Why is WideFS trying to connect to the Internet??

[sgr]

One of my WideClient machines is running Win98SE, and has a dial up connection. Every time I run WideFS on the client machine, it tries to dial an internet connection. What setting do I change to prevent this? I only want it to access my network.

It seems I can prevent it from dialing using the settings in Zone Alarm, but why is it trying to access the internet in the first place?

Thanks in advance.

-Steve

[Pete Dowson]

One of my WideClient machines is running Win98SE, and has a dial up connection. Every time I run WideFS on the client machine, it tries to dial an internet connection. What setting do I change to prevent this? I only want it to access my network.

It seems I can prevent it from dialing using the settings in Zone Alarm, but why is it trying to access the internet in the first place?

It doesn't. There is no Internet stuff in WideFS at all. What else are you running?

Pete

[sgr]

Hi Pete,

Welcome back. Hope you had a good holiday!

I should have rephrased my statement. ..... WideFS seems to trigger something else to want to dial an internet connection. Perhaps something in my network or dial up settings? I don't know.

I'm running Zone Alarm and an old version of Norton AntiVirus. When I double click the shortcut to start WideClient, it opens but also the dial up connection window pops up and wants to dial for internet access. I have WideClient set up to start PM CDU and PM MCP once it connects to the FS server using the run-ready feature.

If I press CTL-ALT-DEL, these are the programs running in the background:

Explorer

Osd

Zdclient

Oqm

Navapw32

Syntpenh

Syntplpr

Rundll32

mmkeybd

Irmon

Systray

Rnaapp

This is something that just started recently, and I'm not sure what I did to cause it. The only thing I recall is updating WideFS and Project Magenta files. I haven't changed any hardware, nor have I reconfigured any settings - at least not intentionally or that I recall.

Thanks,

Steve

[sgr]

Oh, I might add that I've run a Spyware check and the antivirus software to see if something malicious might be causing the problem.

-Steve

[Pete Dowson]

When I double click the shortcut to start WideClient, it opens but also the dial up connection window pops up and wants to dial for internet access.

The only thing I can think of is that you are using an Internet IP address for the Server, or at least telling WideClient this. Or it is an addrerss that has been set, in Windows somehow, as an Internat rather then LAN address.

Please let me see your WideClient.INI and WideClient.Log files after such an occurrence.

I really don't know how to invoke an Internet connection by program -- I've never written anything for the Internet, so I'm clutching at straws a bit.

Regards,

Pete

[sgr]

Hi Pete,

Wide Client starts to run, then I get the dial internet connection box popping up. PM MCP and CDU do not load until I click cancel on the dial internet connection box (I guess because windows is waiting for a response), then they load through the run-ready feature.

; PLEASE SEE WideFS documentation for parameter details

;=====================================================

[Config]

Port=8002

ServerName=SERVER

Window=3000,3000,112,27

Visible=Yes

; -----------------------------------------------

ButtonScanInterval=20

ClassInstance=0

NetworkTiming=5,1

PollInterval=2000

ResponseTime=18

ApplicationDelay=0

TCPcoalesce=No

WaitForNewData=500

MaxSendQ=100

OnMaxSendQ=Log

NewSendScanTime=50

Priority=3,1,2

Protocol=TCP

[user]

Log=Errors+

Runready1=C:\Magenta\MCP\MCP.exe

Runready2=C:\Magenta\CDU\CDU.exe

********************Log File*************************

********* WideClient Log [version 6.598] Class=FS98MAIN *********

Date (dmy): 14/05/06, Time 21:45:47.420: Client name is LAPTOP

132 Attempting to connect now

7519 New Client Application: "ASV6" (Id=-739347)

15284 Trying TCP/IP host "SERVER" port 8002 ...

15284Okay, IP Address = 192.168.0.10

18392 Connection made okay!

19007 C:\Magenta\MCP

19007 C:\Magenta\MCP\MCP.exe

19599 C:\Magenta\CDU

19599 C:\Magenta\CDU\CDU.exe

40922 New Client Application: "CDU" (Id=-745783)

45338 New Client Application: "MCP" (Id=-565119)

Cheers,

Steve

[Pete Dowson]

Wide Client starts to run, then I get the dial internet connection box popping up. PM MCP and CDU do not load until I click cancel on the dial internet connection box (I guess because windows is waiting for a response), then they load through the run-ready feature.

It isn't WdeClient doing this. As the Log shows, you have ASV6 running even before WideFS gets a chance. Now ActiveSky will probably want to go to its website to download the weather for you, or maybe it is part of its validation if you have not been through that yet. See the log:

132 Attempting to connect now

7519 New Client Application: "ASV6" (Id=-739347)

15284 Trying TCP/IP host "SERVER" port 8002 ...

15284Okay, IP Address = 192.168.0.10

18392 Connection made okay!

19007 C:\Magenta\MCP

See -- ASV6 loads, the whole process then presumably stops waiting for the dial thing for ASV6, then WideFS connects to the server and continues.

Now you aren't loading ASV6 through WideFS, so presumably you have it loaded beforehand and it is just waiting for an FSUIPC-type interface to become present before it starts doing something.

There is no way WideClient is going on the Internet itself, not with an internal servername. You'd have to give it an Internet IP address for that to happen.

Regards

Pete

[sgr]

Hi Pete,

You're right, ASV6 was running in that particular instance. I run it in offline mode, however, and even if I start wideclient without ASV6 running, I still get the "dial internet connection" box popping up.

I'll dig a little deeper into some of the settings in the other applications and see what I can find.

I completely understand that WideClient itself is not trying to get internet access, however, it seems to be the one thing that triggers the situation.

I'll try shutting down ZoneAlarm, the virus software, etc. and see what happens.

Thanks for your help.

-Steve

[Pete Dowson]

I completely understand that WideClient itself is not trying to get internet access, however, it seems to be the one thing that triggers the situation.

Nothing else other than ASV6 is connecting to it that early. If anything else is doing it it must be hooking into the normal TCP/IP access through Windows.

Why not try IPX/SPX protocol?

Pete

[sgr]

Hi Pete,

I haven't used IPX/SPX in a while. I'm running a mixed platform.... Windows XP is the server, and all the clients are Windows 98. I think originally, I had issues with IPX/SPX due to the WinXP server. If you feel that should no longer be a problem with the newest WinXP Service Pack, I'll try it again. If IPX/SPX offers better performance, that would be a good thing. :wink: I used to prefer it over TCP/IP, but went away from IPX/SPX when I implemented a WinXP server for FS2004.

Hhhmm. I think I just found my weekend project. :wink:

Thanks,

Steve

[Pete Dowson]

I haven't used IPX/SPX in a while. I'm running a mixed platform.... Windows XP is the server, and all the clients are Windows 98. I think originally, I had issues with IPX/SPX due to the WinXP server.

If your WinXP is not at least SP1 level, yes you would. Also I suspect your other problems are partially down to the mixture. I found my Networks all ran much better when I updated them all to XP -- an admission I was pretty reluctant about, I can tell you, as I was a staunch "Win98 forever" person before! ;-)

If you feel that should no longer be a problem with the newest WinXP Service Pack, I'll try it again. If IPX/SPX offers better performance, that would be a good thing. :wink: I used to prefer it over TCP/IP, but went away from IPX/SPX when I implemented a WinXP server for FS2004.

Well, WinXP is okay with IPX/SPX, but the mixed network may make it more of a problem. Sorry, I don't know. I never went back to Win98 after I found that all the Network problems seem to have been fixed in XP (SP1 at least is needed).

Hhhmm. I think I just found my weekend project. :wink:

Maybe, but be prepared to try other things with TCP/IP too. When I mentioned IPX/SPX it was really only to try it as a work-around for this dial-up thing you've got going on, or at least a proof that it couldn't possibly be WideFS. I didn't know you had a mixed network then or I probably wouldn't have mentioned it.

Regards,

Pete

[kaelastreet]

I hope that SGR resolves the issues and will be interested if the solution you provide works.

Have a Great Day

Kaela Street

A pain in the **** often starts with a pain in the ****

[Pete Dowson]

... you could reveal how your software works

You are really full of ****, you know? You say FS is simple -- so, tell me, how does it work? Do you know? I've spent many years with all sorts of versions of FS and I only know how small parts work.

You complain about my technical documentation on the one hand, and want me to tell people how my software does what it does on the other? Get a grip!

If you want to start delving into how my things work, start with the FSUIPC SDK, freely downloadable. Once you understand that, ask questions about how each bit does what it does, and I'll tell you. But I'm not about to launch into a many thousand page manual about how I manage to make things work the way I do.

Oh, and I do recommend TCP/IP on XP systems -- the two are compared in the documentation. In the latest interim version I also support UDP, which is definitely faster but less reliable. Check your facts please before posting. You seem to put finger to keyboard without any prior thought far too often.

Pete

[kaelastreet]

I refuse to respond further in the forum as we are not acheiving anything productive.

Kaela Street