package is smaller and
easier to set up than XAMPP but isn’t quite as fast. More information about it can be found at this link:

https://www.uniformserver.com/

Contents
Section 1 – ​Download, Decompression, and Configuration Instructions for Microsoft Windows

Section 2 ​– ​Displaying the STS Home Page/Main Menu

Section 3 ​– ​Connecting to STS via a local area network

 Section 1 - Download, Decompression, and Configuration
Instructions for STS on Microsoft Windows
There are many ways to download and decompress “zipped” files and folders. This is a method that has been
tested successfully on several Windows 7 and Windows 10 computers.
1. Download the compressed archive appropriate for your version of Windows, either 32 bit or 64 bit, and
move that folder to the ​Desktop​. The compressed archives using XAMPP are ​sts04x32.zip​ and
sts04x64.zip​. UniServer is not yet available for 32 bit Windows. The 64 bit version’s file name is
sts04u64.zip​.
 2. Right-click on the downloaded file to start the decompression (un-zipping) process.

Accept the recommended location and folder name. Depending on the location of the downloaded file, the
location of the unzipped folder will vary. In this example, “​YOUR-USER-NAME​” will normally be the username
you use on the computer. The name of the folder that will be created by the unzipping process will depend on
which of the three packages you have selected. Click the ​Extract​ button. A progress window will be displayed.
 3. The contents of the decompressed folder will be displayed. At this point, the compressed folder can be
deleted although it might be a good idea to save it in case of installation problems.

At this point, the setup process differs. Steps 4 through 8 cover setting up the XAMPP platform. Setup for
UniServer starts at Step 9 and runs through step 13.

4. Locate and run the file named ​setup_xampp​ ​by double-clicking on it.
 5. A text command line window will appear with a prompt at the bottom.

This command-line program configures the ​XAMPP​ platform for the host Windows computer. If the folder that
was placed on the desktop is moved or renamed, the ​setup_xampp​ ​program must be run again in order for
XAMPP​ to update it's configuration. Press the ​1​ key and then press ​Enter​ when the program finishes.
 6. Locate and run the file named ​xampp-control​ ​by double-clicking on it.

The XAMPP control panel will be displayed.

 7. Click on the Start​ ​buttons for the Apache web server and the MySQL database server. If Windows displays
a message saying that the programs were not allowed to use the network, click on the button to allow
them access. The Apache and MySQL program names will turn green.

If either of the two modules don't turn green, it could be that your Windows computer is already using the
ports required by Apache or MySQL. In this case, you'll have to either shut down those Windows processes
that have the port in question tied up, or change the ports that Apache and/or MySQL use. If you are having
port conflict issues, please follow the troubleshooting steps shown in the ​STS_XAMPP_Troubleshooting.pdf
document or refer to the ​XAMPP​ web site:
h​t​tp​s​://co​m​m​un​i​t​y.apac​he​f​r​ie​n​d​s​.o​r​g/f​/

8. Start a browser and go to ​http://localhost/sts ​to view the STS home page.
9. The setup process for the UniServer platform is less involved. After unzipping the downloaded
file, you should see something like this:

10. Run the UniController.exe program. This is the UniServer control panel. No installation is
required. The control panel will ask you if you wish to change the database server’s password.
You can click on the Cancel button, or enter a password if you wish, but don’t forget what it is.

11. If you clicked the Cancel button, you’ll see another small window. Click OK to close it.
 12. When the UniServer control panel appears, simply click the Start buttons for the Apache web
server and the MySQL database server. The first time that you do this, Windows will ask you
three times if you wish to grant permission to the web server, the database server, and the
control panel to run on your machine.

13. After accepting the security challenges, two web pages (or tabs) will appear in your default web
browser. These two pages confirm that UniServer is running correctly. After closing them, direct
your web browser to go to http://localhost/sts and you should see the STS home page.

Once started, both the XAMPP and the UniServer systems will continue to run until they are shut down via
their control panels or until the Windows computer is shut down.
For questions about or assistance with the STS software, contact the development team at the following eMail
address:
tre.taliesin@gmail.com
 Section 2 – Displaying the STS Home Page/Main Menu
Anytime that you wish to run ​STS​, simply make sure that the Apache webserver and the database server are
both running and then start a web browser on the computer hosting the STS simulator. Direct the web
browser to go to this URL: ​http://localhost/sts ​and you should see the STS home page and main menu.

If an error message is displayed instead of the home page, you may have forgotten to start the webserver and
the database server, or it's possible that the web server did not start correctly, security software such as a
firewall may be blocking access to the web server, or Ethernet port 80 is already in use by a different program.
In this case, refer to the ​STS_XAMPP_Troubleshooting.pdf​ document or contact the STS team by eMail for
further assistance.
 Section 3 - Connecting to STS via a local area network
If the computer running the simulator is connected to a local area network, either via a wireless network
adapter or by an Ethernet cable, it is possible to access STS from other computers, tablets, or smartphones on
that same network. In order to do this, the IP (network) address of the host computer must first be
determined. Most computer workstations are, by default, set up to use the Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP) to retrieve their IP addresses from the network. It is possible for this address to change from
time to time, but it seldom does on most small home local area networks.
To determine the IP address of a Windows computer, start a text-based command line session (old time
computer users will know this as a DOS session) and enter the following command:

ipconfig
The results should look similar to the following example.

In this case, the computer is connected to the local area network via it's wireless adapter. The IP address of
that adapter is shown on it's third line of text:
Ipv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.52
If the computer had been connected to the local area network via it's ethernet (cable) interface, the ​Ipv4
Address​ ​line would have been the third line in the block of text associated with the ​Ethernet adapter
interface.
Once the IP address of the host computer has been determined, the STS can be accessed from a browser that is
on the same local area network as the host by entering the IP address of the host and then the rest of the STS
URL as follows:

In this example, the host computer is operating on an IP address of 192.168.1.62 so the complete URL for the
STS home page would be ​http://192.168.1.62/sts/index.html​.​ If an error message is displayed instead of
the STS home page, it is possible that the host computer is not accessible via the network. In this case, contact
the STS team by eMail for additional assistance.
 SECURITY NOTICE
The Shipper-driven Traffic Simulator is not designed for use on the open internet. While most computer
workstations have the usual operating system security measures in place, access controls such as passwords
have not been implemented on STS itself. If the XAMPP web server can be accessed from outside the local area
network, it is possible for people with bad intentions to gain access to the host computer and use it for
nefarious purposes. If you really, really, really want to expose STS to the wilds of the internet, please contact
the developers for assistance before doing so.