can't keep connection or download/upload anything

[XanderIII]

I can't keep my connection status green and I can't download or upload anything. I have patch operational in bar, my WinMX version is 3.54 beta 4.

[Me Here]

XanderIII

Welcome to the site. Sounds to me like you have a firewall or some protective program not allowing access for WinMX, you may also have a router or dsl modem that needs configured. 

Could you maybe let us know some more info so we can help you better?

What protective programs do you have installed (even if disabled)?
Do you have a router or DSL modem that might need ports forwarded?
Are you using secondary or primary connection?
What operating system are you using?  Windows XP, 98, god forbid.. Vista?

[XanderIII]

My operating system is windows XP, I have a dsl modem, and I have used both primary and secondary connections. I do not have any protective programs anymore, I unistaled all of them.

[Me Here]

Xander i should have asked this already i appologize.. however

What patch are you on now?  What does it say in the update bar up top?
Are you running Peerguardian or PGLite?

Do you actually get the yellow flashing at you as well on Primary?
and when you say yellow flashing.. you do mean on the networks page yes?

[XanderIII]

It does not tell what patch it is, all it says is patch operational. Yes the yellow flashes on both secondary and primary about the same and yes it is on the network bar.

[Me Here]

hi XanderIII,

The 'Patch Operational' message in the update bar means it IS the correct patch from WinMXGroup.

And your sure you dont have any antivirus running, no spyware protection running, no firewalls ?  None installed but disabled or anything.. sorry to push this point but often folks do have something of one of these installed, and users often dont think about a anti spyware program causing this type of problem..

Normally when you run as a primary you wont see a yellow flashing unless something is interupting the communications between you and the other primaires.

Do you notice this disconnection with any certain activity .. ie: searching, channel list, browsing users?
Also you missed my question about Peerguardian 2 and PGLIte.. do you have either of those installed on your PC?

[XanderIII]

No anti-spyware, anti-virus and firewall are turned off. It flashes yellow and now it will turn green and say I have a network connection but when I try to search for anything it starts to blink yellow again. Also if I let it turn green and don't search for anything but I check the bandwidth it shows that some activity. It will go from 0 bytes to 9 and increase all the way up to 1300 but then it begins to drop to 0. This only take about 10 to 15 sec. and no I do not have Peerguardian or PGLight.

[Me Here]

hi XanderIII

To be honest this problem is a tough one.  Im struggling with ideas here, so I hope you will bare that in mind and be patient with me on this.. because to be honest.. you should only need to forward your ports in your modem/router, make sure the program is allowed in your firewall and turn it on (its best to configure them or uninstall them rather then disable them, as they can still block traffic, especially primary traffic) unless its XP firewall in which case you will also need to add the ports.. and be done.. working fine.

Disconnections when it does finally turn green due to a search could mean that this firewall or the modem are blocking the flood of UDP coming in as it thinks its an attack. 

Make sure you have forwarded the correct ports and that you have done both TCP and a seperate UDP in the modem, if it has a router built in, as most do these days.

Make sure that WinMX has complete access in your firewall, some firewalls even want you to allow WinMX to act as a server, as Zone Alarm will, and if yours does tell it yes.

I would try secondary again as it doesnt use UDP to get search results or channel lists and this might tell us whether something is seeing the udp as an attack.  Secondary relys on the primary its connected to for search results and there for should stay connected when you click search.

If you could tell me what model of modem you have (name and model) and what firewall we are talking about here it might help me to help you.

[XanderIII]

Mobem name is Westell and model # is E90-611010-06.the firewall is the standard XP firewall

[Me Here]

ok XanderIII,

In looking at this, that model of modem doesnt seem to have NAT or routing capabilities.  One less thing to blame for this.. so.. My next request then is this

Go to your XP Firewall and enable it.
Remove WinMX from the Exceptions list
Restart WinMX, then when the firewall asks about permission give it the permissions again.
Next open the firewall exceptions page again and hightlght WinMX on the list, choose Add Port
Give it the name WinMX tick TCP, and add the port listed in WinMX Settings > Incoming TCP.
Now do the same thing again, highlight the same WinMX on the XP list and select Add Port.
Give it a name WinMX tick UDP and add the port listed in WinMX Settings > In/Out UDP.

If you see more then one WinMX on your list of exception remove them all in the second step listed above.

Retry the primary on WinMX and let me know.

[XanderIII]

It gave me a constant byte rate but the networking bar will not stay green. I try to search and it starts to blink yellow again. I put it on primary should I try secondary now. Plus do I need to turn my firewall off still even though I made those exceptions.

[Me Here]

Yes try secondary now.. No leave the firewall on for now with those rules in place.  Of course you can try with it off but the idea is to have it work with the firewall, which in most cases is easy to do.

[XanderIII]

The byte rate is 0 on secondary. 

[Me Here]

Byte rate?  Sorry Xander not sure what you are referring to here...

[XanderIII]

The bytes transfer rate on the bandwidth.

[Me Here]

So on secondary the transfers begin and go to 0.00 ?  This sounds more and more like its your ISP Xander causing all your woes here.  That is typical of ISP shaping or thorttling.  Recently a company in the UK (and could be other places as well) has started blocking connection for WinMX and other p2p's during certain hours, meaning they do have the capability.

The fact is I cant explain this anymore and there fore and ready to blame the ISP for throttling or blocking or in general sabatoging your P2P use.  We have made all needed settings adjustments and still the problem continues..

Working on secondary should by pass any problems associated with protective software and the modem even if i happen to be wrong about the router built in (I'm 99% sure you dont have) but even if you did secondary should work unless your ISP is doing this.   Getting the green on transfers then the 0.00 is typical symptom we see for this..

   Xander im not sure that I can be of much more service to you, if anyone else reading this has any ideas im all ears

[XanderIII]

I greatly appreciate all the help you have given me and I wish it would have been enough, but it does not look like it is going connect. Thank you again and if any body has any ideas please let me know.

[fish628]

hi me!

its been a while since i've looked in here, but recently, uploads all seem to time out, and i was reading this thread and...

in my xp firewall, i see three winmx listings. one does not give me the option of ports, it only lists the program and i can "change scope"
the other two do show port info. one shows tcp and the other udp.
are you saying that i should only have one winmx listing in there?

[bughunter]

have you tried changing how winmx uses DNS  to resolve the user at the other end.........
in settings host name resolution change host name look up from winmx to an external DNS server to resolve host names........
if you dont know the ip address for your isps primary DNS  server either ring them and ask of alternatively.........
start/run/type cmd click the ok button/.........
next you will get a black doss block pop up..........
in there type ipconfig /all       hit the enter button..........
you will get a read out of your computers ip address subnet mask  and gateway.........also there will be a heading saying DNS servers  and a ip address its that ip address that you enter into winmx for host name resolution  the port is always port 53....
after you have done that reboot your computer and restart winmx.............see if that helps you any..........
note it may take awhile for winmx to connect but once it does things should be a lot better..............
as me_here has said traffic shaping is becoming a real issue now for usa and european users, its not a problem were i am but i can sympathise with you..........note all isps lie about traffic shaping and the ones that do say they do it bury the text in fine print generally under there terms and conditions of use..........let us know if changing the dns helps you in any way...........
http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1130           ..............is a registry tweak and info on dns for windows take a look at that too
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php          ...............
winxp_dnscache.zip
Description: Patch Windows 2k/XP not to cache failed DNS entries. By default, when a DNS lookup fails (due to temporary DNS problems), Windows still caches the unsuccessful DNS query, and in turn fails to connect to a host regardless of the fact that the DNS server might be able to handle your lookup seconds later. This patch fixes the problem by configuring the DNS client to continue sending queries to an unresponsive network. To install, save to your HD, unzip the .reg file, then double-click the filename.
you should get that registry tweak to   xp  has a serious bug in how it handles failed dns quierries........

good luck hope some of this helps you

[Me Here]

Hi Fish,

What Im saying is that in the Firewall Icon on the Exceptions tab you should have only one WinMX.  Highlight that WinMX in your list and choose 'Add Port'  then put in a name 'WinMX Port number 6699 (if this is what your WinMX Settings > Incoming TCP says), and tick the TCP then say OK.  Now back on the Exceptions tab again, highlight the same WinMX on the list, and choose 'Add Port' again, then put name WinMX, 6257 and tick UDP (again match the port to the WinMX Settings > In/Out UDP).

This should be it, your XP Firewall set up correctly.