System Freezes or locks up with 6.1

[peter twartz]

Hi Adrien,
I have exactly the same problem as matrixthe.
At least once a day a system locks up. Either a black screen or the last screen but no mouse, or keyboard activity is registered.
Cannot shut down except for switch off power, or 10 seconds on reboot switch.
I have done hardware diagnostics and all appears good.
6.0.4 was running well, as was previous versions back to 5.something.
Wingate runs on it's own machine Win2k on an IBM Netfinity server.
Unlike Matrix this is a 6 user small install.
Are there any logs that would help?

[adrien]

Hi

We are suspicious of some issue with SMTP reception in some cases where clients don't properly connect to the server.

Do you run the WinGate SMTP server? If you run debug logging, do you get a lot of log entries like "unknown exception in Initialise", followed by "client disconnected unexpectedly expecting HELO" ?

Adrien

[peter twartz]

Hi Adrien,
I do use SMTP server.
There are a few entries such as you describe but not too many.
I can forward the log file if you wish.
Interestingly the log file from 20th is across 3 days as there was a lock up whilst I was away and unable to restart it.
Let me know if you want me to email the file somewhere. it is only 46k
Cheers
pt

[adrien]

HI Peter.

Is this Win2k Server?

What service packs and patches do you have installed? all the latest ones?

Adrien

[peter twartz]

Hi Adrien,
Actually Win2k Professional.
Build 2195 Service Pack 4
Up to date as of about three weeks ago when I also installed Wingate 6.1.
I've just checked windows update and the only things it is offering are:
November's malicious removal tool, KB896424, and KB904368.
Which I have just updated.

Cheers
pt

[markt]

Similar problem here, though the console doesn't freeze. All services fail (no web requetsts served) and Gatekeeper opens with all the windows grey, eventually returning that it has failed to connect (this is gatekeeper running on the server itself).

We have had this with all previous v6 versions.
Win2k Server, SP4
WWW Proxy
SMTP Proxy
POP3 Proxy
KAV2 & Puresight 2 installed.
2 x NIC (internal 1Gbps, external 100Mbps to Draytek Router)
No other services run on this server.

My main concern is that we in the UK now use BACS online to make financial payments (payroll etc) and we have had this fail during a
transaction. I cannot tie this to a particular wibgate service, though we do have a number of instances whereby the pop3 proxy hangs, forcing us to manually hang up the connection from the internal mail server. We do not use the Wingate mail server, or SMTP incoming.

Markt.

[MattP]

Hi Markt,

The problem with POP3 hanging has been resolved in version 6.1, have you upgraded yet?

[markt]

Hi Matt,

Yes, Wingate and all plugins have been upgraded (the day after the release). As I say this is Pop3 proxying - is this effected by the pop3 fix in v6.1?

Did the Pop3 error follow the same pattern as I have here of all services being non-responsive, including Gatekeeper?

Thanks

Markt

[MattP]

No, and I think it was POP collection that was hanging, not the proxy.

We may have to get you to run a trace build, would that be ok? I'll have to talk to the programmers to see if we can get an updated kit.

[markt]

Hi Matt,

I have no problem with that - anything to help resolve this.

Just let me know what you need me to do this end.

Markt

[peter twartz]

Hi Adrien,
Just wondering if you have had any further thoughts on the SMTP issue.
I have reinstalled 6.0.4 and the problem has ceased.
It has been stabe for 4 days, whereas it was freezing several times a day with 6.1

[peter twartz]

OK, Now I'm really over this.
Wingate is taking out my server at least twice a day.
There is a total lockup and the only way out is to power off.

I have reinstated 6.0.4, and there is no problem, but 6.1.1 or 6.1.2 are intolerable.

I can't get Kaspersky working under 6.0.4 because it has been upgraded to 6.1.

So I have a stable machine with no antivirus, or a machine that crashes twice a day, with AV.

I can't keep going like this. If there is nor response I will have to find an alternative solution to Wingate.

[MattP]

Hi Peter,

We can send you a link to download the older version of KAV until we get the problem sorted out, will that be acceptable?

[MattP]

Hi Peter,

I just tried to email you the link to the kav download, and the debug kit, but your email address has been disabled.

[adrien]

Hi Peter

One other question. do you have a scheduled event that regularly purges the HTTP cache in WinGate? Some things changed in this area.

Adrien

[peter twartz]

Hi Sorry for that.
Last night after 3 sucessive crashes, I go so frustrated that I totally uninstalled Winfate and KAV, then re-installed fresh.
Whilst I saved the wingate registry keys, I did not save all the email account settings.
So I spent a few frustrating hours re entering everything.
One of the email addresses I forgot to recreate was the alias for this forum, hence bounced back email. But all better now.

Bad new is that it did not solve anything, it crashed again today.

Adrien's question re Cache, could be interesing. I have the Cache turned off. Both "Enable Cache Lookups" and "Enable additions to Cache" are unticked. But that is not new. It has been off for 12 months.

Yesterday I had it freeze whilst I was doing something, the mouse just stopped responding, and it stopped doing everything. Only way forward was to reboot with count to 10 on the soft power switch.

If there is no bright ideas, I'll go back (again) to 6.0.4 and if that is the solution, yes, I'll need that link to the KAV for 6.0
Thanks

[adrien]

Hi Peter

I'll get Matt to resend the link.

In the mean time, whilst you are still running 6.1.1, is there any info you can give me about how WinGate is behaving. If you run task manager, and view the handles, and memory that WinGate is using, does this increase or show anything unusual? Number of handles normally about 1200 - 1300 but can get up to 2000 under normal circumstances, but should drop back when loading abates.

Also on the performance tab of task manager, you can see non-paged pool memory usage. Is this stable, or does it increase?

Adrien

[MattP]

Hi Peter,

I've re-emailed you the links, let me know if you don't receive them.

[peter twartz]

I have been monitoring the "Memory leak wg 6.1.1"forum thread. My original problem within this post was never resolved, other than my rolling wingate back to 6.0.4, which is what I am still running.

I'm wondering if the 'memory leak' of 6.1.1 running on nicolatiana's Win 2003 is the same problem I was experiencing running on my IBM win 2k box.

My symptoms were that the system would just stop. The screen frooze, still displaying the last thing it did, and the mouse and keyboard were unoperable. The only way to restart things was the power switch.

Fully operational again after a reboot.

You may remember that for several weeks I ran a debug version of 6.1.1, might these files give a clue to if it is the WINS enumerator?

[Pascal]

Most definately; if you can zip them and email them to me, Genie or Adrien we should be able to confirm that easily.

[peter twartz]

Hi,
I have emailled it.
It is pretty big, but hopefully will make it through.

Unzipped it is 71M.
The other file is 248M

If it is too big as an attachment, I can put it on my FTP site.

[Pascal]

The total lockup issue sounds a lot more like a driver issue than an actual engine issue. It doesn't seem as if the memory issue is the problem you are experiencing, either.

However, I do notice that there is a lot of route table fixups happening. (Common on XP with incoming connections / 2K with RRAS enabled) I don't expect those to be the issue either though; that's fairly innocuous code looking at it.

The more I read this the more it seems as if something kernel wise is getting locked up.

What makes / models network cards are you running?

Is there any other software installed that might affect networking devices?

Do you experience this problem if you run without ENS installed? (If possible)

[genie]

Hi, Peter

If you are running Wingate on multi-CPU or hyper-threading-enabled machine, then this might be a driver lockup problem. If you give me your email address and the OS you run Wingate under I will send you the new driver for testing.

[peter twartz]

Hi Genie,
Try wingate@prm.com.au

Currently I am back to running 6.0.4
Win 2k Professional
IBM Netfinity with dual P3 processors

So no hyperthreading, but certainly two physical processors.

[genie]

Thanks, Peter - the new driver has been sent to you.