XP SP2 breaks demo/trial of Port Explorer 1.8.0.0?

Dear DiamondCS,

Although working OK before installing the network installable public version of SP2, even after re-installing Port Explorer and rebooting = non-starter.

Pity. Microsoft love to break things and I'm sure it is their fault. Perhaps the mini-port wedge isn't being inserted?

Suspect I can still run Win2k or XP Pro within a VMWare virtual machine.....

Here ends my trial. I was hoping for a two rate policer (CIR/PIR a la DiffServ+WRED). Also fancied being able to set the default CIR/PIR machine wide with VoIP apps given a higher QoS in the CoS scheme.

Fantastic tool nonetheless. If I am not the only one, at least the quicker you folks know, the quicker the Microsoft change can be mitigated.

regards,
Richard

 

Hi Richard, Thanks for the information. Jason will no doubt be looking with interest and may proffer a solution.

Pilli

 

Thanks RBartlett, we are looking into this matter but can't say much more until we've completed further testing.

Best regards,
Wayne

 

As I have long known not to go to fast with Windows OS's, my question is did RBartlett do all the clean out and setup suggested by M$ before he updated to SP2? That's one of the reasons we are holding out putting PE on our Main machine. When M$'s isn't sure of their own stuff how can we possibly be.
Could this have been part of the problem?

 

I'm a Win2k Pro type chap at home, and despite missing out on multichannel WMA/WMV audio, multi device support in USB media readers (detecting just the CF without adding 3rd party drivers) and checkpoints/rollbacks I'm happy to stay with Win2k until Longhorn. As long as Longhorn doesn't have an annual license - otherwise I'll stick with Win2k at home.

However at work. XP Pro is the order of the day. No I did no prep for the SP2 install. I had Norton Virus Protection (2001) with the latest app and data patches from Symantec. Also VMWare's additional virtual ethernet adapters. PortExplorer was installed but the GUI wasn't active. Apart from some contextual menus from ZIP tools, this is the extent of the strangeness on this PC.

I can run up a VMWare image of just WinXP Pro, then install SP2 and then Port Explorer if it helps. However I suspect that the PortExplorer is intended to be a specialised tool that runs on a general purpose PC.

Incidentally, M$ has an update detector, firewall detector and virus-scan detector. Whilst M$ list Symantec as a 3rd party vendor of belts and braces VirusScan, it fails to detect Norton. I believe from reading some Symantec guff, there naturalised products are also being a problem with SP2. They run, just that the almighty Windows doesn't recognise it.

My aim was to preempt a fix for my plight which doesn't seem too unusual a situation to now be in. Also to quite rudely make known that a two rate policer is far more useful than a peak throttler.

When an OS update costs as much as a new PC - there will remain a large number of folks on the older systems. Either by hanging on for the benefits or through the 2nd hand market.

PS - I was born and grew up in Hampshire and now live in Worcestershire. I've never been to Oz but know folks in Perth. Thanks for the attention in this matter.

 

I apologize if I sounded rude. Didn't mean to. We have three different OS's here and I was just wondering if I should hold off with PE install until after XP update. There's a lot of mixed info about this new update.
Again I apologize RBartlett
Thank You!

 

The demo is the only problem, full version works fine. We'll get a new version as soon as we can, no promises on a release date

 

That is a fantastic development on this thread. Thanks Gavin.
No apology was required as no emotions were raised. So I guess I'll hold that apology as a credit note for you Valkyri001


BTW: The two rate policer I'm again mentioning would require an overall knowledge of a given interface or load-shared path interfaces loading to be able to burst to a configured peak rate. Essentially the sum of all the guaranteed bandwidths in the output queue/scheduler would need to be examined to determine if any of the priority traffic could be given access. At the same time as calculating the value to the end stations to actually force a drop of a communication frame (eg at random with some CoS weighting). Perhaps Windows doesn't give access to the sockets interface to make this happen in a DiffServ fashion. Hence why Port Explorer does the maximum rate throttle.

Thanks for clearing this all up. Chances are that I'll purchase PortExplorer before you make the updated demo. Just that there may be other passers by that will react negatively. UNLESS THEY SPOT THIS POST AND DO AS I DO !

 

I have Windows XP SP2. I downloaded the evaluation version of port explorer yesterday (16 august), Installed, rebooted, which seemed to go OK (no messages). Double clicking on the desktop shortcut or on the exe file did nothing. I have uninstalled it and look forward to a working version soon.

 

Microsoft has posted this article on programs broken by SP2. It has also included some workarounds and other suggestions. I don't know if there is any help for the trial version of Port Explorer.

Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=842242

 

I have a registered copy of PE installed, and SP-2 seems to have killed it. PE ran fine before, but now it essentially freezes when launched.

 

A new build will be out in a few days with full SP2 compatability, both full and demo versions.

 

Strange, worked good for my few tests both XP Pro and Home. Try the uninstall-reboot-reinstall-reboot dance.. any help ?

 

PE is working fine on this PC with SP2, though I have not done any real "stress" testing on it yet

 

XPSP2 (professional) also breaks ("fails to initialize") the FULL version of PE. The "Port Explorer was unable to initialise properly" message due, it seems, to dcsws2.dll not being registered. The problem is that Windows would NOT allow its registration. Pity, I found PE very useful, but I have to have SP2 (just don't ask me why, so...

 

Hi Radul, Strange that it does not work for some Hopefully the new PE update will be out very soon.

Cheers. Pilli

 

SP2 possibly has changed the LSP configuration, a simple reinstall of Port Explorer should fix this problem. It is separate to the first poster's issue.

 

I recently installed SP2 into XP Pro and Port Explorer only takes a few secs longer to close ...otherwise all DiamondCS products are still 'ace'. Also, SP2 fixes the "Help and Support" link problem that TDS-3 would cause. For me, it started working as soon as SP2 was completed with its installation.

 

No problems here with port explorer--runs like a charm with xp2--i have the retail version.

 

An uninstall/reinstall of PE 1.8 seems to have done the trick. That, or it was just another screwy, inexplicable Windows thing.