I have 2 pairs of these units that very often loose connection with each other. The 2 encoders are at the same location go through a HUB and straight out to the internet. There are no firewalls or other devices at this end. One receiver is located about 10 miles away where there is a firewall but a rule was made for port 12001 that appeared to allow a good connection. The other receiver is about 20 miles away and also uses a firewall with the same rule. Both pairs operated from April 2017 to November 2017 without a problem. Since then they loose connection quite often and there is no reason that I have been able to find. All 3 locations use Comcast as their provider and nothing has been done to their networks that would interfere with their operation. I usually have to go to both ends of the units that have lost connection and do power resets to get them to connect back up. Sometimes both sets loose connection at the same time and sometimes only one set. Any ideas of what I can do to make these work reliably? I’ve worked via email with Xu in the past but the problem still remains. Every time I go to the sites I get a reliable internet connection on my laptop using the same cables/circuits that go to the units. I also can see the mirror server every time. I need help to make these very reliable or will have to replace them with something else.
@Shirui_Xu_Software_D Do you have any recommendations for Jeff to improve reliability on his MCNET boards?
I just checked our server, it seems that server has run fine. We didn’t hear from other customers neither, there are many devices connected to the server. How does device connected to internet? What is your ISP?
Sorry, I responded to the email first. Here is the info again.
The 2 encoders are together at a dispatch center. The connect to a HUB and then to their router straight out to the internet, no firewall, ISP is Comcast. One decoder is located about 10 miles away, connected to a port assigned by their IT person to the internet through a firewall. They made a rule to accept traffic through port 12001 for this devise. ISP is Comcast. Decoder 2 is located about 18 miles from encoder connected to port assigned by their IT person to the internet through a firewall. They also made the same rule through the same port. ISP is Charter Communications. I made several screen shots at each location while troubleshooting. I can send them to you if you would like. One thing I noticed although I don’t know if it makes a difference. When I did an IP search at each location the 2 decoders gave me IPv4 adresses and no IPv6 info. At the encoder side it shows both and when I did the IP search most of the time it came back with the long IPv6 address and not the IPv4 info. After I tried it a few time did it come back with the IPv4 info but still had the IPv6 info also.
I asked a few times before when having trouble if the port 12001 was correct to access the decoders. The IT personnel seem to think that is where they saw the traffic for the decoders coming through on. Once again, is this correct?
The units always connect back up and operate correctly for a time when I do the power resets. It seams that they loose connection and then can’t reestablish it. The units are set to “Smart” mode.
I also mentioned before that the “ready” and “busy” LED’s appear to flash the same whether they are connected to the internet or not. When booted they both flash for a bit then “ready” comes on solid and “busy” flashes very rapidly.
I hope this information makes sense to you and helps you figure out why they keep loosing connection.
Regards, Jeff
Jeff here again. I posted this information 8 days ago and still waiting for some help. My customer is understandably upset that this equipment is so far not reliable. I realize you have a lot of similar equipment out there running fine. Please help. I would much rather get this working correctly than to have to replace it all. Thank you, Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Sorry for slow reply.
Thanks for the information. That will definitely help me understand the system better. It seems that the devices has a complicated route to connect to each other. I am not sure what causes this. The device does use IPv4 for communication. However, I am not sure if that will be a problem, as devices are connected to server, it might not a big problem for devices has a ip v4 address. i will do some research for it. I will let you know once I figure out something.
Shirui Xu
I’m checking in again because I’ve seen nothing since this last reply 18 days ago. Since that date it failed again on 2/20/18. I was on site at the receiver end and had reset it before the test was done. I don’t know if you have log files you can look at but I reset it at approximately 10:15 AM central time on that date and the test was tried twice at 10:30. It had failed also on 2/13/18 at 10:30 AM. They tried it twice then also. Last Tuesday, 2/27/18, I went to the transmitter side to observe the test. I reset that unit at approx 10:20AM central time and sent a signal for relay 2 about 10:23AM which worked correctly. They then did a test at 10:30AM for relay 1 and it also worked properly. When these things fail and need to be reset is it better to reset one of the units first before the other one as in receiver first then transmitter? Like I stated I reset the receiver and it did not work. The next week I reset the transmitter and it worked. I really have to get this system working reliably and absolutely as quickly as possible so I need answers on these questions and also the questions I have sent before with no answers received. Please, I need this. Thank you. Also, I more thing. If you can “observe” these units from your location they will be doing another test tomorrow morning at 10:30AM central time 3/5/18. If you can maybe this will show you what the problem is. I can’t keep running to these 3 locations and resetting the units constantly to keep them operating.
Hi Jeff,
I have been checking our server and it seems the server is fine. We have quite a few devices connected to server and the program doesn’t have a filter so I couldn’t tell if your pair is online all the time. There is a flash rom chip in those ethernet module and some times, very very rarely, they will fail. I will send you a pair of new module to you this week and you can try it.
Or you can order another pair of those modules and we run them side by side. To see if both pair will fail when one of them fail.
I will keep an eye on this.
Thanks,
Shirui Xu
Hi,
Once again you reply but do not answer my questions, just basically the same canned message. This is getting discouraging. I believe you when you say you can see these devices on your server. I realize this is a goofy problem and many other devised are working flawlessly. I’s sure you are kept busy working on all the questions you receive but I am stuck here. The IT people here are trying to help me but they don’t know exactly how these devices work and if they should be setting up different ports or rules without help from you guys. Travis, do you have any input here? I don’t see the need to send another pair. I have 2 pairs of these units and both are doing the same thing although not always at the same time. I have asked you questions regarding the ports being used as well as IPv4 vs IPv6 if you will look back at earlier messages. You were going to check on this and get back to me. This has not happened. I realize the problem is most likely not with the devices themselves but with how they are working with my customers ISP or network setup. I really need help now. The season where these could be used a lot is about to begin and as they sit now they are unreliable.
I forgot to ask this again. Does it matter which device is reset first when trying to get these to connect again. I’ve tried transmitter first then receiver and then the opposite and they don’t always reconnect. Is there a recommended way to do this?
Hi Jeff,
The port they are using are 12000 and 12001.
Thanks,
shirui Xu
If you run them in NCD Configure, you can see one of them as “master”. You should only need reset the master if reset is needed.
Hi Xu,
They only port they are using right now is the 12001 at the receive end at each location. There is no firewall at the transmitter end. Should we be using 12000 also?
I will have to run this and see which device is the master. How does it leave the factory as nothing has changed after receiving them?
I just found a screen shot of the configuration of one of the sets and it show the transmitter unit as being the master. Is this the way the factory sets them all up? Thanks
I will try one last time as I am still waiting on answers from questions posted 8+ days ago.
Mainly, you mentioned ports 12000 & 12001. How is each port used? We are only using 12001, are both needed for these to work properly? Along with that, what protocol do you use to transfer the data back & forth. The system failed again two days ago. I reset the master and it is still not working. I have to talk to the departments IT manager and I would like to be able to talk somewhat intelligently. I need to explain how these units work so we can hopefully figure out what the problems is and get them working reliably. Please answer all these questions as soon as you can. Thank you.
Failed again today. I reset both the master end and then the other end and when they tried to activate — nothing. As you can see I never received answers to any of my questions. I know you were gone last week but was told you would be checking the forum and answering as time permitted.
Do you think that if I can get direct access to the internet at each location without going through any firewalls that this would get these units working??? I would really appreciate a timely answer at least to this question. Answering my other questions would be nice too.
Hi Jeff,
I setup an separate server on link.signalswitch.com on port 12002.
Could you have port 12002 open for connections of both modules?
Here are steps to setup the modules.
Run NCD Base -> “More”->“MXNEt/MCNETdevice Pairing Utility”
Wait for mirror show up in list. Select the module and “Edit”
Then put 54.225.247.189 as server and 12002 as port. You can keep all other field unchanged. Please send me screenshot of it and I will verify here.
Your modules will be the only modules use this server and I can check everything on that server to see what’ s going on.
Thanks,
Shirui Xu
Hi Xu,
I should be able to get this done by the end of the week. Do I need to have their IT people open this port on their firewall? I believe when they did the rule for 12001 it was for TCP & UDP. Is there anything else? Advise me on this and I will advise you when it has been done. Thank you.
Hi Jeff,
The IT people need open 12002 for new server beside setting on modules.
Shirui Xu