Starting Firstspot disables Public Internet connection

[LazerTV]

I have been trying to get this to work for 8 days without any success, I am about to have this project stopped because I can not demonstrate a working prototype to the boss.

I understand this may be a difficult problem to solve, but please try as I recomended this as our best solution, and now I am looking very bad.
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Ian Scott

[LazerTV]

I was informed this evening that if I cannot demonstrate this program tomorrow (after trying for 8 days) the project will be cancelled.

As I recommended your software I would really like to be able to at least demonstrate something, can you try to give me an answer to enable me to show a working system tomorrow?
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Ian Scott

[alan]

Using Excluded IP to exclude the IP for the AP is the correct way to setup the Hotspot side.

255.255.255.255 is a valid route. Your problem is that somehow the Windows determine the network condition is changed after FirstSpot is started and decide to change the routing itself. The strange thing is that your default gateway looks correct. Also, 10.0.0.138 is in the same network segment as FirstSpot Public Network Interface, but you still cannot ping.

Well, the quickest way is to have you to setup VNC or Windows Remote Desktop Connection so that we can take a look at your machine directly.

Please send me the instruction to firstspot@patronsoft.com.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[LazerTV]

That sounds very helpfull if we can get a connection.

The time zone may be a bit of a problem I am on GMT

The PC is windows 2000 and it is behind a firewall and NAT.

I understand that windows 2000 PCs do not have the ability for you to control them using the Terminal Services client. and that only XP has true remote access.

I am not sure if Netmeeting is installed, but if not I can easily do that. To use netmeeting without a connection sever I will need your end to be on a public ip address if I am to be able to connect because you will not be able to see my address, I may also have some problems with our firewall but I will cross that if it happens, can you use netmeeting?

The last option is VNC, I do not know this tool so you will have to tell me where to get it.
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Ian Scott

[alan]

You can download VNC at http://www.realvnc.com/download.html . Make sure you open port 5900 in your NAT router.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[LazerTV]

One problem I see with you connecting to this PC is that when you start Firstspot you will loose the connection, unless you can fix the problem first.
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Ian Scott

[LazerTV]

To make sure that there was no problem in the office router preventing access to the Internet after Firstspot is started, I have brought the entire system home and connected it to my cable modem. It did not help, everything is the same.

I have also changed the public network card (re Charles Philips), in case Firstspot was having trouble with two identical network cards, no change.

I connected the PC to the Internet without Firstspot, and downloaded a virus checker and carried out an exhaustive virus check. A few minor things mainly cookies were found, but there was no change in my problem after these were all successfully deleted.

I then un-installed and re-installed Firstspot, but he problem is the same. As soon as Firstspot starts the Internet connection is lost, and I can no longer ping the router or browse the Internet, until I stop Firstspot and restart the PC.

As I have shown you Firstspot does change one entry in the routing table, and I do not seem to be able to edit or delete this change for some reason, even when I used the command you recommended. It does not look as if this change would cause this problem, although I am not familiar with the route commands. I have spent half the day tinkering with the table to no avail, no change that I made restored the connection to the router.

I have also noticed that when Firstspot starts, the arp -a cache for the private network interface is completely emptied and changed for a single entry containing the IP and MAC address of the single PC accessing the radio network, this is probably correct.

One big difference is the netstat -a report. After Firstspot starts nearly every port on the PC is opened and listening, and several report established. In normal circumstances this would be a security risk, but it may be required by Firstspot. I would think firewall router was mandatory under these circumstances, can you advise on this!

I cannot think of anything else to do or check. I am using trial version 3.1.4 which appears to be released around Aug this year, is anybody else using this version successfully?

Do you know if Charles Philips, who was suffering the same problem found a solution?
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Ian Scott

[alan]

Your arp -a cache output is normal.

To secure FirstSpot, please refer to point 5 of http://patronsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3036#3036 .

I can only think of 2 reasons for your problem:
1) your network topology is incorrect. Make sure you connect the Private Network Interface to the AP (i.e. Hotspot) and the Public Network Interface to the Internet at large (via a NAT router).

2) Windows issues - I still suggest you install FirstSpot in a clean Windows environment. Since you don't have a spare machine, can you install Windows in another hard disk partition and reinstall FirstSpot?
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[LazerTV]

I have solved the problem:

Originaly I had two identical DLink DFE530TX network cards, and could not connect to the internet after Firstspot started.

After a suggestion from another Firstspt user I tried removing one Dlink card and replacing with a SMC card.

When I changed the Internet facing card, I did not uninstall it I just removed the card, and installed the new one. This did not resolve the problem.

As soon as I uninstalled the card in device manager and restarted the computer and Firstspot, the Internet connection problem has gone.

This mens that you do still have a problem with at least some network cards, when there are two the same installed.
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Ian Scott

[alan]

Great that you solved the problem!

We will do a detailed review on the case of using two identical network cards.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[LazerTV]

I can now give a little more information.

The internet connection is lost if Firstspot starts with csrss.exe running.

If I dissable the private network card (d link) in device manager and start the PC, Windows gives an error saying it will stop csrss.exe

If I then enable the network card in Device manager, I can start Firstspot with out loosing the internet connection, and everything works.

But the next time I restart the PC the internet connection is lost again when Firstspot starts, unless I have stopped csrss.exe as I have explained. I only discovered this final clue this morning.
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Ian Scott

[alan]

I still think your Windows is corrupted. We never touch csrss.exe component. And there is no workaround we know of that needs to touch csrss.exe.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[LazerTV]

I am still having some difficulties with this problem. I have now changed both NIC to another type in case the dlink cards were incompatible with Firstspot, but the problem is the same.

The very first time I start Firstspot it installs a driver and everything including the Internet connection works correctly, but after I restart the PC the Public Lan Internet connection only works until I start Firstspot, and then I cannot even ping the router.

After Firstspot is installed a third NIC is indicated in device manager with the Firstspot driver listed as part of its name. Once this exists if the computer is restarted the Internet connection only works until Firstspot is started. I have confirmed that the driver is attached to a duplicate of the Private Lan card, by using different cards for both Lan’s.

I cannot uninstall the card with the Firstspot driver in device manager, as it says it is required at start up, but I can uninstall the Private Lan card. After this both the Private Lan card and the duplicate with the Firstspot driver are gone after PC restart.

I then have to reinstall the Private NIC and start Firstspot again. Now the Internet connection works perfectly, and I have full functionality of the Firstspot system with an access point WiFi clients and Internet connection, until I restart the PC, and then the Internet connection is lost when I start Firstspot. And I have to repeat the Unistall procedure to get it going again!

Because the problem only exists after a restart of the PC and then only after Firstspot is started, the problem must be in the Firstspot software.

I have tested and uninstalled the NIC.s many times to make sure what I am saying is correct. I cannot reinstall Windows as I have no disks available (Until I purchase a new PC intended for this project) but the test PC was a clean install by our supplier anyway, just to trial the Firstspot software.

Is this a recognised problem or am I the only one reporting it. It is certainly a very confusing one.
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Ian Scott

[alan]

Couple of observations:

1) You shouldn't add/remove network card after installing FirstSpot. Also, you need to make sure Private Network Interface is the ONLY network card that with FirstHop driver being bind to (refer to point 9 : other issues within readme.rtf for more information).

2) We don't have similar problem reported. Again, I strongly suspect it is Windows that cause the problem. I still think reinstalling Windows in another partition (in the same PC) is your best bet.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~