Alarming Increase of “Server not found”

[SuperTurtle]

I been using SC + repeater for about 1, perhaps 2 years now. It been really great….

I have the SC .exe setup to go out on port 80…so, it that port tends to be open on most machines.

However, in the last 2 months I seen an ALARMING increase in users that can’t connect. When they launch my SC, they get a message to the effect:

Cannot find or connect to vnc server

The message is not exact, but, says simply that the server cannot be found.

Up to about 2 months ago, I never saw, or received the above message. Now, with alarming increase, that message is occurring for more and more clients.

So, two questions:

1) is windows update, or a something like Norton now blocking VNC?

2) If this keeps up, we are in a bit of trouble…no?


Anyone else experiencing this trend? And, further…any solutions/ideas?

Super Turtle

[OfficialGuest]

In case you use a dynamic ip, maybe your dyndns provider has some problems...

[SuperTurtle]

No, I am using a fixed IP address. And, often I can connect to others in that same office.

I thinking this is a Norton fire wall issue.

The strange part is that I can OFTEN connect to some other computers in the SAME office. So, I do what I need on one computer, and then tell the person to move to the other computer on the same network (same office) and bam, they get that message about not finding the VNC server.

There is NO 5 minute time out occurring either. Remember, EVEN WHEN I SHUT DOWN THE REPEATER, and the user launches SC, they normally get the message about how SC will try for 5 mintues..and then it times out…

And, remember, EVEN WHEN YOU DISCONNECT a computer from the internet, and launch SC…you STILL GET the “bubble” message about SC going to waiting 5 minutes.

In other words, even on a stand alone pc that is not connected to the internet, you DO NOT RECEIVE AN ERROR message from SC.

The symptoms are:
The INSTANT they launch SC, and WITHOUT ANY DELAY WHATSOEVER, they get a message that the VNC server cannot be found. Further, that machine is connected to the internet, and their browser is functional. However, as I said, normally SC does not even give a message when the user has NO internet at all anyway.

That is a strange error message. Remember, if the computer is not even connected to the internet, then SC does not give a dialog box message. (SC does gives a “bubble” message from the tray about it will keep trying for 5 minutes. – we NEVER GET SC TO RUN in the tray when this error occurs).

There is no such connecting message. There is no such waiting time for 5 minutes. There is no such running in the system tray. We never get that far.

SC INSTANTLY says that the VNC server cannot be found, and the message is displayed instantly without delay. This is not a bubble message from the tray, there is no a delay of any type. The message is INSTANTLY given, and the user have to dismiss the dialog box. When they click ok to the dialog...SC shuts down.

They are receiving a dialog box here.

As I said, when testing on my machines, normally there is NO DIALOG MESSAGE OF ANY type , and even when the computer is un-plugged from the network and internet, and complete isolated, you STILL receive a bubble message from the tray about how it will try to connect for the next 5 minutes. These users are not getting that far.

SC gives the message, and the users clicks ok..and then SC shuts down. This is a SC generated message and dialog that the user receives.

I am perplexed. It is only been about two months since this been occurring, but it starting to happen more often, and also with MORE customers of mine (so, it is not a isolated case, nor just with one customer).

I *know* something is up on this issue since I am experiencing this with multiple customers of mine, and it stating to crop up more and more often. I been in this business too long to realize that something is occurring here…I just not been able to figure out what.

Single Click is starting to fail at a increasing rate, and there is some issue a float here that is causing this.

Super Turtle

[bevtech]

Super Turtle,

Sounds like you are ready to use pchelpware. I am up to at least 98% success rate

[SuperTurtle]

Super Turtle,

Sounds like you are ready to use pchelpware. I am up to at least 98% success rate

Well, that is about the same rate for SC now. I doubt that pchelpware is going to do any better then SC + repeater. And, my SC is setup to go out on port 80.

Perhaps next time when I can’t connect, I should try an alternative like pchelpware. I would be surprised if it works, and SC does not.

My bets right now are that the user is already running a copy of vnc, and likely this was setup by some other support person. The ONLY way I can get SC to give an instant message on startup is to launch a 2nd copy when one is already running. I don’t get the same message that my customers are receving, but, you do get a failure right away. I get dialog box like::

---------------------------
WinVNC Usage
---------------------------
-id 4567 -connect XX.XXX.XXX.XX::80 -noregistry

---------------------------
OK

(note that in any windows dialog, you can hit ctrl-c to “copy” the dialog box as text -- which is what I did for the above).

So, I am thinking the problem is that a copy of vnc is already running (but not a SC copy ..but a full vnc install)…..but, that is just a guess on my part. I am just hoping someone else is experiancing this, and I am surprised that I seem to be the only one so far noticing this problem.

Super Turtle

[bevtech]

well I am glad that you had that much success with single click I never did ..


Pchelpware works in vista were single click does not that is probably the only advantage along with built in encyption.

I just did not have that kind of success rate with SC It was about 50% for me
so I was glad when pchelpware was released.

But I am glad you do..

[SuperTurtle]

Well, since pchelpware and SC are rather similar, I don’t know why there would be ANY logical reasons for pchelpweare to have better connectivity then SC + repeater?

I see nothing in pchelpware that gives better, or figures out a special way of connecting above and beyond SC. If pchelpware does something like fools a firewall into believing that the connection is http for example then I am all ears.

For what reason would pchelpweare have a better chance of connecting then my current SC + repeater setup?

Pchelpware works in vista were single click does not that is probably the only advantage along with built in encyption.

Hum, I find that SC works just fine with windows Vista….not sure why yours did not work. I using version I downloaded at least more then 1 year old…perhaps even 2, and it works just fine in vista.

I not tried the VNC viewer in vista..but, my SC works just fine...

Super Turtle.

[bevtech]

hard to say what the problem was... Glad you got it working..!! I just didnt have success with it at all..