Evaluation mode reverted

[Pietrarsa]

Hi all,

Just received from hornby my activation code and proceeded to activate the latest version of Railmaster (1.36 4.0 dated 11/16/2015) on my pc running with winXP and all worked fine, had the REGISTRATED pop up, had the welcome/news screen etc.

Closed the software, relaunched, I got the message "evaluation ended - enter activation code" on screen.

When trying to do so, it says "already activated" and jumps me to the restore activation codes procedure.

On that screen within the scroll option-list of the reasons why to restore, no one of the options looks like mine, so I don't know how to proceed.

Anyone experienced the same issue?

No authorization/firewall active on the software, as the registration procedure was ended well and the REGISTATED popup showed up, meaning it was ok.

[Fishmanoz]

Hi ciro, welcome to the forums.  I'm not sure why it has taken so long for you to get a reply to what seems like a straightforward issue. To re-activate your software, you will need to contact HRMS and explain your problem.  Try to do this from the email facility in the Help window of RM, if you can.  Make sure you get an immediate auto acknowledgement of your email, otherwise you will need to email them separately at support@rail-master.com.

 

Make sure to tell them about it apparently becoming unregistered by itself, that part is a little unusual.

[Pietrarsa]

Sorry all for not first welcome myself of the hornby forums.

There is a reason why. I would participate to this forum actively and I will present more of me, as I could run my activated Railmaster...

Til then, just lurking...

I communicated with HRMS by requesting key resetting, and actually telling a lie: I stated that "it reverts to evaliuation after a system clean-up" in the option list, thats not my case, as I am not running system cleanups, and the exeptions in firewall and network are set right.

So I uninstalled Railmaster, reboot PC, reinstalled RM last version available, reactivated the software and got the registration stuff (no more green EVALUATION VERSION written on layout), news page, welcome screens, etc. ALL OK network working - software running in good condition - no exceptions

Relauched, it really stuck me! AGAIN this annoying "end evaulation and activation forced procedure" or QUIT.

Then I tried lot of things to fix the problem in anyway: setting r/w permissions in the rm folder , of course I did NOW a system cleanup (and maybe I got to do it since months as reported hidden references to softwares I removed years ago...), but nothing changes.

Plus when i try to reset the key, now it says that i've already resetted once the key, and this is true, and have to contact support@rail-master.com.

It was saturday.

Maybe on next monday they will read emails.

I wish I being active on this forum.

[Fishmanoz]

Ciro, HRMS work on the weekends, you shouldn't need to wait until Monday for them.

 

In the meantime, there are a couple of things.  First there should never be a need to uninstall and reinstall the software, just download and install the latest version from the link at the top of the RM forum over the top of your existing installation.  Start by doing that right now as there has been a recent upgrade.  Also by not uninstalling, you should avoid further problems with not being activated.

 

Second, it seems to me you may have not properly set up RM.  Go to the top locked thread in this forum, Setting Up and Getting Started, go through all of the steps covered in there and see how you go.  Then, when communicating with HRMS, tell them everything you have done.  Can I also ask you to send HRMS an email from within the Help window of RM, not via the support@ email address, and let us know if you get an immediate auto acknowledgement.  If not, you still have AV issues, despite what you have tried to do.

 

PS.  No need to tell fibs to HRMS, tell them what you have actually done.

[Pietrarsa]

Hi Fishmanoz,

when the evaulation demo is expired the only things you can do with RM is to activate or to quit, no helps are available.

the only way I had to communicate with HRMS was via the reset key procedure, and it worked, so no AV or email shields were active.

The only way to start the reset key procedure was "actually" to tell them a lie, while no options fitted my condition for request.

The version installed is the last release 1.63 5.0.

They aswered me to let them log in my computer via remote desktop application to investigate the problem. Until now I got no requests to log in via remote desktop.

[Fishmanoz]

So have you installed the program they need to be able to log in and agreed a time with them?

[Chrissaf]

They answered me to let them log in my computer via remote desktop application to investigate the problem. Until now I got no requests to log in via remote desktop.

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Yet another feature undocumented in the RM manual.

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The remote desktop access support application is now installed as part of the normal Railmaster installation. Look in your Windows Railmaster program folder and you will find a file called "assist.exe". A shortcut to this file should be found in your Start Menu Railmaster folder too, but if not there, look in the 'Program' folder for the .EXE.

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Double click the file and a little box opens with instructions. If all set up correctly, it would appear that this little program (assist.exe) sends a request to HRMS to log in to which they respond. The instructions in the popup state that HRMS will log in within a specified time period.

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You have to run this "assist.exe" application when you have time to wait and monitor screen activity looking for HRMS to log in. Of course, you have to have your PC connected to the Internet for this application to work. I've never used this application myself, but assume that HRMS communicate in text via this app.

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Note: The instructions in the pop-up window that you get when you run "assist.exe" recommend that you go into your INTERNET ROUTER (not PC) settings and enable 'port forwarding' for certain 'Port Numbers' or alternatively "PC Anywhere" if you cannot set ports directly by number.

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PS - Anybody who wants to see this assist.exe application for themselves. Just run it briefly, long enough to have a quick look. Then close it down. Although I haven't used it myself for actual HRMS support, I did take a note of the ROUTER settings requirement and implemented them on my router for future proofing, should I want to take advantage of HRMS online support at some later date.

[Fishmanoz]

Well spotted Chris.

[Chrissaf]

Yes Fishy, no idea in what RM release "assist.exe" first appeared, but I bet it has been there for some time. HRMS really do seem to do their best to keep things hidden away for us to find. Perhaps it is because Easter is nearly upon us again (computer Easter egg pun).

[Pietrarsa]

Back to the point Chrissaf llustrated, I found "Support" in the RM applicatoin schortcuts folder. I lauched it for a while yesterday and launched now.

What appears on the screen is this:

 

/media/tinymce_upload/6499412cf2f34e8b7350ae60f2418068.jpg

 

I don't see any instructions nor help window popups, nor port forwarding router advice. Just add full exception to antivirus and windows firewall.

Maybe the code reacts with an help screen on port routing fail test, so on your pc it shows the advice, and maybe you have a router firewall active.

I'm waiting for them to connect to my pc today.

[Chrissaf]

This is a screen shot (taken with camera so excuse the quality) of my pop-up window for Assist.exe

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/media/tinymce_upload/8e8875ff0e18e7e315ba01b1a031211d.JPG

[Chrissaf]

Have posted an image of my equivalent screen. It should appear once moderated by admin. My screen shot is slightly different to yours when I initially start assist.exe. However if I click the small arrow next to 5631 just above the UK flag in top right corner, then the message on my screen changes to the one shown on yours. My version of Railmaster is currently 1.63 revision 3.

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EDIT: I see admin is on the ball and has already posted my image. If it completely fills or exceeds the visible screen. Right click the image and choose 'view image' or similar if a context menu option is available. That should then reduce the image size down to a viewable size.

[Chrissaf]

My second attempt to upload my screen shot. This time used Windows Snipping Tool utility instead of camera. Hopefully readability will be greatly improved

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/media/tinymce_upload/905f5b6bb79ee657c8420fd85fca1057.JPG

[RB51]

This is where these things leave me cold. This text assumes that everyone using RM will know how to ensure that they have "set up port forwarding to allow ....."

 

How do you do that? Is that what the 5631 box is for top right?

 

R-

[Chrissaf]

To, Roger and to anybody else who is unsure what 'port forwarding' is:

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This is a ROUTER configuration issue and nothing to do with Windows or the RM Support window in the screen shot. In the UK, the router is nearly always provided as part of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) service. How to implement 'Port Forwarding'  is router specific, so it is difficult for me to provide anything but general guidance.

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ISPs nearly always provide some form of user configurable Port Forwarding within the router they supply as the feature is invariably required to support the playing of on-line games. Ports are part of the Transmission Control Protocol TCP standard (the protocol on which the Internet is built). They are used to identify specific networking applications running on your PC, so that data coming into your PC from the Internet  can be routed to the correct application. For example your Browser using HTTP uses port 8080.

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You need to use your Browser to access your Router HTTP management interface.

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Consult your ISP provided router documentation for how to access the management interface, but if not available then this high level instruction should help.

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You need your 'Default Gateway' IP address.  To find your default gateway address open Windows 'Command Prompt'. Type IPCONFIG followed by 'enter' and the default gateway address will be given in one of the listed entries. Just purely for the sake of this explanation it might for example be 192.168.0.1

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Now open your Browser and type the Default Gateway address you found listed, into the go to URL box followed by 'return'.

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You should now see on screen your Routers management interface home page in your Browser window.

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You will need to enter a password to access any 'Advanced Settings' page. The PW would normally be printed on the router label. On BT provided routers this is typically "admin". Remember that you may have changed the default PW as part of installing your Internet service, so use the PW that the default may have been changed to.

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This is where I can not help too much further as what you see on screen will be specific to your particular ISP provided router. Somewhere in the advanced settings menu tree structure you should find a reference to 'Port Forwarding' or 'Games Support' where the 5361 & 5362 port numbers or "PC Anywhere" port forwarding can be selected.

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In my case, for my particular router. I couldn't access the 'port numbers' directly. But 'PC Anywhere' was listed in the list of pre-configured 'Games'. Yes I know it is not a game, but that is where I found it. Follow your own on-screen prompts to select the allow option and save it. If you have multiple devices, you might also have to select your particular PC that has RM installed on it. To tell the router which attached LAN device wants to use these ports.

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Note that sometimes the 'port forwarding' is handled automatically by the applications on your PC. So it is quite feasible (but not proven) for RM support to still function without making these router setting adjustments.

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PS - The box in the top right with 5361 is the 'Restart Server' button. This support application on your PC runs as a 'Server'. The HRMS end of the Internet link runs as a 'Client'. The box at the bottom with the tick to the right hand side is the place where you write your text reply to the HRMS text that might appear in the main window once they have logged on i.e you read HRMS text in the main window, you then write your reply in the bottom row and click the tick to send it.

[Chrissaf]

Typo alert:

My references to 5361 & 5362 should, of course, been 5631 & 5632

[Pietrarsa]

You were right, I pressed the restart session button and didn't noticed the change in the text.

Same screens.

Still no answers from HRMS...

I even added a port mapping on the router for TCP 5631/2 ports (useless because all ports where already opened) Never experienced games or messengers communication errors.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

The assist program is something we are working on for the future.  It is not hidden for you to find and it is not documented because it is not live therefore there is no point running at at this stage.

[Pietrarsa]

Thank you Hornby RailMaster Support for that fast reply. Ok, the "assist.exe" point is not running, meanwhile I hope that within today someone of you will read my e-mail and contact me for the programmed remote operations on my PC.

[Chrissaf]

Comment for the general forum.

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The reply from HRMS shows the importance of posting any issues that involve RailMaster in the forum RailMaster section (as this thread is). This section of the forum is the only section of the forum that HRMS monitor. If this topic had been incorrectly placed in one of the other forum sections. Then it would have not instigated a timely response by HRMS to advise to ignore the assist program at the current time.

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@HRMS.

To help us provide correct advice. Could you post in the locked Railmaster thread a 'step by step' for what is the correct procedure for requesting and initiating (setting up) 'remote access support' using the currently supported system (whatever that is)......Thank you.

[NormanQ4]

Ciro, HRMS work on the weekends, you shouldn't need to wait until Monday for them.

 

Hi Fishy, unless things have recently changed at HRMS this information is incorrect.

You gave a similar reply to me in December which I checked with them and then posted as a reply to your post with the following information.

"Business hours are 9 :00am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday but sometimes someone may be around on the weekend."

Not quite the same as "HRMS work on the weekends"

 

 

[Fishmanoz]

Thanks for pointing that out NQ.  However, may I suggest you scroll up 4 posts on the previous page where you posted to the one by HRMS, click on them to bring up their account details, then go toward the bottom of page 2 of their previous posts, and the top of page 3.  I guess we can take it that the 2 forum posters who received replies from HRMS last Christmas Day, and the one each on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th can consider themselves doubly blessed to have received such exceptional support, not to mention the many others on here who have reported similar support, above and beyond business hours. 

 

I am am certainly not perfect, and have been found to have been talking through my hat on more than one occasion.  But I don't believe the 2 instances of advice you mention fall into this category.   In fact, 24/7 support is one of the reasons many on here put support for RM in the exceptional category.

[NormanQ4]

No thanks Fishy, I really couldn't be bothered chasing back these posts (it looks a bit like blah, blah, blah then take away the number you first thought of), but well done to you for taking the trouble.

I'm happy to take your word for it as I'm sure these things do happen.

I think it's great that members get a response from HRMS outside normal business hours, but as far as they're concerned it is just that, outside normal business hours.

Your earlier reply infers that weekends are normal business hours when HRMS have replied to me that someone being available on weekends is good fortune.

You finish your last reply by talking about 24/7 support which HRMS don't claim to provide.

What troubles me is that you may lead someone to be disappointed and HRMS may receive some criticism if members don't get a response at a weekend or public holiday.

I'm only saying that  it would be better for you to suggest that they should try to contact HRMS out of hours and may be fortunate to get a response rather than state HRMS 24/7 availability as a fact, which it isn't.

[Pietrarsa]

Hi all posters, I'm happy to confirm that the subject's problem has been solved, via a much instable datarate remote desktop application.

Now I proudly am a registered Railmaster user!

Testing thinghs, programs, cv settings, etc. all ok.

Little troubles with android handhelds, suffering the weak of PLAN/LOCO buttons on my lanscape mode 7" screen and when in portrait I can only see the plan, with no way to control locos or settings that moving in landscape.

I only need to get 1 loco control per device. Is it configurable anyway?

I will open a new thread on this argument if I'm in troubles.

[RB51]

Good to hear that it is resolved Pietrarsa.

 

As to the view on your handheld all I can say is that the iPad behaves in exactly the same way. If you open RM in landscape mode it is better but turning the screen to portrait gives a very limited overview and, as you say, no loco controls. I don't know of any way of changing that but maybe someone else does.

 

R-