Ron,

I'm suddenly running into a problem with keeping the server app running. I start it, ROKU connects fine, music plays fine.... then for no apparent reason server stops. When I restart the server process repeats. There is no rhyme nor reason as to time length the server runs. I've been using FF for years with no issue. only changes are that I moved the server and library to a central network server. The revised setup was working fine until I loaded the latest version of iTunes. Could be a coincidence, but perhaps the new version of iTunes broke something???

Simply maddening. Any thoughts?

..some more info. I access the server via WINDOWS remote desktop to start the server than exit. Could the exit be stopping the FF server. ... I wouldn't think so, but I'm simply grasping at straws now.

nschertz wrote:

Ron,

I'm suddenly running into a problem with keeping the server app running. I start it, ROKU connects fine, music plays fine.... then for no apparent reason server stops. When I restart the server process repeats. There is no rhyme nor reason as to time length the server runs. I've been using FF for years with no issue. only changes are that I moved the server and library to a central network server. The revised setup was working fine until I loaded the latest version of iTunes. Could be a coincidence, but perhaps the new version of iTunes broke something???

Simply maddening. Any thoughts?

Is this like a windows home server or something?

Yeah, I imagine it's distinctly possible that a new iTunes put in a new mdns responder that acts differently. You could always try re-installing the 1.0.4 bonjour for windows and seeing if that fixes it up.

Another possiblity might be that the server is going to sleep... I've heard that when windows machines wake from sleep, the bonjour stuff doesn't get re-registered. I was going to try and hack on it a bit to see if I could find a way to make it re-register with bonjour on a wake event.

Also, I don't do anything to tell the server not to sleep when I'm serving songs, so perhaps that is related, too.

I'm not in a position to work on that stuff right now -- I'm in the middle of working on the database stuff right now, and it isn't in a completely working state, so I can't build a version with this fix in it. But if you give me a week or so and email me at ron@pedde.com, I should be in a position to take a look at this.

-- Ron

Ron,

Thanks for the response. Certainly understand you current priority. The serve is a Windows server running XP pro. You may be on to something with the sleep issue. I checked the power settings and everything is set to always on. What else would cause Windows to go into sleep mode?

Thx

It's this kind of nonsense that inches me one step closure to a Mac.

nschertz wrote:

It's this kind of nonsense that inches me one step closure to a Mac.

Once you go mac, you never go back. (switcher since Oct 2002!)

With power saving set to always on, it shouldn't go to sleep. Is the server now across a wireless connection that it wasn't before? Or maybe a new software firewall or switch/router between the SB and firefly that wasn't there before?

One issue, particularly for wireless/wired bridges and routers is that many routers don't do multicast by default. Lots of times you have to go into the web config and specifically enable multicast (or IGMP, it's sometimes labelled) in the router.

If it's not a sleep issue, then I'm thinking it's a general multicast issue. When it drops off, does the web interface still work? LIke if you http to http://server.ip.address:9999, do you get a login prompt? If so, the server is still running, but the service discovery (bonjour, implemented via multicast) stopped working. That would be a decent clue.

-- Ron

The server in on a wired router along with 2 networked PCs. The network router, switch firewall software( zone alarm pro)...etc has been in place for years. All I did was add another PC (server) to the network. I've run the FF server app on this network ( one one of the PCs) for years without a hitch.

Recently decided to move to a central server config i.e. moved FF and music library to central server. The wierd thing is that as long as I'm playing music the FF server works fine. It's after I stop that the trouble starts. It sometimes happens within a few minutes. Other times it takes longer.

I'll try your suggestion next time this happens. To be clear, your talking about the login to the PC server, not the FF server right? If so, I've logged into the PC server with Windows Remote Desktop just fine. Everything is just peachy except the FF server whose icon shows grayed out in the lower right of the tray. Double clicking the icon and restarting the FF server again works fine. ... the problem is that it won't stay running as described above. Everything related to the PC server works fine...backups, remote access, mounted drives, network neighborhood connects ..etc

I stand corrected. The FF server just stopped while listening to music for about 20 minutes.. AHHH!

After the latest FF server drop, I tried to http: to FF server at port 9999. No luck. server not found error. After restarting the server, I was able to http: to FF server port 9999. This time the failure happened all of a sudden after listening to music for 2 1/2 hours.

Just a shot in the dark, but what version of Firefly are you running? Some of the nightlies have memory leaks that will cause Firefly to get killed eventually. I'm running svn-1586 and it seems to be rock solid.

nschertz wrote:

After the latest FF server drop, I tried to http: to FF server at port 9999. No luck. server not found error. After restarting the server, I was able to http: to FF server port 9999. This time the failure happened all of a sudden after listening to music for 2 1/2 hours.

Aah, that's something altogether different. What's the last error in the debug log? If it's something about can't open the database, and you are running a new nightly (like 169x or so), then stepping back to 1586 would be a good idea.

-- Ron

I'm running svn-1359 (V 1.0) I've not download any nightlies. The log error is "Error: Unable to open database file.. aborting" I just started the FF server again through a remote desktop connection to our PC server. Failed with in 30 seconds. Did it again immediately and it's been running for 10 min. The thing that is so strange is that I can't seem to isolate a consistent pattern.

nschertz wrote:

I'm running svn-1359 (V 1.0) I've not download any nightlies. The log error is "Error: Unable to open database file.. aborting" I just started the FF server again through a remote desktop connection to our PC server. Failed with in 30 seconds. Did it again immediately and it's been running for 10 min. The thing that is so strange is that I can't seem to isolate a consistent pattern.

Ah. That's usually an antivirus thing. Or in the case of WHS, it might be the rebalancing thing. When it touches the database, windows might lock the file temporarily while it rebalances the file. Then when server tries to hit the database again, it's locked by the OS.

You might try the 1.1b version that's stickied at the top of the forums -- that has extra defenses for that kind of thing, and it might just do the trick.

-- Ron

Ron,

I followed your advice and loaded svn 1483 (V1.1 B1). Seems to have done the trick. It's been running like a champ for 1 day 22 hrs and 13min without a drop.

Happy New Year.. and keep up the great work!! Your software really is great.

Now back to enjoying music.

Take care.