Railmaster Activation Problems

[Tomaso60]

Hi Guys

when I get the chance which will probably be tomorrow now as I'm out dancing this afternoon with my wife then out dancing again tonight, I will reset the Upnp Security tab back on and see if the problem returns as suggested by Chrisaff for the completeness of the solution and will report back once I have tried it. If it does return and I can't fix it again straight away it won't be too bad as I have upgraded everything I need at the moment including hand-held as well then report back. At least I know where the issue is and how to sort it out again (fingers, toes and everything else that I can cross will be crossed). Tom

[Tomaso60]

Hi everyone

Now had the chance to test the Universal Plug and Play Security tab and as soon as I clicked on the checkbox the problems started up again. I wasn't able to do anything as the Upnp security just blocked everything again. I got the same message that I was unable to reach resource 12029 and at one point I got a message stating that I was unable to reach resource 12002 whatever that is. Once I unchecked the Upnp Security tab everything was alright again and able to get through to the servers. 

So just in case anyone else has the same problems it's one to file away and use to assist anyone else facing similar issues. Great program having real fun with this.

Tom

[Chrissaf]

Thanks Tom for doing that, much appreciated. I don't think anybody can argue with that conclusive test. Now we just need somebody to rationalise as to why UPnP being 'OFF' is the cure, when 'ON' is the default router setting. i.e why your system seems to be unique in being affected by it.

.

HRMS any thoughts?

.

PS - Hope the dancing went well.......

[Augustus Caesar]

Well, I tell you what... I have read this right through this morning and am surprised at a couple of things. First of all you never, ever turn off a firewall inside your router. This is both unnecessary and can be quite dangerous. Why the latter? Simple, if you want to leave your PC or laptop or whatever open to someone taking it over remotely, yes, even without you knowing at times, then this is one of the best ways to do it.

 

Turn the firewall ON and leave it on.

 

In the BT Home Hub v3 the setting for the firewall should be set to 'Default'.

 

@Tom

 

Here are the settings for a BT Hub as you have at home and please note I know exactly what I am talking about here... (IT Techie)

 

1. Port Forwarding has been mentioned... you don't need it per say. If you are running a server or you need to forward ports for gaming for example then you can use this. RailMaster does not need its services.

 

2. Having said what I have above you still access the important stuff under the Port Forwarding tab...

 

a. UPnP - It is absolutely not required to turn this OFF in order to run RailMaster. So it should be ON. You really need to sort out the PC and not the router. I will almost guarantee you the router is NOT faulty. It is extremely rare to find a faulty router and if you are not sure about what your settings inside should be then leave them as default. They are always set up for the best of settings for home users and don't really need changing.

 

b. Extended UPnP security - It too should be ON at all times.

 

3. DMZ Enable - should be set to NO at all times.

 

4. Firewall - set it to 'Default' and leave it there.

 

a. You can set the Ping requests to NO as a yes setting allows traffic into your router and possibly the PC when someone is trying to hack your system.

 

b. Outbound Protocol Controls - leave them all unchecked.

 

These settings are absolutely perfectly good for RailMaster to work on ANY system with that hub or any other BT hub for that matter.

 

Now... you say you only have Windows Defender and Windows Firewall protecting your system? That's not good enough I'm afraid. Windows Firewall will need to allow RailMaster access to the outside world and Hornby servers. Windows Defender will never protect your system fully. No single product anywhere can do that. Defender is extremely basic and you should be aware that a virus, trojan, malware and spyware are not the same thing... i.e. one type of program or one piece of code that attacks your system. They are entirely different to one another. No paid for a/v product will protect you fully from all of them.

 

It surprises me that no-one has actually mentioned the most obvious possible reason why you are getting the errors you are... a piece of malicious code on your system. A simple spyware issue can stop browsers getting to the Internet, can stop certain connections being made like yours to activate RailMaster and can cause all sorts of other grief. That's just spyware... so what about the others? A combination of them can stop you doing all kinds.

 

Now, without seeing your system physically, I cannot for definite tell you what is going on but you really need to get some decent protection on the system and I will suspect this may be part of your problem.

 

On my RailMaster Help Site (see the top listed post at the beginning of this thread), just updated, there are a lot of instructions to tell you how to get, install and update your system to keep it protected... the software is all FREE and released by companies who are perfectly legit and very well used worldwide.

Click the Anti Virus link on the Home page of the site and follow the text through and you will be able to download, install, configure and update all programs from those instructions.

The Installation link tells you step by step how to install RailMaster from start to finish and all what if's are included. It is a non fail set of instructions. Before installing the software you should have the three a/v products I recommend installed and a scan from each of them done. I will be a little surprised if you don't find anything on your system.

 

If you follow all that and still have problems then the scenario can be looked at in a diiferent way. This is because you would have eliminated the most obvious cause... malicious software. Your router is not at fault... guaranteed. One last thing to note but it shouldn't be a real issue is that Vista is not exactly the best operating system but if working well can use RailMaster without any hassle.

 

Let us know how you get on but please do not think that by setting what you have in the router is a 'fix'... it isn't.

 

@everyone who has commented on this thread...

 

I apologise if I look as if I am disrespecting anyone... that is not the intention here and you may line me up against a wall if you wish and throw some vanilla ice cream at me... (yummy!!!). I simply wish to point out a couple of other alternatives to help Tom.

[Fishmanoz]

I'm surprised the ice cream of choice isn't Neapolitan AC. 

[Augustus Caesar]

Alas, I may have a name which would make some folk believe that I would make an obvious choice and go for the classic Neo... but no... I plumbed straight for the Vanilla. A choice that was made many centuries ago and has stuck with me all that time!

As a youngster, yep I do remember, on our posh little street (hahaha) we had a guy who lived three doors up from us who sold us (and sometimes just gave us) large cones with loads of ice cream and the proverbial monkey's blood! Mmmmmm... delicious... can't say more than that!

[96RAF]

Just checked my Cypriot router AC and UPnP was OFF so its back ON now.

Some of the other stuff didn't show up on my machine webpage (extended security and ping) but those that did were set as you indicated. A handy check list that - thank you.

I may go and try to reload Elite v1.42 and see if that will play now on Win 8.1, but if it doesn't I'll have to get the XP laptop out again - so maybe I'll not bother.

Roll on 29th July when Win 10 pops into our lives and everything will be rosy again... (no mother he hasn't been on the wine already, he's talking funny 'cos his tongue is firmly in his cheek).

[RB51]

Thanks AC - good to hear the "what to do". How do I find out the settings of my BT Home Hub to check what it is doing. I should say all is working well, and I have not at this moment attmepted the latest Elite uprgrade due to the issues that others have reported. Although I use a Mac for web browsing (now) - I use a Dell laptop running W8.1. Thanks, R-

[Tomaso60]

Hi AugustusCaesar

for information at no point was my router firewall turned off the only thing that was turned off was the Upnp security tab and was turned back on as soon as I had registered then yesterday when I tested it and it was turned back on again.

[Augustus Caesar]

Hi AugustusCaesar

for information at no point was my router firewall turned off the only thing that was turned off was the Upnp security tab and was turned back on as soon as I had registered then yesterday when I tested it and it was turned back on again.

No problem Tom but I did read in the list of posts that the firewall could be turned off. The reason I made the post was simply to help you along the way to NOT fiddle with router settings just to get activation of RM to work. That is not a solution as router's shouldn't be messed with internally unless one knows what is required to be changed. It is not really there to facilitate your kind of solution... turn something off then back on again.

Do remember that each time you turn off the router or, on occasions, restart it after setting something, you are changing your dynamic IP address allocated to you by BT for your outside connection to the net etc. If you get one allocated that is blacklisted you may have trouble with emails etc. Not highly likely but quite possible.

Anyway... this is just advice to anyone really and doesn't necessarily mean one individual.

[Augustus Caesar]

Just checked my Cypriot router AC and UPnP was OFF so its back ON now.

Some of the other stuff didn't show up on my machine webpage (extended security and ping) but those that did were set as you indicated. A handy check list that - thank you.

I may go and try to reload Elite v1.42 and see if that will play now on Win 8.1, but if it doesn't I'll have to get the XP laptop out again - so maybe I'll not bother.

Roll on 29th July when Win 10 pops into our lives and everything will be rosy again... (no mother he hasn't been on the wine already, he's talking funny 'cos his tongue is firmly in his cheek).

Some models, even same version issues, have slightly different settings as newer batches are brought out. They are minimal but most routers of that ilk will have the essential tools to see that your network or systems are safe from outside attack etc.

The UPnP setting has a particular use in that if you have a second router you can attach it to the first as a 'Bridge' in order to for example... attach the second one in another room to a PC or laptop and through the Bridge you can transfer data from one to the other via cable or wireless. I have this setup at home and it works very well.

Some sites will have you believe that two routers cannot be used on the same network... true if you leave them (or one of them) as a dedicated router. Make them both a bridge unit and hey presto... no loss of any services or breakdown in speeds either. So, effectively, you could run a railway from a garage and have the main router in the house. Of course it is not really a simple process and can be frustrating at times to set up properly.

 

I am still a little curious as to how you can't get Win 8.1 to allow Elite to run effectively. If you want to talk to me privately on this one just email me from the link on the Help Site and I will try and sort it for you. Your call...

[Augustus Caesar]

Thanks AC - good to hear the "what to do". How do I find out the settings of my BT Home Hub to check what it is doing. I should say all is working well, and I have not at this moment attmepted the latest Elite uprgrade due to the issues that others have reported. Although I use a Mac for web browsing (now) - I use a Dell laptop running W8.1. Thanks, R-

If you haven't ever been inside the router, Roger (well, not literally physically mind you!!!), and not changed any settings chances are you won't need to do it.

 

However, the Home Hub v3 login details are listed here:

First open a browser - any one will do

Then type in the address bar 192.168.2.1 and press Enter (some IP numbers here may well be different and could be any one of these or more... 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.254, 192.168.0.1). You can also change the IP login number too especially in Business Hubs.

Once connected to the router click Settings.

Type your username and password: u/n is either admin or Admin and is normally set by default, p/w is on router's label. You can change the latter inside the settings if you wish but be aware any reset button press will set the password and all other settings back to default.

You will be presented, usually, with a list of links and this is the Basic Settings area where you will see options from Wireless across to Internet and then Advanced Settings.

Click the latter then click the button 'Continue to Advanced Settings'.

You will see a row of links and this is where Port Forwarding is found. Click that link and you will note extra links underneath... this where the Firewall and UPnP plus DMZ settings are. UPnP by the way stands for Universal Plug and Play. DMZ = Demiliterised Zone... actually, no it doesn't!!! Actually, YES it does... literally!

 

Bear in mind some routers can be slightly different here but the principle is very much the same.

[RB51]

Thanks AC. R-

[96RAF]

No sweat with the Elite AC, and thank you for the offer to troubleshoot it. At times shoot it was getting to be a close option.

 

I can use it no bother with RM, Rocrail and even some development railway operating software I have.

 

The only snag I have with it is that I cannot upgrade the firmware on any of my Elites on either of my HP Win 8.1 machines.

 

I have been through this in fine detail with HCC and their Elite designers and tried all their suggestions including advanced startup procedures all to no avail, hence my old Toshie laptop with XP is on permanent standby to enter the DMZ to rescue it come next upgrade time.

 

DMZ actually does mean what you say and does owe its name to the actual topographical DMZ. Another snippet of information to store away just in case it ever comes up in a pub quiz, as if my 3 score years and 11 brain hasn't got enough dross to wade through...

[Augustus Caesar]

Thanks AC. R-

 

 

  No probs Roger... :-)

[Augustus Caesar]

No sweat with the Elite AC, and thank you for the offer to troubleshoot it. At times shoot it was getting to be a close option.

 

I can use it no bother with RM, Rocrail and even some development railway operating software I have.

 

The only snag I have with it is that I cannot upgrade the firmware on any of my Elites on either of my HP Win 8.1 machines.

 

I have been through this in fine detail with HCC and their Elite designers and tried all their suggestions including advanced startup procedures all to no avail, hence my old Toshie laptop with XP is on permanent standby to enter the DMZ to rescue it come next upgrade time.

 

DMZ actually does mean what you say and does owe its name to the actual topographical DMZ. Another snippet of information to store away just in case it ever comes up in a pub quiz, as if my 3 score years and 11 brain hasn't got enough dross to wade through...

I am a little intrigued by this one and may have a pop at looking at my own Elite that hasn't seen the light of day for some time now! I can try it on two Acer machines both running Win 8.1. One is a 10.1"laptop and the other an 8" tablet. If it doesn't work on those then there IS a problem somewhere and it won't be with my machines.

Hopefully I will get to test this sooner rather than later and hopefully the latest update is not already in place on the Elite.

Actually, if it is I should be able to roll back the update. Has anyone DEFINITELY done that on the Elite - roll back the firmware? PC operating system here would not matter. If someone has done a roll back on the Elite firmware let me know asap so I can test it.

It would be good to see how this pans out and also maybe help you get the situation sorted for yourself RAF so keep the old crossed fingers held tightly together and we'll see what happens.

 

About the DMZ... I was being a little tongue in cheek coz when I heard that for the first time I thought the guy talking to us was having a laugh!!

[96RAF]

@AC - the only way I have rolled back the Elite firmware is to reload a previous firmware revision. I learnt to keep the previous update folders just in case it all went belly up.

 

I have suggested to Hornby that a proper reset button would be an asset so the Elite could hold the current firmware in safe memory and if an update didn't work and one bricked the unit by way of the reset facilty it could be brought back from the dead.

Other bits of kit on the market have the facility.

Apparently shortage of memory space is a problem in the Elite, apart from installing a reset button and redesigning the pcb, etc, etc...

[Augustus Caesar]

@AC - the only way I have rolled back the Elite firmware is to reload a previous firmware revision. I learnt to keep the previous update folders just in case it all went belly up.

 

I have suggested to Hornby that a proper reset button would be an asset so the Elite could hold the current firmware in safe memory and if an update didn't work and one bricked the unit by way of the reset facilty it could be brought back from the dead.

Other bits of kit on the market have the facility.

Apparently shortage of memory space is a problem in the Elite, apart from installing a reset button and redesigning the pcb, etc, etc...

I guessed that one could quite easily roll back the firmaware as PC's allow this anyway through their BIOS chips... well, most of them! Now I know someone has done it I can rest assured that the option is there for anyone really to do the same. So if a new update fails and their unit is 'bricked' at least a roll back is possible before trying the new update again just in case it was corrupted during download or whatever.

 

BWT... did you get my last email re reference to the 'task manager' etc.? Saturday early hours?

[96RAF]

Not seen ac

rob

[Augustus Caesar]

Not seen ac

rob

That's odd. I'll copy it back over to you now. If you don't see it in a day or so let me know... either by mail or the form on site.  ** Now sent and I have a statement it has been received by your service provider. Hopefully, it is not too full of technical jargon that they reject it!! lol

[96RAF]

Not here yet ac will keep eye out till weekend

[Augustus Caesar]

Not here yet ac will keep eye out till weekend

Neither mine nor your IP's are blocked by spamhouses. The mail is being received OK by your host provider or ISP but just isn't getting to your inbox/es. I have an MS account as you do and can send and receive from it with no problems. Have you checked your spam box in the second email addy you gave me?

 

Sometimes they can be dumped in there and the spam box folder is not always seen by the user to save space on their list of folders. I know giggle hide theirs until the user makes it visible.

 

Have a look in there first. If no joy let me know via my form on site or direct email rather than here so I get it quicker. If you don't have it I will resend via a further address... I won't run out btw... I've got loads - beauty of having your own domains... :-)

 

 

[96RAF]

@Stu

You have replied to an 8 year old post. There is more up to date help since then.

Check this post which suggests the Railmaster servers may have been down https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/want-to-reload-railmaster-on-new-computer-but-old-one-has-failed-and-cant-deactivate-rm-to-reload-it-i-have-original-cd-and-activation-key-371825?ccm_paging_p=1#end-of-replies

Please note that Railmaster is a third party product, support for and revenue from being handled by HRMS, nothing really to do with Hornby Hobbies, so your jumping ship is from the wrong ship.

[P-Henny]

@96RAF

Be aware that Stuart has already posted in that thread you linked to. Where advice was given to him, there is no indication that he has followed it. In fact, there is no feedback acknowledgement indication that he has even read it.

[96RAF]

@Paul

👍 only 2 posts had me wondering if this is a retread.