Author Topic: WinMX peer network crashed? (Read 12805 times)

stigbye1 · « **on:** April 11, 2009, 03:24:58 am »

WinMX recently and suddenly lost network connection, and now WinMX won't connect again.....

I'm connected through a remote tunnelling/proxy server due to network restrictions from my local Internet connection provider, but this is not the problem in this case as connectiion to the remote tunnelling/proxy server is fully operational, and all other tunnelled applications is working correct as always!

By analyzing the tunnelling client log file I'm able to see what remote IP-addresses and ports that is tried when WinMX is attempting to make a connection, and in the past I've seen "thousands" of unique IP-addresses and ports being used, but now there are ONLY eight unique IP-addresses and three unique ports as seen in the table below, and these are being retried ... and retried ... and retried ... and retried ... and retried ... and retried ... and retried ... over and over again without a successful connection ever being made!

Unique IP-address     Unique ports tried for this IP-address
-------------------   ----------------------------------------
74.208.71.148         7950, 7951, 7952
75.134.104.100        7950, 7951, 7952
78.47.24.173          7950, 7951, 7952
78.105.170.174        7950, 7951, 7952
81.142.173.9          7950, 7951, 7952
82.95.242.81          7950, 7951, 7952
115.124.110.120       7950, 7951, 7952
115.124.110.121       7950, 7951, 7952

Forested665 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 11, 2009, 03:58:08 am »

in the oledlg.ini you can see the DNS addresses for the caches you use to connect to.
I can assure you it hasnt crashed.
Maybe your tunneling server has blocked access to these?
If you have a way to run a ping through the tunnel instead of through your local connection i would try that.

Forested665 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 11, 2009, 03:59:10 am »

My little edit button is missing.
I forgot to request that you report back so we can forther troubleshoot your issue.

stigbye1 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 12, 2009, 05:51:32 pm »

Still scratching my head a little about this mysterious problem...

It appear that sometimes WinMX connect successfully, and where I then see other IP-addresses and ports used than those few listed in my initial post.

However, sometimes WinMX may suddenly lose network/peer connection, and then, when trying to reconnect, I can ONLY see the exact same IP-addresses and ports as listed in my initial post, and where WinMX cannot reconnect.

Forested665 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 12, 2009, 07:30:54 pm »

It has become appearent you do not know what winmx does when it connects.
There is an explanation here: https://www.winmxworld.com/tutorials/wpn.html

To clarify the repeated addresses are caches.
The ones that change and dont show up the next time are primary users that you have connected to.

GhostShip · « **Reply #5 on:** April 12, 2009, 07:37:39 pm »

Theres no mystery here Stigbyte although maybe a problem for you : (

The IPs you have made a list of are the network peer caches and the ports you have listed tell me your a secondary user ( primary users use 794X series of ports), the port numbers are those hardcoded into the winmx client and thus we also use them.

Now to the problem, to stop attackers joining the peer cache or being fed into the peer cache system all IP' are checked on the fly by the peer cache itself to ensure the IP is valid and I think the problem is that its not liking your proxy, untill you can get past this stage the peer cache wont deliver any network node lists to you and so you wont be able to see the many many thousands of unique addresses that exist out there.

To test this is the case could you drop your proxy for a few minutes and try conecting directly as normal ?

stigbye1 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 12, 2009, 09:19:37 pm »

Now, let ME precise a few things, and why I'm calling this a "mystery problem"...

I cannot connect "directly as normal" as my local Internet connection provider (it's actually a company network) has blocked most ports, i.e. all TCP ports above port# 1024, and the entire range of UDP ports, are blocked altogether.
The proxy server I'm using is not a random proxy server just found somewhere on the net, but is a proxy service where I'm paying a monthly subscription fee to the proxy service provider for using their high-bandwidh proxy services.
This "mysterious problem" occurred suddenly as I've now used WinMX with this proxy service provider and through their proxy servers for a long time without any problems similar to this I'm now encountering. In fact, the first time I ever used WinMX with this proxy service provider was back in October 2006 - more than two years ago!

GhostShip · « **Reply #7 on:** April 12, 2009, 11:37:46 pm »

Hmm it sounds like the caches dont like your IP or your not getting the TCP packet with the nodes list, can you recheck your firewall, any router settings and if that fails can you destroy the winmx folder completely in program files and reinstall the program (allowing it to create a new folder) in case of some one-in a million- corruption.
Can you also confirm your not using something like peer guardian and ensure you have the latest patch type please (the community patch from patch.winmxconex).

WinMx will work on ports below 1024 btw I used to use 80 and 125 to get connected with one ISP

stigbye1 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 13, 2009, 12:01:14 am »

I don't think there is a corrupted installation, or incorrect firewall/router settings or similar.

If you read one of my previous replies, the "mystery" isn't that I can't connect at all, but that I sometimes get a succesful connection, and sometimes not (only the cahce IP's tried).

Let's say WinMX won't connect. If I then click the Network tab and manually disconnect and reconnect, I may sometimes (may require some retries) get WinMX to connect successfully through the proxy, and can then search, upload and download.
Now, let's say WinMX already is connected. If I then click the Network tab and manually disconnect and then reconnect, or if WinMX somehow lost the active connection and automatically attempt to reconnect, then one of two things may happen: Either WinMX quickly and successfully reconnect to another user/peer, or WinMX just start trying the cache IP's over and over again without connecting.

stigbye1 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 13, 2009, 12:08:13 am »

Addendum:

In the moment WinMX have an active connection.
Now, let's see what's happening if I a few times try to manually disconnect and reconnect...

First attempt: Failed to connect (cache IP's only tried)!

Second attempt: Succesful connection!

Third attempt: Failed to connect (cache IP's only tried)!

Fourth attempt: Failed to connect (cache IP's only tried)!

Fifth attempt: Succesful connection!

GhostShip · « **Reply #10 on:** April 13, 2009, 12:44:20 am »

I hate to have to say this but if your asking for help then at least please help me to help you by trying the potential solutions I have asked and give me the information gained from your efforts, I appreciate the fact you believe its not certain things and have your own ideas regarding what the problem is but the simple facts are its not the patch or the peer caches as these are used by too many other users to only effect yourself and thus the problem will lie with you, or your proxy service, or in the case of some anti virus/malware solutiuons an application on your machine.

If you wish someone else to help you I,m sure others will jump in but I,m also sure they wont get anywhere either if you wont check over items we need to rule out of the equation, we try to follow a routine here when problems arise, it works in nearly all cases and users go away happy, need I say any more ?

stigbye1 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 13, 2009, 03:02:10 am »

Quote from: GhostShip on April 13, 2009, 12:44:20 am

... I appreciate the fact you believe its not certain things and have your own ideas regarding what the problem is ...

When I rule out things, like in this case that it's not a corrupt installation and/or problems with firewall or similar, I use my own logical tests and conclusions that is partially gained from 30+ years of experience (I started with computers back in the 70's)...

And why I'm in this case is almost certain that the current problem isn't related to some local problems on my own systems:

I have two different PC's with different Windows versions where WinMX (using the latest community patch) is installed, and on both PC's there are even two different WinMX versions installed into separate install folders (on one PC even on different disk partitions), so in total I can test using four different WinMX installations --- and currently the exact same problem occur with all of these...

Regarding possible problems with the external proxy service, I can of course not be 100% sure as this is out of my own control. However, I have several other applications using the same proxy service (eMail, newsreader/NNTP-client), two different FTP-clients, eMule, etc.) and have not experienced any recent problems with any of these applications.

Addtionally, this problem occured recently and suddenly, without doing any local system changes or modifications of any kind.

tig · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2009, 03:53:08 am »

hi Stigbye1

Are you able to tell me what versions of windows you are using please. I have been reading and now curious about it.

Also what firewalls are you using?

wonderer · « **Reply #13 on:** April 13, 2009, 08:21:27 am »

Being an experienced user like you, started about the same years using computers, there are a few things to say. At first, there is no way to tell if you suffer the one in a million corruption of the WinMx settings file. This file is updated while using WinMx and may get corrupted by several reasons. If you don't want to go trough setting up WinMx again, make a copy of settings.dat and delete the original while WinMx is closed. start WinMx and go through the setup which will rebuild your settings.dat. The settings.dat is to be found in your WinMx folder.
Secondly, On the tests you describe on connecting and reconnecting it looks like you are on the very edge of the time frames needed to connect.
To understand this you need to know how WinMx connects to the peer as a secondary.
The very first contact made to the peer network will be with the cache server with a request for IP on the peer network to connect to. It is going too far to tell exactly how this works, but when you see only the list of IP you mentioned in this post, your WinMx is failing to contact the peercache and thus getting no list of IP to connect to the peer network.
When your WinMx succeeds to get that list from the cache server it will use the received IP to connect to one or more of these IP and when that connection finally is established you are connected to the network.
Why the timeouts occur may have many reasons. In WinMx are very few settings related to timing out on initial connect.
Your bottlenecks may be the proxy, the router or the modem. In rare occasions it may be the TCP/IP settings in your OS like lifetime, packetsize or timeframe.

Forested665 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 13, 2009, 11:47:42 am »

For good measure can you clarify this:

Quote

I cannot connect "directly as normal" as my local Internet connection provider (it's actually a company network)

What do you mean by coorporate network.
And can you give us the name of the proxy provider so i can reveiw the Terms of Service.

stigbye1 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 13, 2009, 12:32:13 pm »

Quote from: tig on April 13, 2009, 03:53:08 am

hi Stigbye1

Are you able to tell me what versions of windows you are using please. I have been reading and now curious about it.

Also what firewalls are you using?

More details:

===== PC1 (primary) =====
OS: Windows XP SP2
Firewall: Windows Firewall

===== PC2 (secondary) =====
OS: Windows 98 SE2
Firewall: None!

===== Internet connection (both PC's) =====
Wireless.

More informations (somewhat detailed):
I have no local network routers, but each PC have separate WiFi adapters with outdoor antennas used to connect to a remote WiFi access point (AP) using an outdoor antenna located in a 10 meter high antenna pole at the roof of the nearby elementary school. The direct distance between the local antenna and the remote antenna (AP) is approx. 75 meter. The signal meters in the WiFi adapter utility software show an average signal level of approx. 75-85% and a signal quality of approx. 90-95%.
From the AP, an underground fibre cable is running down to the basement of the city hall where the local server, external Internet gateway, LAN routers, firewalls, etc. are located. The entire network including all WiFi AP's are managed by the municipality administrations IT department, and is basically the same LAN network used by all other municipality authorities and similar, e.g. schools, health services, fire department, etc., etc.

tig · « **Reply #16 on:** April 13, 2009, 01:13:08 pm »

Hi Stibye1

Could you please try this for PC2 and follow what is in this thread from the suggestions from myself and deux. https://forum.winmxworld.com/index.php?topic=7392.0.html

Also with pc one can you make sure that the ports are forwarded correctly through the firewall.

Please post back with any info

Thanks

Forested665 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 13, 2009, 01:21:33 pm »

OI! make sure both pcs (and all copies of winmx) are using different ports! You cant share ports between copies of mx or on other machines within the same network.
This would explain why you suddenly disconnect and cannot get back on.

tig · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2009, 01:27:14 pm »

Ummm bacon share ports or do you mean make sure they are difference.

After reading bacons post i can see what he means (i think) make sure these ports are not the same as what is been used through other outlets.

Forested665 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2009, 01:38:18 pm »

Sorry about that, Yes make sure they are DIFFERENT
No port can be occupied by two programs, and on a network by two computers.