RM v1.65 Available

[Chrissaf]

AusMod

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Ahhh all is revealed.

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DNS (Domain Name Service) is an Internet cloud based service that translates names (www.rail-master.com and www.powerpos.com) into the Internet Protocol (IP) address (82.69.183.118) that the Internet routers can understand. The fact that you can browse the Internet OK with the exception of this one particular site would indicate that your PC settings and configuration are probably OK and the fault lies in your local DNS server in Australia. As Rog(RJ) says, this should be fixed in time and normal service resumed. Also as Rog(RJ) indicated it is possible to reconfigure your Internet router and PC's to use a different DNS service (one without a fault), but this is a complicated procedure for the inexperienced and would be best done only as a temporary measure.  Strange that it is taking so long, as DNS faults are usually treated as priority one. I can only assume that it is a database fault rather than a total server failure. DNS servers are built with a high level of resiliency, and they compare their databases to synchronise data.

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I wrote a document where Chapter 9 gives a very basic (simple) overview of DNS. It is downloadable from AC's web site. You can view it on this direct link:

http://octaviancs.com/railmaster/ipprimer-v1_1.pdf

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Oddly, although I can still download the RailMaster file from www.rail-master.com AND www.powerpos.com, if I try 'pinging' (ping is an internet diagnostic tool) these sites, the 'pings' timeout inferring that the HRMS servers are down and offline in some way. Yet I can access them OK within my browsers (all of them), which is a complete conundrum. It's possible (but unlikely) the file is cached somewhere in the Internet cloud that is accessible this side of the world, but not from yours. I tried downloading the file using the actual IP address (this would side step the use of the DNS service) and that failed, indicating that the HRMS servers are down, that would also seem to support the file cached in the Internet cloud theory. As I say, a complete conundrum.

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Unless AC comes up with something else to try, then you may just have to wait for the network issue in the Internet cloud or HRMS server, if it is that instead, to be fixed.

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In the meantime, if your need for the latest RailMaster installer file is desperate. I have uploaded the file I downloaded this morning (very latest RM version) to my cloud file sharing service. Click the link below, then click the ZIP file in the the top left hand corner to download (assuming that this one works for you). You will need to unzip the file to extract the rm_setup.exe file (the cloud service rejects files with the .EXE and .COM extensions). Note: The link will expire after a week or so. I have tested my own download link and it works for me.

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https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/RuWSspQmMc

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

To clarify.  Our updates and activations servers are up and running almost 100% of the time.  The only time they are down (usually during the night UK time) is when operating system upgrades or other maintenance is carried out and this usually only lasts for a few minutes.

 

A PING test is not a reliable way of telling if a server is up as many will not respond to PING requests for security reasons.

[Chrissaf]

A PING test is not a reliable way of telling if a server is up as many will not respond to PING requests for security reasons.

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Yes quite true...I'd forgotten about that. Would therefore indicate fault is with AusMod's nominated DNS service.

[Fishmanoz]

It also can't be a common Antipodean DNS problem as it worked fine for me yesterday but from the East coast, not the West.

[AusMod]

 Chris, I'm getting a little out of my depth with this DNS problem. My ISP has provided me with a primary and secondary DNS address, which I entered into my modem when it was initally set up.

 

If there is a fault with a DNS server at my ISP, it has been faulty for almost a week!!  Unfortunately my ISP was taken over by another company some time ago and the service has gone down hill very quickly. The customer call centre was relocated to Manilla and is almost impossible to deal with. In short the DNS thing my never be fixed.

 

I'm not sure what to do next.

Regards

Norm

[Chrissaf]

It seems strange that only one web site is affected and that your other web browsing (that also requires a DNS lookup) seems unaffected.

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Did the download to my cloud file sharing service (RailMaster ZIP file) and my PDF document work?

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As it appears apparently to be an ISP / Internet service issue, there is little more I can do to help. AC may have a suggestion or two when he sees this after recovering from his late night.

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A stab in the dark, but recycle the power on your ISP modem (Router?). I have sometimes cleared a DNS issue by recycling power on my ISP router (my ISP service is a router not a modem). If your setup is a modem plus a separate router then power cycle both items. Turn both off, and power up the modem first followed later by the router once the modem has connected and stabilised.

 

[96RAF]

The only time I have fiddled with DNS was when my website host changed his servers.

 

Upon his instruction I temporarily handed over my websites to him by way of DNS1&2, then when he was sorted he handed them back to me for posterity.

 

Not much help to you really but maybe useful background.

[Augustus Caesar]

@Chris

You beat to it... restarting the router.

@AusMod

You'll see from the above line that you are now asked to do a simple reSTART of the router... and NOT a full reset by pressing buttons hidden in a small hole on the routers casing. Simply turn off the router, wait around 30 seconds or so and switch back on.

Depending upon your router it should take around twenty to thirty seconds to fully reconnect to the web and your ISP.

This clears bad cache in the router, a problem that often occurs for no real specific reason, and will alow just about all pages not previously loadable to appear to be working again.

 

What this does is causes confusion in the router chips and as the cache is full of bad memory the router can't clear without a restart so it then begins to use that cache to attempt to find pages previously, or otherwise, the user requires. You then end up with page not found errors. Keep in mind at all minds that computers, routers, and the code in Windows is actually very dumb and can really, most of the time, only second guess what is wrong and give the best available answer it has in its own database.

 

You're all on the right tracks with what DNS is but storgae of these RM files are unlikely to be on a cloud based system rather than just a simple server at Hornby or the software developers offices.

 

DNS (Domain Name System) is actually just a mechanism for translating your typed in URL's like hornby.com into a set of four numbers separated by dots. Those numbers range from 0 to 255 in each set. So an IP address given to your router from your ISP (dynamic IP that is, usually) may be something like 82.187.220.16... that then gets translated down into binary which a computer can understand. The mecahnics of all that is well documented on the web so take a look if you want to learn more... or take a gander at Chris's document on my own Help Site linked to at the head of the RailMaster sub-forum.

 

Domain Name Systems didn't particularly reside in the cloud but more are doing so lately. Security is a massive risk factor by moving to this kind of storage based system... regardless of how secure the big companies tell you your data is. It is far safer to stay put and leave the cloud well alone at this point in time.

 

Anyway... back to the issue. By restarting the router your DNS resolutions by the router should be reset and cleared so all SHOULD be fine.

Here is further evidence of that: by using more than ONE PC or laptop and getting the same result which is exactly the same proves the issue is NOT with your PC or laptop.

 

Try this simple restart and come to us.

 

**EDIT**

You shouldn't need a second (or even a first DNS number to enter into the router as this is done automatically by your ISP when you first connect to their servers with the router you have.

IF you have entered any static IP's and agteways plus DNS and alternative DNS entries then you should be able to remove them. Usually these are set to give you a FIXED IP for your local network when one or more machines are connected. This is NOT to be confused with a FIXED IP issued by your ISP.

 

By turning the router on and off you will note within the router that each time youdo this you are reallocated a dynamic IP from your ISP... these are allocated from a pool of numbers issued by telecoms to ISP's for use by the likes of yourself.

[Chrissaf]

Should have gone back to basics in the first place. First rule of IT support, switch it off, then switch it on again. 😉 😀 😆 😎

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Yes quite right AC, I really didn't think that a page cache in the cloud was potentially a likelihood in reality. Thus, my (unlikely) in brackets caveat I added to the text. At the time, it was all I could think of on the fly that fitted in with the evidence.

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Thinking about it more logically, only AusMod seems to be affected. A DNS in the cloud fault is unlikely to exist for a week without being fixed. And most ISP Internet routers contain a DNS lookup cache within them. Thus the logic is that a power cycle will clear out any cache corruption. The same principle that applied to my earlier suggestion which was to delete the browser cache on the PC. Clearing the router cache is just an extension of that potential fix.

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AusMod, if cycling power on your ISP Internet connection kit, still doesn't correct the issue, then I am well and truly stumped.

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Question to AusMod. You mentioned your ISP modem. I would be surprised if there isn't a router as well.

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Are you saying that your Australian ISP only provides a modem as your Internet interface and the router is therefore supplied by yourself and not the ISP. Hence why your ISP gave you DNS 1 & 2 addresses to enter into the router configuration?

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Or does your ISP provide a modem AND router as two separate devices?

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[Augustus Caesar]

Chances are Chris that the 'modem' talked of is actually a router. It is staggering how many companies say to new clients "Your modem is on its way" when signing up when in reality it is a router they send out. Just shows how sales staff have no idea what they are talking about sometimes.

Maybe that's what's happened here. I'd be surprised if a router and modem were used as a pair these days in Aussie.... but, one never knows! :-)

 

Regardless, I would strongly be tempted to remove all settings added via that phone call to the ISP and simply leave DHCP on which will handle all IP addresses to his equipment. Of course one wouldn't delete the settings which make the physical connection from his router to the ISP like the username and password!!!

When that is set there is generally nothing to do inside a router after that unless one decides to take things to another level with port forwarding and the likes but then that's bordering on the edge of using a dedicated server like I do at home... :-)

The router will always pick up the ISP's IP address and the user does not set this up on their own nor the DNS or alternate DNS settings. The exception here is when an ISP gives you a static IP address instead of using dynamic...

 

Anyway, I'm sure this all might be confusing some so I will leave it there until AusMod comes back to us.

[Augustus Caesar]

Just as an aside Chris... I thought the first rule of IT is if something doesn't work was to ... cry! 😢

Then run around pleading for help... then if a large object wasn't handy... switch it off, wait for a week and then switch it back on while running away... just in case! 😮

[Chrissaf]

I daresay that if power cycling whatever kit AusMod's ISP provided (modem and/or router) clears the fault. Then he will be so pleased at that, that he will not want to tinker further and risk upsetting it again.

[AusMod]

 Chris and AC.

 

My modem/router (all one unit) is a Netgear D6400 bought by me. Modem/routers supplied by Aussie ISPs are generally considered to be cheap rubbish! I checked in the settings and it's set to obtain the DNS automatically from the ISP. The DNS primary and secondry addresses are also shown, but apparently not used, it's automatic.

 

As you suggested I have power cycled the unit ie pressed the power button on the back of the modem/router, waited about two minutes and powered it up again. The result was the same...no change. I still get the same error.

 

Is it possible my modem/router has gone faulty? 

Norm

[Fishmanoz]

On one web address, unlikely.  Did you manage to download the file from Chris's cloud link?

[Chrissaf]

I am really sorry to hear that. AC and I were so sure that a power cycle would clear the fault. It does look as if the fault is within your ISP's domain. But first.

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All I could suggest, is you do a full factory reset to return the router to the factory default and re-enter your settings again from scratch. As you bought the router, then check out the manual for the correct method to perform a full factory reset. I can't see a router hardware fault, being so specific to only affect one single web address.

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If that doesn't provide any improvement, then I'm afraid you will have to bite the bullet and contact your ISP helpdesk in Manilla.

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As Fishy said, did my other links work for you?

[AusMod]

 Thanks for all your time and efforts guys. I forgot to mention I was able to download the RM 1.64 zip file from Chris's cloud link.

 

I guess I'll have to try the Manilla help desk, but I don't hold out much hope of a resolution as the people there seem to be poorly trained and usually don't help very much. I'm expecting they will claim the fault is with my modem and not with them!!

 

Thanks again

Norm

[Chrissaf]

I'm assuming just a typo, but my cloud download zip file link was for RM 1.65.0 not 1.64

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Don't forget to at least try the full factory router reset first before contacting Manilla.

[Augustus Caesar]

@AusMod

It is EXTREMELY unlikely the router is at fault. I don't say that lightly either.

If you have downloaded the file from Chris's cloud then that is fine and saves myself adding it to my server for you to download from.

 

As the situation still goes on and even after a full router reset I would offer an explanation as follows... (you'd be surprised how often this happens)

 

When a page not found error is shown the PC is only second guessing at error codes so don't pay too much attention to that at all. What I will say here is that the possible cause is a connection across the world as traffic tries to flow from one domain to another. There may be a break in that path.

Usually what happens is that all traffic, and especially email, is broken down into packets and transmitted to the destination where the page or email is translated or reassembled, respectively, into the full deal before getting to your PC.

The paths taken can literally be anywhere in the world, and even go round several times, for each packet (they don't all follow the same path and can arrive in different order) and the page or email is ONLY offered up to the end user upon reconstruction at the ISP server.

If a break in that path occurs then the page or email is lost if the packet cannot find an alternative route which works. There is a TTL (time to live) for packets and once exceeded that's it. An email for example can legitimately take up to 5 days to arrive (now cut to almost 3 by most servers) at the outside... simply because one single packet has not reached its destination for reconstruction to take place.

 

So again I say the router is probably nowhere near being unfit for purpose. The only reason this may fail (your service - not the router) is if your own ISP is unable to translate the URL hornby.com etc into a recognised IP address in which case a simple call to your ISP can solve this. They can test the connection to Hornby from there end and tell you if it works or not. Try that and come back again....

[AusMod]

Chris, the zip file name suggests RM 1.64 hence I assumed it was the previous version. I'll use it to update RM on my laptop. Thanks for making it available.

 

 I'll try the full router reset back to the factory defaults and let you know the result. I'll give it a go sometime today.

Norm

[Augustus Caesar]

@AusMod

What I maybe should have added to the post I last made...

If you do call your ISP ask them to actually test the download itself from their servers or client PC's (confirmation the file is about to download is good enough of course - they don't need to physically download it) as you speak to them. That'll solve one thing for you at least... if THEIR side works then something else is blocking your two machines... if it doesn't work... problem on your side does not exist. It is your ISP...

[Chrissaf]

AusMod, I've just realised that the RM 1.64 file I provided a download link for, was for a previous forum user issue on Page 2 of this thread. I think you have used that link in error. The link to YOUR 1.65 file is on page 8 of this thread, not page 2. The page 2 download link was for someone else.

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This is the download page you should see if you use the page 8 link in this thread. As you can see there is no mention of 1.64 in the file name.

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/media/tinymce_upload/5537199f9fc17bc06d7adc295243d672.jpg

Now that I have deleted the 1.64.1 file on my cloud share service. The previous link on page 2 now gives a file not found error as I would expect.

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If you have not seen this later message in time and have already installed 1.64.1 no problem, just download the 1.65.0 file on page 8 and install over the top of the current RM installation.

[AusMod]

 Thanks Chris, I now have the 1.65 RM update.

 

I've spent the morning doing a full modem/router reset and the error still persists 😢

 

I placed a call to the customer support centre of my ISP this morning. The wait time is over an hour, so I'll try again later in the day.

Norm

[Augustus Caesar]

At least you now have the updated file and can get on with things...

Now though we await your findings on thatcall...

Wishing you good luck and hopefully not too long to wait.

[AusMod]

 Boy I'm frustrated and angry ☹️ ☹️

 

After waiting over 3 hours for the ISP's call centre to call me back, I was told they didn't support this sort of fault. They could access the RM website and didn't know why I couldn't. They had me power cycle the modem and computer, wich made no difference. The call centre is in South Africa. The staff seem to be poorly trained, as he didn't know how to enter a web address into his browser. In the end I was told I'd just have to wait and see if the problem fixed itself. I'll amuse myself by looking for another ISP.

 

A very big thank you to all you guys who contributed to this sad saga. I was a little worried Chris and AC weren't getting much sleep. Like RM support they are always here. Thanks guys.

 

Rergards

Norm

[KNAP]

Left this update until now, with good reason, as totally locked the system when checking for updates.

Apart from the problems witth the Windows Firewell, even when allowed and run as Adminstrator, still a total system lock.