Thanks, I was pretty sure that was what I needed to do and how it works. If you watch the first minute or so of this: Astroberry Server Tutorial you will see what the panel on the left side looks like and how it is used. What I am not quite sure of is what is the difference between starting the server from that left panel (outside of Kstars/Ekos) or from inside Kstars/Ekos when you run them, if everything is connected to and running on that local Rpi? The server runs in the background in either case (I believe), so that if Kstars/Ekos crashes (and I don't need to reboot the Rpi), then the server is still running and I can just start up Kstars/Ekos again, connect the equipment and pick up where I left off. But I am not sure of that. I think the original reason for the server was for when you have your equipment connected to the Rpi, but you are running Kstar/Ekos on a remote machine (like a laptop). Then if Kstar/Ekos crashes the Rpi is somewhat oblivious to that fact and the server is still running (I don't know if it will continue imaging jobs already started or not).

I really feel bad about being confused on this, because I have been using Kstars/Ekos for three or four years now! I do see the advantage of just running the server on the Rpi at the equipment and running Kstars/Ekos on a laptop remotely. It is likely faster and as I said a Kstars crash does not affect the Rpi. And I have gone back an forth, running my system both ways over the years. I currently have upgraded to an Rpi 4 with 8 Gb Ram and have it booting from a 240 Gb SSD, which I connect to just from a browser window from the laptop in the garage (warmer and bugless). My reason is "Why Not!" the expense of that equipment is minimal (relatively speaking) and there is gain in transfer speed both for the Rpi and my cameras (all connected on a powered USB 3.0 hub). So I seem to be committed to running everything on the local Rpi and as long as everything hums along I see no reason not to.

So maybe my confusion is illusionary, just because of the complexity of the software. There have been several upgrades in my time frame with Kstars/Ekos and by trying to keep up with them I have lost track of where I am at!

So I agree, if I have already started the server (either from the left panel or from a command line entry) then there is no reason to shut it down and start a new instance, just enter "no" at that question ; that may be the default (it defaults to one or the other in a few seconds, so I have to go back and check what the default is).

thanks,
Ron

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