Minimwatch does not start

[Mustangflyer]

Hi,

I am a new member and happy to be here.

I have installed MinimServer on a QNAP 219 P and it works fine. I meen, I can see my music and play it from my Home Cinema amplifier.

I have installed Minimwatch on my PC working with Windows 8, after having installed Java on that computer. I have the MinimWatch icon on the desktop. When I clic on it, a new icon appears were it should be but it always stays with the grey color, although Minimserver is working on the QNAP.

If somebody could help, I would be very grateful

Mustang flyer

[simoncn]

(24-02-2014 18:14)Mustangflyer Wrote:  Hi,

I am a new member and happy to be here.

I have installed MinimServer on a QNAP 219 P and it works fine. I meen, I can see my music and play it from my Home Cinema amplifier.

I have installed Minimwatch on my PC working with Windows 8, after having installed Java on that computer. I have the MinimWatch icon on the desktop. When I clic on it, a new icon appears were it should be but it always stays with the grey color, although Minimserver is working on the QNAP.

If somebody could help, I would be very grateful

Mustang flyer

The Windows firewall might be blocking incoming connections. To confirm whether this is happening, try completely disabling the Windows firewall to see whether this makes a difference.

If that doesn't help, do you have more than one active network adapter (real or virtual) on the PC? If so, MinimWatch might be listening on the wrong adapter. To confirm whether this is happening, try disabling the other adapter and restarting MinimWatch.

[Mustangflyer]

Hi SimonCN,

Thank you for your answer.

I have tried to disable the Windows Firewall but i couln't do it.
Windows says that the administration of the Firewall is through Mac Afee. When I ask Mac Afee to disable the Firewall, it seems that it doesn't do it.

I can add that the computer sees minimserver on the Nas because when I clic on "My computer", I get the Minimserver incon in Green amongst other icons corresponding to other elements of my network. If I click on it, it opens a new window with all the folders under the Music folder. From there, Ican open music files and play them. May be that means that the Firewall doesn't prevent to access to minimserver on the Nas.

I don't know what to do.

[simoncn]

(25-02-2014 19:49)Mustangflyer Wrote:  Hi SimonCN,

Thank you for your answer.

I have tried to disable the Windows Firewall but i couln't do it.
Windows says that the administration of the Firewall is through Mac Afee. When I ask Mac Afee to disable the Firewall, it seems that it doesn't do it.

I can add that the computer sees minimserver on the Nas because when I clic on "My computer", I get the Minimserver incon in Green amongst other icons corresponding to other elements of my network. If I click on it, it opens a new window with all the folders under the Music folder. From there, Ican open music files and play them. May be that means that the Firewall doesn't prevent to access to minimserver on the Nas.

I don't know what to do.

MinimWatch works in a different way than "My computer". MinimWatch receives inbound connections from MinimServer, but "My computer" uses outbound connections to MinimServer. It is likely that the McAfee firewall is blocking inbound connections but allowing outbound connections.

I don't use the McAfee firewall and I don't know how to confgure it to allow inbound connections. Perhaps another forum user will be able to provide some information about this.

[Briain]

Hi

Yesterday, I was fighting with McAfee on a friend's Win 7 machine. Curiously, MinimWatch worked just fine, then when his new router was installed (different subnet) it prevented MinimWatch from communicating with MinimServer (running on his Qnap). Of course, it also broke Kinsky and Konfig, but I found the ports to add to fix Kinsky (and removal then re-installation of Konfig fixed that one).

If you open McAfee and temporarily disable the firewall, you can start MinimWatch and it finds MinimServer without any problem (you can then enable the McAfee firewall again and still use MinimServer).

Today, I went back and changed his new router to use the same subnet as his old one used (thinking that might fix the McAfee issue) but no such luck. I also tried removing and re-installing MinimWatch, but again, no luck doing that. I wonder if I'd have to remove and re-install Java as that's maybe what McAfee is blocking (don't know enough about how Java and MinimWatch interact and which aspect of it all McAfee is blocking).

Something I will have to investigate, but if anyone has a quick answer, I'd be very interested (and relieved) to hear it, as I really can't be bothered reading up on McAfee, etc!

Bri

PS Fortunately, I had (ages ago) created a symbolic link to a small script that restarts MinimServer, so he can easily log in using PuTTY and type min to restart MimimServer on his Qnap; I thought that might come in really handy, one day!

[simoncn]

(04-05-2014 15:43)Briain Wrote:  Hi

Yesterday, I was fighting with McAfee on a friend's Win 7 machine. Curiously, MinimWatch worked just fine, then when his new router was installed (different subnet) it prevented MinimWatch from communicating with MinimServer (running on his Qnap). Of course, it also broke Kinsky and Konfig, but I found the ports to add to fix Kinsky (and removal then re-installation of Konfig fixed that one).

If you open McAfee and temporarily disable the firewall, you can start MinimWatch and it finds MinimServer without any problem (you can then enable the McAfee firewall again and still use MinimServer).

Today, I went back and changed his new router to use the same subnet as his old one used (thinking that might fix the McAfee issue) but no such luck. I also tried removing and re-installing MinimWatch, but again, no luck doing that. I wonder if I'd have to remove and re-install Java as that's maybe what McAfee is blocking (don't know enough about how Java and MinimWatch interact and which aspect of it all McAfee is blocking).

Something I will have to investigate, but if anyone has a quick answer, I'd be very interested (and relieved) to hear it, as I really can't be bothered reading up on McAfee, etc!

Bri

PS Fortunately, I had (ages ago) created a symbolic link to a small script that restarts MinimServer, so he can easily log in using PuTTY and type min to restart MimimServer on his Qnap; I thought that might come in really handy, one day!

I don't think McAfee can tell the difference between MinimWatch and Java, so you need to find a way to persuade McAfee to unblock Java.

MinimServer now has a status web page that allows you to use a web browser to set the content directory and do a Rescan (includes Restart). This should eliminate the need to login via SSH and run a script.

[Briain]

Good point about the status page; I had totally forgotten about that!

I will have to return as I've just had an email to let me know that the desktop shortcut tp \\NASname\ShareName no longer works (unless you first disable McAfee firewall). Blinking PITA as the McAfee interface is pretty horrible (huge list, small window - which can't be resized - and not even in listed alphabetical order; maybe there's a sort option hidden somewhere, but it wasn't obvious from my brief look at it all). It's not obvious to me where McAfee can be set to respect a change of subnet (line items don't have that option) but I assume that somewhere there will be global setting for that. Looks like I will have to read up on it at some stage (if all else fails, RTFM)!

Bri

[Briain]

Hi Simon

Just a quick update to let you know that I have now fixed the McAfee firewall issue on my friend's PC.

I re-visited this today and had a good look at the McAfee's Firewall settings. In the 'Networks' area, it had several subnets listed, so I removed all but the two he needed (Network 10 for work and standard 192.168 for home) but that didn't change anything. I then looked at individual programmes exceptions listing and noticed that whilst it had one entry for Java updating checker and another for the updater (which seemed logical), it had several for both java.exe and javaw.exe (uncool). I removed all the entries associated with these two exe's (leaving the updater and updater checker ones) then added two new ones - one for java.exe and another for javaw.exe - and that totally fixed things; hooray!

I'd guess one extra instance might have been from the Java 6 days, but I can't think why there were three instances; maybe one of the updates added a second instance for the same version of Java 7? The odd thing is that if you try to manually add one where one already exists, it tells you that another instance exists; most peculiar!

Note for anyone reading this (and maybe has a similar problem) the entries in the exceptions list are not sorted alphabetically and they are not grouped together, so you have to scan through the entire list to seek out the Java entries (fortunately, the orange logo makes them quite easy to spot) and then look at the details to see what they are pointing to (for a 32 bit installation, likely to C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe and C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exw) and then trash these McAfee firewall entries. Once they are all gone, simply create two new ones (one pointing each of to these files) and you'll hopefully be sorted. The McAfee firewall will likely tell you if another instance already exists (i.e. if you missed one whilst deleting the old ones) but best to check the list carefully rather than rely on it warning you of any duplications (only takes a couple of minutes).

Anyhow, removing all of the java.exe and javaw.exe and then re-entering two new ones totally resolved things, so it's now cool ju-ju in Javasvilles!

Bri

(PS Whilst there, I also installed 4.1.10 on his KDS/1)

[simoncn]

(05-05-2014 17:26)Briain Wrote:  Hi Simon

Just a quick update to let you know that I have now fixed the McAfee firewall issue on my friend's PC.

I re-visited this today and had a good look at the McAfee's Firewall settings. In the 'Networks' area, it had several subnets listed, so I removed all but the two he needed (Network 10 for work and standard 192.168 for home) but that didn't change anything. I then looked at individual programmes exceptions listing and noticed that whilst it had one entry for Java updating checker and another for the updater (which seemed logical), it had several for both java.exe and javaw.exe (uncool). I removed all the entries associated with these two exe's (leaving the updater and updater checker ones) then added two new ones - one for java.exe and another for javaw.exe - and that totally fixed things; hooray!

I'd guess one extra instance might have been from the Java 6 days, but I can't think why there were three instances; maybe one of the updates added a second instance for the same version of Java 7? The odd thing is that if you try to manually add one where one already exists, it tells you that another instance exists; most peculiar!

Note for anyone reading this (and maybe has a similar problem) the entries in the exceptions list are not sorted alphabetically and they are not grouped together, so you have to scan through the entire list to seek out the Java entries (fortunately, the orange logo makes them quite easy to spot) and then look at the details to see what they are pointing to (for a 32 bit installation, likely to C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe and C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exw) and then trash these McAfee firewall entries. Once they are all gone, simply create two new ones (one pointing each of to these files) and you'll hopefully be sorted. The McAfee firewall will likely tell you if another instance already exists (i.e. if you missed one whilst deleting the old ones) but best to check the list carefully rather than rely on it warning you of any duplications (only takes a couple of minutes).

Anyhow, removing all of the java.exe and javaw.exe and then re-entering two new ones totally resolved things, so it's now cool ju-ju in Javasvilles!

Bri

(PS Whilst there, I also installed 4.1.10 on his KDS/1)

Thanks for posting this! It should be useful for people who are struggling with similar McAfee issues.

+1 for 4.1.10 as well - still my favourite Linn firmware!

I am using Webroot for antivirus protection. I have had a few issues but they have been fixed fairly promptly by the developers. It is the best of the products I have tried and much better than Norton.