RailMaster on Windows 10

[JohanC]

I've just tried to load RailMaster on my new Windows 10 laptop. I deactivated it on the old PC.

It loaded fine but won't allow me to activate with the product key. I get the message

Unable to enter resource Cannot connect (12029)

I have run it as administrator and turned off the Norton Firewall but no luck.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

John

[Chrissaf]

I suggest you have a read of this previous thread. It may or may not give you a solution, but it will perhaps enlighten you as to why Norton Security should IMHO be avoided.

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https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/internet/#post-93201

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The thread above is 10 pages long so I have not read past the first page, but page 1 does give a long detailed explanation post from HRMS.

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I am assuming that you have followed ALL guidance given for defeating Norton's overly aggressive protection in the Hornby Security Guide PDF installed on the desktop by the RM application. Just turning off Norton firewall is not necessarily enough.

[Chrissaf]

I suggest you have a read of this previous thread. It may or may not give you a solution, but it will perhaps enlighten you as to why Norton Security should IMHO be avoided.

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Regarding my previous post text above, and having taken some stick recently for replies deemed aggressive. I realise the phrasing of my text above could potentially be misread and seem condescending. I assure Johan & readers it was not meant to be. Norton Security has been known to cause many issues for installation of RailMaster. The post I gave a link for does appear to be a post that attempts to explain why, which is why I suggested reading it. As said, it doesn't necessarily give a foolproof solution, but it does give some recommendations regarding possible solutions. That include changing Norton Security for something else.

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The "Unable to enter resource Cannot connect (12029)" error message is usually associated with RM being unable to access the Internet due to being blocked by the security settings on the PC.

[Yelrow]

Hornby have always disliked norton, probably for good reason, although i have had it for many years. it is in the same laptop as RM, albeit, windows 7, and has never conflicted. I reckon, its summat else john

[Fishmanoz]

My suggestion is it's not the laptop, it's not W10 and it's not RM, it is a connection issue as RM is reporting.  And 99 times out of 100, that connection problem will be AV related ,no exaggeration. 

 

Theres a simple reason john doesn't have a Norton problem with his setup.  I suppose it is 2 years ago now, HRMS logged into his laptop and went through meticulously and fixed all his issues to get his system working and that will have included listing all of the necessary firewall and virus protection exceptions to RM needed by Norton.  We are not trying to say Norton won't do its job, we are just saying the way it goes about it is so invasive, the potential for it giving you problems is higher.  If you want to read more on this, go to the top locked thread in the RM forum written by our resident PC professional AC and see what he has to say about this style of program.

 

And that gets me back to Johan, do you realise that even if you turn Norton off, there are still bits of the Norton package resident on your laptop from startup that will still be running when you turn off the main console and these can still be causing your problem.  You can even uninstall the package and still have these left waiting to bite you.  I suggest you contact HRMS and get them to log in to fix it for you.  You'll have to use support@rail-master.com, don't forget the dash in rail-master, as the preferred email facility from the Help window of RM won't be working for the same reason the activation isn't. 

[Yelrow]

Fishy, you are quite right, they took it out, and i put it back. Had no problems with it then, or now. There are other AVs that cause far more problems. Norton existed, prior to RM. john

[westernwill]

 I have recently moved my RM from a vista PC to a Windows 10 one.

Wouldn't activate so I turned off Norton Firewall AND Norton Virus checker.

Then activated RM without a problem and turned them on again.

Try it, it should work fine.

[96RAF]

In my early computing days I had first McAfee then later Norton AV.

 

They were nothing but trouble with false alerts, missed viruses And other threats, etc, also an inability to cleanly remove them using normal Windows tools and generally screwing up other things for me, so I have avoided them like the plague ever since.

 

As always others will have never had a problem with either of them, but once bitten twice shy for me.

[Chrissaf]

Many years ago I was a huge fan of Norton products. In the days when Norton was Peter Norton the company founder. Can't remember what date, but some years ago Peter Norton sold out to Symantec. Peter Norton had created a well respected brand admired by many, thus I assume that Symantec wanted the name not necessarily the product. Under Symantec, Norton products soon turned into expensive 'bloatware' causing more issues than they protected against.....I'm thinking Norton Utilities here as well as AV.

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Now I, like RAF above, avoid the Symantec products like the plague.

[Yelrow]

Well, you can only speak as you find. I have been with Norton for 30 years, get a super deal ob 5 machines, regardless of location. I avoid Facebook like the plague. john

[JohanC]

Wow! Thanks for all the useful comments. I will work through them and report back. Johan 😳

[JohanC]

Not having much luck. I have updated RM to latest version. I have added RM to the Norton program list. I have read all I can about the drivers. I thought I was OK with computers but have following issues:

1. Online activation still has 12029 error.

2. Can't find how to change (or find ) the com port numbers in Windows 10.

3. When I plug my Elite into a USB port nothing happens and I can't find it in the device manager list.

4. None of the PDFs refer to Windows 10.

Am I alone in experiencing all these problems???

Regards

 

John

[JohanC]

Reference my previous post item 1 Activation has now worked. Despite adding RM to Norton I still had to shut down the firewall. It the activated OK.

Johan

[96RAF]

Keep Device Manager open with the ports + also open, then watch as you plug and unplug the controller into the USB. You will see the port open and close but unfortunately it doesnt say Elite as it did in old Windows.

use that port number.

[JohanC]

RAF96. Thanks for that. Found the entry on the device manager. It is just described as a USB port. I tried updating the driver but it said the installed one is correct. I can't see where I can change the com port number? Regards, John

 

[RB51]

Hi John - go to "System Settings" (Spanner icon top left) and change it here. R-

 

/media/tinymce_upload/96445f554cb95e2e939394096a5a7687.JPG

[Chrissaf]

Roger's post shows how to change the port number used by RailMaster. If you need to change the port number used by the PC, then that is done in Device Manager. Both need to match./media/tinymce_upload/e00aa4ee9c3b49ded983931b8c3f623c.jpg

According to HRMS documentation the Com port used needs to be below Com 5.

[JohanC]

Bazinga!!!! It works! Thank you all  for your help, it is really appreciated.

To summarise this is what I had to do:

1. Load Railmaster on the Windows 10 laptop with Norton Anti Virus and connect to the Elite.

2. To activate the software I had to include Railmaster in the Norton approved program list AND turn off the firewall. (On my set up I have an admin account and a user account when logging into Windows. All changes have to be done as administrator.)

3. Having powered up the Elite and connected the USB, I set the baud Rate to 19200 on Com1 in RM on the settings option - gear top left.

4. I ran the device manager (Win Key +X) and found the USB being used by seeing which line disappeared and reappeared when I pushed the USB in and out. (There is no mention of Hornby or Elite here.)  Click right and go to properties and then advanced and changed the baud rate and com number to agree with RM. Again has to be done as administrator.

After all this it works - most of the time. Sometimes I have to restart or whatever to get it to connect but I'm not complaining!

Thanks again everyone who replied.

John

[Chrissaf]

Johan, to keep the USB port allocated stable, make sure you use the same physical USB port each time. Changing what port you connect the controller into can change the Com port number Windows assigns to it. Also, if you continue to get connection issues. Have a read of the locked threads at the top of the forum RailMaster section and pay particular attention to the posts in there regarding settings in the railmaster.ini file.

[JohanC]

Chris, Thanks, will do. I have had a look at the RM ini file but can't find the lines referred to in the PDFs. I will have another look. Regards, John

[Augustus Caesar]

Hi Johan

 

Great to see you finally got the software activated. While Norton is working for some members it will always offer up a very high degree of annoyance and aggravation to others re Windows of any version and RailMaster.

No matter how much this program is given credence by anyone it will receive more negative comment than most. No worries. One thing you should check though...

If Norton's firewall is turned on then make sure Windows own Firewall is turned off. Norton's, if working correctly, should always do this automatically for you but sometimes doesn't. It's a bug. You should never have two SOFTWARE firewalls running at the same time especially when using connections over the web where they will conflict with each other and block some facets of the OS. Your own router has a hardware firewall built in and works well and you are allowed this and a software firewall ruunning together.

 

To find out more about this and your other queries you have re ports, Windows 10 and more of the areas you pointed out take a look, as stated earlier, at the Help Site at the top of the forum and the following thread underneath and you'll find everyhting and more of what you are asking about... take a look at the Quick Tips on the former for example.

[JohanC]

Thanks, will do.  John