A reference for the most common setup, networking, and behavior questions. Issues are grouped by topic. If your problem isn’t here, email support@fieldcrestdental.com.
Q: Windows shows a “Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting” warning. Is the app safe? This warning appears for any app downloaded from the internet that isn’t yet widely installed (it’s based on download reputation, not actual scanning). Click More info → Run anyway. If you obtained the app from the Microsoft Store, you will not see this warning.
Q: macOS says “Chairside Ready Alert.app cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.”
The app is not notarized. Right-click the .app (or .command installer),
choose Open, then click Open in the dialog that appears. macOS
remembers the choice for future launches. If macOS still refuses, go to
System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway in the
section near the bottom.
Q: macOS asks for permission to find devices on the local network. Allow it. This permission is what lets the app discover other workstations running Chairside Ready Alert. If you previously denied it, re-enable it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network.
Q: Windows Firewall pops up on first launch. Allow access on Private networks (this is your office LAN). If you accidentally clicked Block, open Control Panel → Windows Defender Firewall → Allow an app or feature and tick Private for Chairside Ready Alert (or for the Python interpreter, depending on installer).
Q: The macOS installer says it needs to download Python and install it.
That’s expected the first time you run the installer on a Mac that doesn’t
already have python.org Python 3.12. The installer downloads the official
Python 3.12 package from python.org, requires a one-time admin password,
and uses it for the app. macOS’s bundled /usr/bin/python3 does not
include Tkinter, which is why the app needs python.org Python.
Q: Where is the app actually installed?
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ChairsideReadyAlert\~/Applications/Chairside Ready Alert.app (the bundle), with support files at ~/Library/Application Support/ChairsideReadyAlert/. A Finder alias named Chairside Ready Alert is placed on the Desktop and points at the canonical bundle.Q: How do I uninstall the app?
-RemoveSettings from %LOCALAPPDATA%\ChairsideReadyAlert\uninstall_chairside_ready_alert.ps1.Chairside Ready Alert.app from ~/Applications/ to the Trash. Optionally also delete ~/Library/Application Support/ChairsideReadyAlert/ to remove settings.Q: I installed the app on two PCs but they don’t see each other. Most common causes, in order:
192.168.1.x). Wi-Fi guest networks are
usually isolated from the wired LAN. Move both to the staff network.50505).50506.192.168.1.41, 192.168.1.42).Q: How do I find a workstation’s IP address?
ipconfig. Look for the
IPv4 Address under your active adapter (usually starts 192.168. or
10.).Q: Two workstations have the same station label and it’s confusing. Rename one. The app shows an inline duplicate-label warning under the station name field when this happens.
Q: I send a Ready alert but the other workstation doesn’t react.
Q: The app pops to the front but no sound plays. The recipient controls the local alert volume. Open the app on the recipient and raise the Alert volume slider. Confirm Windows / macOS system volume is also up.
Q: I want to send to multiple workstations at once. Open the Default menu and configure default targets for your station. Now one tap of the Ready button goes to every default target.
Q: I want a different sound for alerts from a specific station. Sender controls which sound plays on the receiver. The sender’s Alert sound dropdown selects the sound played at the receiver. The receiver’s volume slider controls how loud it plays locally.
Q: No sound plays at all, even though the window flashes.
Q: Can I add my own custom alert sounds? Not currently. The 15 built-in sounds are synthesized at runtime to keep the app self-contained (no audio file licensing concerns, no extra files to lose). Custom sounds are on the future-features list.
Q: The tray icon is missing on Windows. Windows 11 hides “extra” tray icons by default. Click the ^ (caret) next to the clock and drag the R Chairside Ready Alert icon onto the always-visible tray area. Or open Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → Other system tray icons and toggle Chairside Ready Alert to On.
Q: The tray icon is missing on macOS. macOS Sonoma and later sometimes hide menu bar items behind the notch on MacBooks. Use Bartender, Hidden Bar, or System Settings → Control Center to manage what’s visible. The app also exposes the same actions in its Settings menu, so you can control the app without the menu bar icon if needed.
Q: How do I send a Ready alert from the tray? Right-click the tray/menu-bar R icon → Send Ready. Or double-click the icon to bring the main window to the front.
Q: Default ports?
Q: Our IT department wants a list of network behavior to whitelist. Direct them to the FAQ entry above plus the privacy policy. Concretely:
| Direction | Protocol | Port | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outbound + inbound | UDP broadcast (255.255.255.255) | 50506 | Peer discovery beacons every 2.5s |
| Outbound + inbound | TCP | 50505 (configurable) | Alert message payload |
| Outbound only | HTTPS (443) | — | Direct-installer build only: manual update check (user-initiated). The Microsoft Store build makes no outbound internet calls. |
The app does not connect to any cloud service, telemetry endpoint, or analytics service at any time.
Q: Can two computers on different subnets talk to each other? Not via the default broadcast discovery (broadcast doesn’t cross subnets). If your network routes between subnets, configure Manual peer IPs in Settings on each machine listing the IP addresses of the others. UDP discovery will be skipped and TCP messaging will work directly.
Q: Will the app work if some workstations are on Wi-Fi and others on Ethernet? It depends on whether Wi-Fi and wired share the same subnet:
192.168.1.x). The app discovers peers
automatically with no configuration.192.168.1.x
and Wi-Fi devices on 192.168.0.x. UDP broadcast does not cross
routers/NAT, so the peer list will look empty on both sides.How to tell which case you have: check ipconfig (Windows) or
System Settings → Wi-Fi / Network (macOS) on two devices. If
the first three octets of the IPv4 addresses match, you’re on the
same subnet. If they differ, you have two subnets.
Fix for the two-subnet case:
50505 → the Wi-Fi PC) configured on
the Wi-Fi router. This works but is fragile and harder to
maintain than fixing the topology.The app does not crash or get confused on mixed setups — it simply won’t see peers it can’t reach. Peers idle for more than 12 seconds are pruned automatically.
Q: Can it work over the internet / between offices? Not by design. The app is intentionally LAN-only — there is no relay server, no NAT traversal, and no end-to-end encryption. For multi-office communication, use a tool built for that (VOIP, secure messaging, etc.). Running Chairside Ready Alert over a public network is not safe — see the privacy policy for details.
Q: Where are my settings stored?
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ChairsideReadyAlert\chairside_ready_alert_config.json~/Library/Application Support/ChairsideReadyAlert/chairside_ready_alert_config.jsonQ: My settings disappeared after reinstalling. Settings persist across reinstalls because the installer reuses the same data folder above. If they are gone, the data folder was deleted (manually, by another user, or by an antivirus tool). There is no automatic backup.
Q: How do I reset to defaults? Quit the app, delete the config file at the path above, then relaunch. The app recreates the file with defaults on next launch.
Q: Can I copy my settings to another computer?
Yes — copy chairside_ready_alert_config.json to the same path on
the other machine before launching the app there. Edit the
label field to give the new machine a unique station name.
Q: How do I update the app?
Install Chairside Ready
Alert.bat from the latest installer download. It detects the
existing install and updates in place. Or use Settings → Check
for updates… in the running app.Install Chairside Ready Alert macOS.command
or use Settings → Check for updates….Q: The macOS “Check for updates” returns an SSL certificate error. This was fixed in version 1.0.5 — re-run the macOS installer to pick up the fix. (The fix corrects how the app launcher exposes the Python venv; older 1.0.4 installs hide the certifi CA bundle from Python and the SSL handshake fails.)
Q: How do I see the current version? The version is shown when Settings → Check for updates… reports “You’re up to date” — and in the title bar on some platforms.
Q: Does the app send any data to a cloud service? No. The app does not contain analytics SDKs, advertising SDKs, or crash reporting that contacts external servers. The only outbound internet traffic is the manual update check on direct-installer builds (Microsoft Store builds have no outbound internet traffic at all).
Q: Is alert traffic encrypted on the LAN? No. Messages and peer-discovery beacons are sent in cleartext across the local network. Anyone with packet-capture access on the same subnet can read them. This is documented in the privacy policy. Use only on trusted internal networks.
Q: What information does the app store about me? The settings file (path in Section 7) holds: your station label, preferred alert sound and volume, theme, list of default targets, and any manual peer IPs you configured. None of this leaves your device except as part of normal LAN messaging (the station label is broadcast to the LAN every ~2.5 seconds; alert messages contain the sender label and timestamp).
Q: Where is the privacy policy? https://ayodoood.github.io/Chairside-Ready-Alert/PRIVACY_POLICY.html
Q: “Update check failed (network): SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED” Run the latest installer (≥ 1.0.5). Older builds hid the certifi CA bundle from the running Python and TLS verification failed.
Q: “Could not bind UDP 50506 — port already in use” Another app on the same machine is using UDP 50506, or a previous Chairside Ready Alert process didn’t exit cleanly. Quit any running copy from the tray menu (Close Chairside Ready Alert), wait a few seconds, and relaunch. If a non-Chairside app legitimately needs 50506, contact support — the discovery port is not currently configurable.
Q: “Chairside Ready Alert is already running.” The single-instance lock detected another copy. Click the existing window or the tray icon to bring it forward. If no copy is visible, quit it from the tray menu, or — as a last resort — reboot.
Q: “Cannot open Chairside Ready Alert — file is in use.” On Windows, this usually means an installer is trying to update the app while it’s running. Close the app first (right-click tray → Close Chairside Ready Alert), then re-run the installer.
Email support@fieldcrestdental.com with:
startup_log.txt from the data folder shown in
Section 7. The log is plain text — feel free to read it before
sending.