How to connect an eSSL or ZKTeco fingerprint machine to gym software, with no static IP

Plenty of gyms in India already have an eSSL, ZKTeco or Biomax fingerprint machine at the door, often bought for staff attendance. Every scan is stored inside the machine, and there it stays until something takes it out: a pen drive, a program on the front-desk computer, or the internet.

This guide covers the three ways a machine hands over attendance, how to tell in a minute whether yours can send it over the internet, the exact menus to set that up without a static IP, and what to do when it won’t connect. The menu names are the ones on most eSSL and ZKTeco machines sold in India; Biomax and other brands built on the same system use the same ones.

Three ways attendance leaves the machine

The difference that matters is direction. With PC software, something has to reach in to the machine, which is why it needs the machine’s address and, from outside the gym, a static IP. With push, the machine reaches out to the software, the same way a phone opens a website. Your router lets that through without any setting changed.

Can your machine push? Check one menu

Press the menu key (on most machines it is marked M/OK) and open Menu → Comm.. Look for any of these:

• Cloud Server Setting
• ADMS
• Server Setting

They are the same feature under different names. If one is there, the machine can push. If none is, it is an older firmware without push mode: ask the dealer about ADMS firmware for that model, or use the USB or PC method. When buying a new machine for a gym, ask for this menu by name before you pay.

Setting up cloud push, menu by menu

Your gym software gives you a server address and a port. With those in hand:

1. Get the machine online. Plug an Ethernet cable from your router into the machine, then open Menu → Comm. → Ethernet and set DHCP to ON. An IP address should appear. If the DNS line shows 0.0.0.0 or is empty, change it to 8.8.8.8, or the machine can’t find the server by name.
2. Tell it where to send scans. Open Menu → Comm. → Cloud Server Setting (or ADMS) and set:

   Setting	Value
   Server Mode	ADMS
   Enable Domain Name	ON
   Server Address	The address your software gives you
   Server Port	The port your software gives you
   Enable Proxy Server	OFF
   HTTPS	Whatever your software says (OFF for Aeren)

3. Restart it. Menu → System → Restart, or switch it off and on. Within a minute or two the cloud icon on the home screen should show no cross.
4. Check the date and time under Menu → System → Date Time. A wrong clock means wrong attendance.
5. Give every member a number. The machine knows numbers, not names. Under Menu → User Mgmt → New User, enter the member’s number and enrol two fingers, so a cut or a plaster on one doesn’t lock them out. Your software then links each number to a member, once.

Two settings can undo everything, so check them before enrolling anyone. If the machine has Menu → System → Device Type, it should say Time Attendance; changing it later erases every enrolled finger. And make only the owner an administrator on the machine: once anyone is an administrator, only their finger opens the menu.

What about expired members at the door?

An attendance machine records who scanned; it doesn’t decide who may enter. Turning members away needs a machine wired to a door lock, plus software that removes or disables expired members on the machine.

Removing has a cost owners only find out later: deleting a member from the machine deletes their fingerprint too, so when they renew they enrol again from scratch, often at the busiest hour. The gentler way is to keep everyone enrolled and have the desk see, the moment someone scans, that their plan has ended. Then it is a conversation at the counter, which is also the best moment to renew them.

Fingerprints and privacy

The fingerprint itself stays on the machine, which compares each scan with the fingers it has stored. What reaches your software is normally a member number and a time. In push mode, though, many machines can also upload fingerprint templates along with their logs, so ask any software you are considering what it keeps.

Fingerprints are personal data. Add a line to your admission form saying the gym uses fingerprint attendance, where the data is kept, and that a member can ask for theirs to be deleted when they leave, and ask members to sign it.

When it won’t connect

The cloud icon on the machine’s screen has a cross on it

The machine isn’t reaching the internet. Check the cable, then Menu → Comm. → Ethernet: an IP address should be showing, and DNS should not be 0.0.0.0 (use 8.8.8.8).

The icon looks fine, but no scans arrive

Open Cloud Server Setting again and compare every line with what your software shows: the address, the port, Proxy OFF and HTTPS as instructed. One wrong character is enough. Restart the machine after any change.

There is no Cloud Server, ADMS or Server Setting menu

The firmware has no push mode. Ask the dealer you bought it from whether ADMS firmware is available for that model; otherwise use the USB or PC method.

Scans arrive with the wrong time

Set the clock under Menu → System → Date Time. A machine that has been unplugged for a while often loses the date.

A member’s finger is often not recognised

Enrol a second finger, and re-enrol the first. Very dry, wet or worn fingers read badly, and a smudged sensor makes it worse: wipe the glass with a soft dry cloth.

The machine won’t open its menu

Someone has been made an administrator, and only their finger opens the menu now. Ask them to scan. Make only the owner an administrator, never the desk staff.