6.1.6RC network failure on client?

[kltye]

I had just migrated my Sage server to a more powerful machine, and my client immediately started having problems connecting to the server, or if it did connect, I would get that Error -17 as well. I looked at my logs and was getting the same errors as you are. What I did was to swap out my network card (PCI Gigabit) with another one, and the problems went away immediately.

The server was working fine as a domain controller, Exchange server, and did file transfers without any problems. Only Sage wouldn't work. Try putting in another NIC and see if that helps.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by shawncochran

I turned off the firewall, but that didn't seem to help. Uninstalling the anti-virus and firewall protection on the PC doesn't seem like that would be the best solution.

I'm not saying that this must be the problem you are having, but others have said they had to do a complete uninstall of at least portions of the McAfee software, or they did a completely new install. Simply disabling it didn't help. See some posts here, here, and here. It is worth looking into.

- Andy

[shawncochran]

Originally Posted by kltye

I had just migrated my Sage server to a more powerful machine, and my client immediately started having problems connecting to the server, or if it did connect, I would get that Error -17 as well. I looked at my logs and was getting the same errors as you are. What I did was to swap out my network card (PCI Gigabit) with another one, and the problems went away immediately.

The server was working fine as a domain controller, Exchange server, and did file transfers without any problems. Only Sage wouldn't work. Try putting in another NIC and see if that helps.

Interesting ... are you only using the clients or do you have MVPs as well? I'm curious because the MVP seems to work without issue but this client PC is clearly not working as well!

[shawncochran]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I'm not saying that this must be the problem you are having, but others have said they had to do a complete uninstall of at least portions of the McAfee software, or they did a completely new install. Simply disabling it didn't help. See some posts here, here, and here. It is worth looking into.

- Andy

While I agree that there's some data on McAfee, I really don't want to go down a hole on software just yet. I'll start with Jeff's advice on networking hardware. It might be a device driver for the NIC. On the other hand, I'm not experiencing any significant network issues *and* the MVP is working just fine (from the same Sage server w/ the same network running McAfee ... yet adding in the complexity of 802.11g wireless since it's a wireless MVP)

[shawncochran]

Since I'm licensed for placeshifting, I went ahead and installed the PLACESHIFTER version of the client on the SAME PC having the issue with the standard client.

IT WORKS PERFECTLY.... so what's different between a standard "client" load and the "placeshifter client" load?

[Opus4]

Did you look at the links I posted?

The thread for the 2nd link in my list of 3 above includes a screen shot that shows the exact same (-17) error message that your screen shot shows. That thread also talks about how the MVP was working while the PC UI did not work. I realize there is no guarantee that it is the fix for your situation, but... if you have no interest in trying something that helped someone else in a very similar situation, I won't post about it again. It sure looks like something you should read again, though.

- Andy

[Wheemer]

why are people so against windows fire wall... it's worked perfectly for me forever.

[kltye]

Originally Posted by shawncochran

Interesting ... are you only using the clients or do you have MVPs as well? I'm curious because the MVP seems to work without issue but this client PC is clearly not working as well!

I only have one client, no MVPs. I had no networking problems either - Exchange, IIS, DNS, DHCP were all working well. I'm not trying to say that Andy's response is wrong; just putting my experience out there.

Windows firewall is awesome, IMO. Does what needs to be done without bothering you.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

why are people so against windows fire wall... it's worked perfectly for me forever.

For use on a SageTV box, it is probably better, if that's all the box is used for. Once you start downloading from unknown sources, etc., then the potential for security breaks are there. Windows firewall does not scan outbound packets. So if you had allowed something, were exploited by some hole, etc., you would also have a layer of protection.

B

[shawncochran]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Did you look at the links I posted?

The thread for the 2nd link in my list of 3 above includes a screen shot that shows the exact same (-17) error message that your screen shot shows. That thread also talks about how the MVP was working while the PC UI did not work. I realize there is no guarantee that it is the fix for your situation, but... if you have no interest in trying something that helped someone else in a very similar situation, I won't post about it again. It sure looks like something you should read again, though.

- Andy

I did read them. I completely agree that there are some similarities between what I'm seeing and what they're seeing.

I guess my point is: the answer should be more interoperability. Anytime there's an issue with SageTV, the answer shouldn't be "get rid of this software" or "uninstall that software." If McAfee wasn't a mainstream product -- I could see where SageTV wouldn't be interested in trying to provide a solution. However, McAfee is an extremely mainstream product and I'm willing to bet that there is a way to configure the two packages to work together. Since I've paid for SageTV including the move from v5 to v6, and I've paid for two placeshifter clients and two PC clients PLUS purchased a wireless MVP I don't think it's too much to ask for SageTV to help me work an "interoperability issue" as it relates to their software.

I'm trying to use the pre-packaged release (6.0.19) and release candidate (6.1.6RC) software as provided by SageTV as a normal consumer would. If there's anyone who has purchased the SageTV software and is a Comcast customer, Sage will potentially see this issue reemerge, because Comcast provides McAfee free of charge to all their customers. Having me remove part or all of the McAfee software isn't a fix for the issue however it does identify a potential cause. The fix for the issue is resolving why there is an apparent conflict between McAfee and SageTV and providing a solution for making those two packages work together.

It is important to note that Jeff (Narflex) and another poster feel that there is a potential hardware issue. One poster resolved his issue by replacing the NIC.

I appreciate you taking time to research and post to this thread. I've taken into consideration the approach you've offered, and I have taken the position that removing all or part of the McAfee software isn't a fix for the problem because the potential issue still exists between the two software platforms. If the combination of McAfee and SageTV really is the issue I'm experiencing, then part of this BETA period should be the recognition of that potential issue and a solution for resolving it.

[shawncochran]

Originally Posted by kltye

I only have one client, no MVPs. I had no networking problems either - Exchange, IIS, DNS, DHCP were all working well. I'm not trying to say that Andy's response is wrong; just putting my experience out there.

Windows firewall is awesome, IMO. Does what needs to be done without bothering you.

Thank you for your input as well. Again, Narflex's initial response was H/W related too. I'm trying to get my hands on my sniffer (which I loaned out and it hasn't come back home yet!) today so I can triple check my wiring, jacks and patch cables. Then, I'm going to poke the switches in the eye and see if there's something weird going on there. After that, I'll make sure I'm running the latest version of the drivers for the on-board intel NIC for my DG965WH motherboard (http://www.intel.com/products/mother...65WH/index.htm)

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by shawncochran

I did read them. I completely agree that there are some similarities between what I'm seeing and what they're seeing.

I guess my point is: the answer should be more interoperability. Anytime there's an issue with SageTV, the answer shouldn't be "get rid of this software" or "uninstall that software." If McAfee wasn't a mainstream product -- I could see where SageTV wouldn't be interested in trying to provide a solution. However, McAfee is an extremely mainstream product and I'm willing to bet that there is a way to configure the two packages to work together. Since I've paid for SageTV including the move from v5 to v6, and I've paid for two placeshifter clients and two PC clients PLUS purchased a wireless MVP I don't think it's too much to ask for SageTV to help me work an "interoperability issue" as it relates to their software.

I'm trying to use the pre-packaged release (6.0.19) and release candidate (6.1.6RC) software as provided by SageTV as a normal consumer would. If there's anyone who has purchased the SageTV software and is a Comcast customer, Sage will potentially see this issue reemerge, because Comcast provides McAfee free of charge to all their customers. Having me remove part or all of the McAfee software isn't a fix for the issue however it does identify a potential cause. The fix for the issue is resolving why there is an apparent conflict between McAfee and SageTV and providing a solution for making those two packages work together.

It is important to note that Jeff (Narflex) and another poster feel that there is a potential hardware issue. One poster resolved his issue by replacing the NIC.

I appreciate you taking time to research and post to this thread. I've taken into consideration the approach you've offered, and I have taken the position that removing all or part of the McAfee software isn't a fix for the problem because the potential issue still exists between the two software platforms. If the combination of McAfee and SageTV really is the issue I'm experiencing, then part of this BETA period should be the recognition of that potential issue and a solution for resolving it.

Keep in mind, nobody is asking you to run your computer without McAfee, except to test the theory.

B

[shawncochran]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Keep in mind, nobody is asking you to run your computer without McAfee, except to test the theory.

B

What I read of the posts was to remove McAfee ... and alternatively stop using their firewall and switch to the Windows firewall.

I completely agree that there's some data indicating that there is a potential interoperability issue with regards to McAfee and SageTV (at least v 6.0.19 and up -- I didn't have this issue before)

If there's a perfect place to do some testing, it's in BETA which is where we're at.

I will go through the process of uninstalling, performing a check, then reinstalling to validate if there's an issue between the two pieces of software -- that's only fair. However, I want to know that if I should do this, that the answer isn't going to be "don't use McAfee" because that simply isn't a solution to the issue.

I've also ordered some new networking hardware which should be here on Wednesday. I'm going to make a GigE backbone between the client PC and the machine running SageTV ... along with the driver upgrade for the intel onboard ethernet which is going to happen in about ten minutes ... because I still feel Narflex has brought up something else I should check into.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by shawncochran

I will go through the process of uninstalling, performing a check, then reinstalling to validate if there's an issue between the two pieces of software -- that's only fair. However, I want to know that if I should do this, that the answer isn't going to be "don't use McAfee" because that simply isn't a solution to the issue.

Personally, I would think that SageTV would be inclined to support the configuration of a firewall from McAfee. However, if there is a bug in McAfee's software, there are some excellent 3rd party firewall programs which protect better than the Windows one, and are free. They can't fix McAfee's bugs, but I would think it would be in their best interest to see that they are resolved.

B

[shawncochran]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Personally, I would think that SageTV would be inclined to support the configuration of a firewall from McAfee. However, if there is a bug in McAfee's software, there are some excellent 3rd party firewall programs which protect better than the Windows one, and are free. They can't fix McAfee's bugs, but I would think it would be in their best interest to see that they are resolved.

B

I'm willing to work the BETA process until my fingers bleed! The new GigE switches will be here on Wednesday (I hope) and I'll put them into the mix and see what that does.

If that doesn't resolve things as Narflex is leaning me towards, then I'll perform the same test as shown in the thread Andy posted (remove McAfee and see if it starts working)

My promise is to post results and logs as requested during this BETA period. If it turns out to be a software issue, I completely concur that it is in SageTV's best interest to see if there's a resolution. If it is a bug w/ McAfee then there's a whole bunch of other sticky wickets to cross!

[pez]

Just in case it helps someone, I had the Error -17 when a USB disk (containing a recording directory) was offline.

[shawncochran]

a pair of Linksys/Cisco GigE switches and the client now works ... now I have to read on how to get SageTV to get the time correct so I'm recording the right shows....