Smalltalk › Cincom › VisualWorks

Network problems under Windows

_‹ Previous Topic Next Topic _›

Classic

List

Threaded

5 messages Options

Christian Haider-2

Network problems under Windows

Hi all,

I just come back from an event where we had strange network problems. The setting:

- a server program (VW with OpenTalk StSt with wrapper UI on WindowsXP SP2)

- some client programs on different machines in a LAN (VW, OpenTalk StSt, Pollock UI, WinXP)

We were getting lots of timeouts or server-not-responding errors on the clients. First we tried WLAN and switched to LAN later. LAN was much better but still quite bad. Then I remembered that a long time ago, I read something about Windows no reacting to socket events when there are no window events on the machine. So, I instructed the groups to always shake the mouse when sending requests to the server. At the same time I was moving the mouse on the server. This helped! (I think).

Did anybody see something like this? And if yes, how can this be fixed? I am thinking about generating window events from the applications and add a heard-beat to the clients, so that stale ones can be detected and removed from the server.

But this sound quite awkward. Any other ideas?

Another issue is that I have no clear idea how to test this. During development with server and clients on the same machine everything was completely stable and fast. Quick tests on my LAN were also reliable (although, I didnt test this seriously since I was not expecting any problems with the network).

Any hints are very welcome.

Cheers,

Christian

Smalltalked Visuals GmbH

Christian Haider

Wiesbaden, Germany

http://www.smallCharts.de

Christian Haider-2

AW: Network problems under Windows

Thanks. This is interesting - I was using the VW 7.4d VM for both programs.

P.S. I hope you dont mind that I reply to the list, since this might be interesting for others too.

Von: Perikov, Pavel

Yes i can confirm this problem to. The only workaround i'm aware of is generating window events, which is not acceptable.

Som more info: this problem does not show if none of VW windows has focus. 7.4.1 original VM does not seem to have this problem.

Yours, Pavel

From: Christian Haider [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 1:28 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Network problems under Windows

Hi all,

I just come back from an event where we had strange network problems. The setting:

- a server program (VW with OpenTalk StSt with wrapper UI on WindowsXP SP2)

- some client programs on different machines in a LAN (VW, OpenTalk StSt, Pollock UI, WinXP)

We were getting lots of timeouts or server-not-responding errors on the clients. First we tried WLAN and switched to LAN later. LAN was much better but still quite bad. Then I remembered that a long time ago, I read something about Windows no reacting to socket events when there are no window events on the machine. So, I instructed the groups to always shake the mouse when sending requests to the server. At the same time I was moving the mouse on the server. This helped! (I think).

Did anybody see something like this? And if yes, how can this be fixed? I am thinking about generating window events from the applications and add a heard-beat to the clients, so that stale ones can be detected and removed from the server.

But this sound quite awkward. Any other ideas?

Another issue is that I have no clear idea how to test this. During development with server and clients on the same machine everything was completely stable and fast. Quick tests on my LAN were also reliable (although, I didnt test this seriously since I was not expecting any problems with the network).

Any hints are very welcome.

Cheers,

Christian

Smalltalked Visuals GmbH

Christian Haider

Wiesbaden, Germany

http://www.smallCharts.de

Sean McGinty

Fwd: Network problems under Windows

In reply to this post by Christian Haider-2

Christian,

A potential fix:

<a href="http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/Fisher_Price_Technology_Integration.aspx" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> Fisher Price Technology Integration

:)

Sean

So, I instructed the groups to always shake the mouse when sending requests to the server. At the same time I was moving the mouse on the server. This helped! (I think).

Did anybody see something like this? And if yes, how can this be fixed?

Ralf Propach

Re: Network problems under Windows

In reply to this post by Christian Haider-2

Hi,

Christian Haider wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I just come back from an event where we had strange network problems.
> The setting:
> - a server program (VW with OpenTalk StSt with wrapper UI on WindowsXP
> SP2)
> - some client programs on different machines in a LAN (VW, OpenTalk
> StSt, Pollock UI, WinXP)
>
> We were getting lots of timeouts or server-not-responding errors on the
> clients. First we tried WLAN and switched to LAN later. LAN was much
> better but still quite bad. Then I remembered that a long time ago, I
> read something about Windows no reacting to socket events when there are
> no window events on the machine. So, I instructed the groups to always
> shake the mouse when sending requests to the server. At the same time I
> was moving the mouse on the server. This helped! (I think).
>
> Did anybody see something like this? And if yes, how can this be fixed?
> I am thinking about generating window events from the applications and
> add a heard-beat to the clients, so that stale ones can be detected and
> removed from the server.
> But this sound quite awkward. Any other ideas?

Does keeping the VM busy help, i.e. doing something like
[[10+1] repeat] forkAt: Processor systemRockBottomPriority.

>
> Another issue is that I have no clear idea how to test this. During
> development with server and clients on the same machine everything was
> completely stable and fast. Quick tests on my LAN were also reliable
> (although, I didnt test this seriously since I was not expecting any
> problems with the network).
>
> Any hints are very welcome.
>
> Cheers,
> Christian
>
>
> Smalltalked Visuals GmbH
> Christian Haider
> Wiesbaden, Germany
> http://www.smallCharts.de
>
>

--
Ralf Propach, [hidden email]
Tel: +49 231 975 99 38 Fax: +49 231 975 99 20
Georg Heeg eK (Dortmund)
Handelsregister: Amtsgericht Dortmund A 12812

Christian Haider-2

AW: Network problems under Windows

In reply to this post by Christian Haider-2

Hi Ralf,

> Does keeping the VM busy help, i.e. doing something like
> [[10+1] repeat] forkAt: Processor systemRockBottomPriority.

Maybe... I have problems with a test case. On my home LAN it is very
snappy and quite reliable. Only in one of about 10 or 15 trials I can
manage to get it stuck, but it does happen.
Then I let your little process run and I couldnt make it freeze - I
tried about 30 or 40 times. Then I terminated the process and after
maybe 10 trials, it got stuck again.

So maybe it works - have to find a way to reliably reproduce the
problem...

Thanks for your help,
Christian