Weird Windows 7 Networking problem

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Gabriel
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Weird Windows 7 Networking problem

Post by Gabriel »

So, I've got a weird problem.

One of my clients (a totally different one then the ones i was asking about before) just got a new Windows 7 machine. When they try to run BR over the network, it crashes. They get the error "The Application Failed to Start". Its a windows error.

If I copy BR over the network to their desktop it works (giving me the proper error "OS error opening brserial.dat".) To keep the test simple, I ran BR over the network share with no brserial.dat and it crashes like before, with "The Application Failed to Start". This indicates that BR isn't even getting off the ground, because the brserial.dat file is one of the very first things it checks for.

Have any of you experienced anything like this? any ideas about what strange Windows 7 networking issues might cause this sort of behavior?

I know one solution might be to make the Windows 7 machine the server and switch the clients over to use that one. But changing the server is opening up a whole can of worms of potential other problems, and the client may not be up for it.

I have tried this with BR 4.03ih, BR 4.03k, and BR 4.18. I get identical behavior in every version.

Gabriel
bluesfannoz
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Post by bluesfannoz »

Sounds like Microsoft's new security is killing it before it starts. I would go to control panel, Internet Settings, Security Tab, and add the server computer name/IP address as trusted host in the Intranet Zone. See if that clears things up. Sometimes you have to reboot before it starts working.

Most importantly, make sure what your adding as the servername matches what was used to create the share your using.
Steve Koger
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Gabriel
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Post by Gabriel »

I don't think that worked. Those settings seemed to be for Internet explorer. but I made the change anyway and I haven't had the chance to restart the computer yet, because I'm working over Crossloop, over the internet. So a restart will break my connection.

Anyway I remembered what I did to fix this problem the last time:

You can copy br to the local computer and if you have the correct wbconfig.sys drive statements, as soon as BR starts, it will run just as if it was running from the network share. I think Gordon tried to explain this to me yesterday over the phone but I didn't understand what he was getting at.

At any rate, I got them up and running. Now I'm getting error 4206 when trying to print. The wiki says: "os error 6". No idea what that means. But I'm going to try printing a few different ways and see what we come up with.

Thanks for your advise!
Gabriel
bluesfannoz
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Post by bluesfannoz »

I agree its a weird place to have to go and set something. But believe me it will reduce a significant amount of permission headaches.

Also forgot to mention that make sure you have IE closed when you make the change and do so through control panel and not IE.

One other benefit is that you should no longer get any sort of warning message about the BR32/WB32.EXE not being trusted when you first double click on it.
Steve Koger
Computer Specialist
SEKESC-MACS Division
Gabriel
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Location: Arlington, TX
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Post by Gabriel »

Just another update: got printing working too. Like most printing issues involving Dot Matrix printers on Windows 7, there was a bit of voodoo involved in the solution, crossing of fingers and toes, and sprinkle of Eye-Of-Newt for luck. In other words, I don't know what fixed it but its working.

Thanks for all your help.

And thanks for the tip on Internet Security options.

I did make the changes in Control Panel. And they did make it so the user stopped getting the "BR is not Trusted" message. So maybe that would have solved it if i just followed through and rebooted the computer.
bluesfannoz
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Post by bluesfannoz »

You might also want to right click your wb32/br32.exe and select properties and look at the General tab and see if 'Block' is set. If so select 'Unblock'

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Steve Koger
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