RAC Woes

[milky]

I have a weird problem with the RAC on one of my PCs.
I recently installed OtsAV DJ on a Win 8 laptop. Everything is working well, but I tried to log in to the RAC for some experimental work I am doing with a phone app remote control. I have RAC enabled, and the firewall and antivirus "know" about OtsAV.
When I type in the IP (192.168.137.1) into Internet Explorer I get "302 Found - Document has moved". Google tells me this is a re-direct, but no alternate address is displayed. After a bit of fiddling, I was able to load a skeleton of /static/main.html, but only a bit of text, and no menu links. I typed in "http://192.168.137.1/static/frame/activemain.html" which is what normally loads at the beginning, again, I get some text, but not the full framing.

I can interrogate the RAC via AHK, but the responses are not structured correctly. The status should be on the third line, Artist on the fourth, track on the 5th, but only part of the info is there, and on the wrong lines. Interestingly, I can access the same page across an internal network, and it comes up correctly, so it looks to me like an IE 11 problem.

Can anybody throw any light on this, or suggest some options in IE that might get it working?

[Jumpin' Jeff]

So if I read this right, you're accessing the local machine, or "LocalHost" when you have the issues, correct?
Not when you access from an outside system.
Have you tried chrome or firefox at all? what about IE compatibility mode?

[milky]

Yes, that's right JJ. On the actual PC running OtsAV, I get the error 302. If I access the same IP from a wirelessly connected PC, the RAC comes up. I've tried compatibility mode in IE, but no difference. I haven't tried other browsers, because I was keen to get this working with the majority of users, on the default Mikey Soft browser. It works perfectly on my XP PC, so it's something to do with the new PC setup, or Win 8.1. I'm waiting for my son to come over tonight with an identical setup, to see if it is unique to my laptop, or common to both.

[JAylmer]

I just tried IE 11 ver  11.0.9600.17207  with Win 7 and no problems using IE on the same machine as OTS.
and also from an iPhone connected to the same local network with no probs.

Could be a faulty add-on to extend the functionality of IE. 
I think compatibility mode just takes the browser back a few versions but the plugins are still enabled.

You could try running in the command prompt:   iexplore.exe -extoff
This will start a version of IE that has no plugins and would at least prove where the issue is.
Each of the plugins can be disabled to narrow down the problem one.

[Darryl]

There are some tools that might help in diagnosing the cause of this:
http://www.telerik.com/fiddler is a web debugging application that works by installing itself as a proxy (only when it's running) - it's a godsend for any web developer - you can trace the HTTP GET from your web browser through to the response coming back (something generated the 302 response - it's probably a 'security feature' in Windows .

For lower level network tracing (from bytes on the wire to most common network protocols) you can use http://www.wireshark.org/.

I'm happy to assist remotely by Team Viewer, but I know we are in very different time zones, so it might not be very convenient.

[milky]

Thanks, JAylmer. I have a Win 7 laptop that has no problem accessing Ots on the Win 8.1 lappy. Both are using the latest IE 11. I've tried the "No Plugins" option - same result. I've fiddles with all of the compatibility settings - same result. I've completely turned off my anti-virus AND the Windows firewall, and STILL the error occurs. I've tried entering the entire address (http://197.168.137.1/static/frame/activemain.html) as well. The annoying thing is, according to the documentation, an error 302 is supposed to re-direct, or offer a link "The document has moved to here", nut there is no alternative link to follow.

As I said, I can even issue a URLDownloadtoFile command in AHK, and it gets SOME of the RAC data, but it is not where it is supposed to be in the string and the string is truncated.

Code Select Expand


This is what the Win 7 laptop produces from that command:-

OtsAV RAC Server 1.90.15
URL=/x/query.cgi?q=status
Status=Playing
Artist=Lionel Richie
Title=Say You, Say Me

This is what the Win 8.1 box produces:-

Content-Length: 105
Content-Type: text/html

OtsAV RAC Server 1.90.15
URL=/x/query.cgi?q=status
Stat



Very curious.

[milky]

Thanks for those links, Darryl. I'll wait until my son gets here later tonight. If his works and mine doesn't, I'll have a dig around with those tools.

[JAylmer]

http://loopback.codeplex.com/
By default, Windows 8 Modern UI Applications are forbidden to send network traffic to the local Computer.

This change with Windows 8 will be an issue for me as well as I was about to upgrade to Win8 but did not expect this issue.

[JAylmer]

http://confidentialfiles.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/internet-explorer-11-cannot-connect-to-local-host/

Down towards the bottom of the page.

[milky]

Yep, that's it in a bag!
Meanwhile, my son appeared with his laptop, an identical model and configuration as mine. His laptop could connect to the RAC, mine could not. Then we discovered, his antivirus (Total Defense) was only the "My Computer" version. Mine was the "Total Defense Internet Security Centre". His PC could connect, unimpeded, mine could not. In a state of pique, I totally uninstalled my version, and Then had to do some Win 8.1 Gymnastics as outlined in that link, JAylmer.

Bottom line, your A/V software might get in the way, but, more than likely, Win 8.1 will.

BTW, my remote, as discussed in this link http://www.otsusers.com/forum/index.php?topic=13954.0, works perfectly now, including "Announce".

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Glad to hear you sorted it out Milky. My thoughts were that the local host on win7 and greater have changed. I thought originally that this was your problem, but as Win7 worked for you, that indicated something else. Glad to see we have others smart enough coming to the rescue! Great job all!

[Darryl]

Thanks for the links to the Windows 8 stuff JAylmer.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to be hit by the localhost changes in Windows 8 soon enough, so the tool for configuring the exceptions will no doubt come in handy.  This doesn't surprise me - I've been caught out several times by the security features added in Windows 7 to stop WCF services from seeing each other on the same machine (there is a setting in the registry: DisableLoopbackCheck http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861).  It makes sense that other services (like HTTP) will go the same way - added security to reduce ways in which applications can interact is not a bad thing as long as you can configure it for when want them to talk to each other.

[JAylmer]

Good to see the path ahead to Win8 for me is now clear, thanks Milky for the pioneering work.
I remember the old days of VB and how much easier it was to write code then.
I suppose the code is essentially the same now but its the app. sandboxing and environment formalities that make it more difficult now.
Thanks Darryl for the network diagnostic links.