Wingate PC freezes

[ekkas2]

I've got a very serious problem...

We've been using WG6.1.3 for a long time now (users since WG4 I believe). Apart from the odd history file corruption, everything was running fine for years.

Then about a month ago, we upgraded from 50 user to 100 user and it seems (although I'm not absolutely sure) that the WG PC completely freezes every now and again since then. I know it sounds weird, but no other change have been made. The PC completely freezes, no mouse response etc...

1)So my first thought was that XP-pro was to blame. I re-installed XP & WG but still every few hours(2-10hours) the PC freezes.
2)I uninstalled all other software apart from Windows updates, still the same problem.
3)I re-installed XP again with WG 6.2.0 1121, same problem
4) I replaced the PC with a complete new PC (P4 HT, 512MB RAM) new NICs -the works-, only running WG, still the same problem

What can I do more!? This is a major problem, I have 70+ clients on a multi-subnetted wireless network spread over 3 towns, using the internet 24/7. The server is a few kilos away so if it freezes, all clients are off and I must drive there to reset the PC.

My wireless network has a MTU of 1460 with ip ranges 10.x.x.0/24
I do not use email server and tried it with and without transparent redirection. Some clients use proxy others not. Also no users entered, all using guest, no authentication. Just 3 ports forwarded.
Please help! I do not know what else to do, the only common denominator is WG and it seems the 100 user license...

I'll be happy to send any configuration/registry stuff

Regards
Ekkas

[Nev]

Hi Ekkas,

Not good!

As a thought, do you leave Gatekeeper open for long periods?

Try [if you haven't already] turn off all logging of the services you use.

Have you any plugins installed?

Someone will take this further I am sure!

[ekkas2]

As a thought, do you leave Gatekeeper open for long periods?
No

Try [if you haven't already] turn off all logging of the services you use. Unforunately I need NAT & WWWProxy logging for traffic only.

Have you any plugins installed?
No.

[ekkas2]

I have now re-installed my original PC (hardware tested 100% on all tests) Celeron 1.8GHz 512MB RAM
Fresh Windows XP pro, just drivers & WG 6.2, 3NIC
No updates, automatic update disabled. (Previous installation had ALL XP updates installed)
Basic configuration, no users just proxy & NAT (+-70)guest clients, 3 ports forwarded.

After only 4 hours the PC freeze up completely. Without WG it ran fine.

Can someone have a look at my config to see if there's a problem?

[labull]

Since this is mainly a user-to-user forum, I'd recommend you open a support request to get the best help.

http://support.qbik.com/index.php?_a=tickets&_m=submit

That's the best way to get help directly from the fine Qbik folks.

[deftech]

For troubleshooting purposes, have you gone back to 50 users to just see if that freezes? That would tell you for sure if it's the upgrade to 100 users.

[ekkas2]

Unfortunately I can't now. I've got 70 users going on and off most of the day. Mostly about 20-40 active but they do pump past 50 regularly.

[deftech]

Hmm..what about using your old machine? Have a test bed to test your theory of the license problem.

Two different machines both locking up is very wierd.

Tried leaving a second machine next to it, without wingate to see if it locks up in the time frame the first one does?

[ekkas2]

Hmm..what about using your old machine? Have a test bed to test your theory of the license problem.

I'm using my old machine again now. Same problem. I cannot run less than 50 licenses at the moment. That doesn't make sense to me, that should be just type of counter that increase?

Two different machines both locking up is very wierd.

I agree

Tried leaving a second machine next to it, without wingate to see if it locks up in the time frame the first one does?

I have 2 PC running at the same spot, with 3 spread across a small room. None other than the WG PC freezes. Not blue screen, just a complete lockup.

[SKYNET-Mreza]

Hey, I had exactly the same problem !
I found that the version of wingate is the problem.
I used 6.0.4 without any problems , but when I upgraded to newer version (I dont remember which one) my comp always freezes. Then I installed wingate on different mashine, but it also freezes.Not reset, only freezes and have to reset it manualy. When I installed 6.0.4 again - everything was fine again.

Install version 6.0.4 and it will work.

Regards,
Sale
Belgrade,Serbia

[ekkas2]

Hey thanks a lot for that one.

Funny enough I had this funny feeling, so I posted an 'OLD VERSION' post. The reply was to look under http://downloads.qbik.com/qbiknz2/archive/ but there is only 6.1.0 & 6.1.1

Do you know where I could find 6.0.4?

[ekkas2]

I've installed 6.0.4 and now it is going for 11.5 hours, which is a record for us... I froze with 6.1.0 & 6.1.1 & 6.1.3 & 6.2.0


DOES QBIK HAVE AN ANSWER FOR THIS ?

[adrien]

Hi

Still looking into this to see what possible changes may cause this.

Thanks for narrowing down the versions.

Adrien

[ekkas2]

I'll be happy to send any other info that you'll might need, or run a debug build if you want more internal logs. I'm a software developer myself, so I'd like to help where I can to get up to 6.2 a.s.a.p

Thank for the reply.

[ekkas2]

22 HOURS & NO FREEZING.
HEAVEN IS A SOFTWARE VERSION ON EARTH...

[adrien]

Hi

http://www.wingate.com/showfaq.php?faqid=2 shows what's changed in the various versions. Basically we are talking between 6.0.4 and 6.1.0, since 6.1.0 was the next release after 6.0.4.

There were 33 things listed in there as having changed. Obviously you aren't affected by all these changes, but is there anything in that list you can see that would have affected you with the features you are using? I take it you

* aren't using plugins
* not using the IMAP server

so changes there shouldn't have affected you.

Are you using WinGate for email? WinGate firewall?

The other thing I'd be interested in is if your kernel memory is increasing - this could indicate some sort of leak in the ENS driver, which would eventually lock up the whole system though rather than just WinGate. You can see this in task manager, or in perfmon.exe

Adrien

[ekkas2]

There were 33 things listed in there as having changed. Obviously you aren't affected by all these changes, but is there anything in that list you can see that would have affected you with the features you are using? I take it you

* aren't using plugins
* not using the IMAP server

so changes there shouldn't have affected you.

Are you using WinGate for email? WinGate firewall?

The main features affecting us here is the Windows Updates that now wouldn't work with proxy & the cache file that's limited to 1000MB.
We are using Wingate firewall with port forwarding although I've disabled it to see if that'll help. After a day or two or stability I'll enable it again.
Otherwise we're not using Wingate mail.

The other thing I'd be interested in is if your kernel memory is increasing - this could indicate some sort of leak in the ENS driver, which would eventually lock up the whole system though rather than just WinGate. You can see this in task manager, or in perfmon.exe

Well, unfortunately I steer a busy ship here, so I would hate to go back to freezing. If you want me to check that, I would want to give it a few days just to try & restore some client confidence as our image have had to take a bit of a beating with all the hanging. Our servers are +-30min away for a reset, so if it hanged all was off for at least 30min. I've sent my config files/routes/etc as a Ticket ID: ARM-33502 to QBik

[adrien]

thanks for that. I've been doing a thorough audit of all file changes, can I spit some questions through as they come up?

1. do you use any dialup networking in WinGate? WinGate Dialer, or R&RAS server on the WinGate machine?

2. Do you use anything that uses SSL connections? e.g WinGate VPN, WinGate mail delivery or collection etc.

3. Do you use the RTSP proxy? It may be intercepting connections, check its log file to be sure.

4. Do you use any custom machine timeout settings or actions? These were added in 6.1.0 as well, to allow you to control what happens when all sessions of a machine are terminated.

Just trying to eliminate components that may not be affecting this.

PS, we use terminal services here with success to remotely reboot servers that hang.

[ekkas2]

thanks for that. I've been doing a thorough audit of all file changes, can I spit some questions through as they come up?

Sure

1. do you use any dialup networking in WinGate? WinGate Dialer, or R&RAS server on the WinGate machine?

No. A Linksys RV016 router combines 2 ADSL 1M lines and gives to WG 1 NIC

2. Do you use anything that uses SSL connections? e.g WinGate VPN, WinGate mail delivery or collection etc.

Not WG VPN nor mail, there might be someone VPN'ing out.

3. Do you use the RTSP proxy? It may be intercepting connections, check its log file to be sure.

Nothing there.

4. Do you use any custom machine timeout settings or actions? These were added in 6.1.0 as well, to allow you to control what happens when all sessions of a machine are terminated.

No.

Just trying to eliminate components that may not be affecting this.

Cool

PS, we use terminal services here with success to remotely reboot servers that hang.

On XPPro? Also, I can't even ping the PC, I doubt if TS will work??

[adrien]

OK, couple more questions.

1. do you use the WinGate or the windows user database?

2. Do you use authentication in the WWW proxy?

Adrien

[ekkas2]

1. do you use the WinGate or the windows user database?

No users, all as guest

2. Do you use authentication in the WWW proxy?

No

[adrien]

1. do you use the WinGate or the windows user database?

No users, all as guest

WinGate will stil lbe configured to use one or the other, and will synchronise the user database if it's NT under certain conditions, so this can still have an affect.

2. Do you use authentication in the WWW proxy?

No

OK, thanks

Do you use HTTP caching?

[ekkas2]

WWW proxy with DNS caching & cache set to max (1000MB for 6.0.4)


I haven't tried to clear the cache if it freezed, so I don't know if it helped...
In 6.2.0 I set the cache to 10240 (10GB). Haven't tried a smaller cache there.

[adrien]

Hi

I think we may have a handle on the cause of the problem. Would you be willing to test a new build of 6.2?

Adrien

[ekkas2]

Yes, sure.

[adrien]

Hey I'm quite suspicious at the moment of the DNS resolver.

Can you turn on debug logging for it? No need to change version away from 6.0.4, if the problem is what I think it is, it will still log the symptom, but won't go on to fail the way 6.1 would.

What I'm expecting to see in the DNS resolver log is a lot of log entries showing socket errors.

Adrien

[ekkas2]

I have a linksys router between my Cisco ADSL routers & WG PC. After advice from Adrien, instead of 'auto', I've set MTU on the Linksys router & WG interfaces to 1460 (limited by my ISP). After running 3 days without a freeze, I'm sure it's sorted out now.

Thanks a lot Adrien !

As a tip for other WG users:
I suppose even if your PC doesn't freeze, setting the proper MTU might help a lot. Have a look at
http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=157
to see some TCPIP settings & testing (MTU ping link) for your real MTU.

[adrien]

Thanks for that link and info.

I had a look at the SG TCP optimiser program, it looks like it has a fairly easy way to tell what your MTU should be by automating the ping process.

I couldn't test how good it is at detecting MTU when there are black-holes in the path (devices that don't respond properly to oversized packets that are marked as not to be fragmented).

But worth a look.

Hopefully 6.2 is still running sweet for you!

Adrien