HWinfo Remote Center inconsistent behavior

[war4peace]

Hi,

I am using HWInfo64 on my NAS, my wife's PC and my main PC. On my NAS and wife PC, I have set up HWInfo in Remote Center to have Server Role, sending data to my main PC's HWinfo64. However, from time to time one or the other stop sending data, the solution I found was to remotely connect to source PC(s), close and re-open HWinfo64. Afterwards, they work fine until the issue resurfaces.
On my PC I see the sources as "connected" and the correct version, so it's not a network issue. They just stop sending data.

There are two behaviors:
1. The source stops sending data, and the entries appear as grayed out in my main PC HWInfo sensors;
2. The source appears as sending data, it's not grayed out in my main PC sensors area, but data never updates (values never change).

Is this something that's known, should I do something to ensure data keeps going?

 

[Martin]

No, this issue is not known and AFAIK hasn't been reported yet. It might well be some issue with network connection as the "Connected" indicator might not reflect the actual status.
Does restarting HWiNFO on the main PC solve the stuck state too?

 

[war4peace]

No, restarting main PC HWInfo64 does not update the data. The stuck status remains, although the data sources show "connected" after restarting main PC HWinfo64. I assume there is an issue from the data source side.
Sometimes the data updates for days, then stops, other times it stops after a few hours.
I can attach screenshots with the NAS HWInfo64 and the main PC HWInfo64 when issue occurs again. It might take a while because I have just restarted HWInfo64 on the NAS one hour ago (because data was stuck again).

The reason I am reporting this is because my NAS is in the attic and I need to monitor it in case something happens there, I have set up alarms on my main PC HWInfo64 (for temperatures), but all that would not help if no data is received.

LE: you mentioned network connection, all computers are in the same network subset, I can access all of them fine, all protocols work (ping, Team Viewer, SAMBA, NFS, PLEX, etc) so as far as I can tell there is no network interruption of any kind.

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the additional information.
So let's check it on the other side.. When the issue happens, are sensors updating in the Sensors window on the local system? Also, what does it show next to the Server Role checkbox in the Remote Center?
It would be great if you could somehow check the network traffic from the client, there are multiple network traffic analyzers, but I can't recommend a particular one that would be best.

 

[war4peace]

Hi, I will troubleshoot as you say the next time this happens and post results here.

 

[war4peace]

OK, the issue resurfaced today. It's currently ongoing as a matter of fact.
The NAS data stopped being sent to the main PC data.
I VNCd into the NAS and the sensors are updating there, so locally, HWInfo64 works on the NAS.
On the PC, in HWInfo64, all sensors from the NAS stopped showing, but in the Remote Center window the NAS shows as "Connected".

The network traffic from the NAS is normal, it responds to ping, can connect to it, all protocols are working fine as far as I can tell.

I closed HWInfo on the main PC and re-opened it, the issue remains, same as above, the NAS shows as connected but sends no data.
Then I closed and re-opened HWInfo64 on the NAS, and the data immediately started being received, without having to do anything else on the main PC.

So it looks like the NAS installation of HWInfo64 (the one with "server role") stops sending data for some reason.

Screenshots provided here:

https://imgur.com/a/lEa8TQy

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the feedback. If this happens next time, it would be great if you could check using some tool the network traffic on TCP port 27007, especially the connection status and if packets are being sent from the NAS.

 

[war4peace]

I installed Wireshark and started monitoring traffic between NAS IP and PC IP (both ways) on port 27007. The trap has been laid, now we wait

 

[war4peace]

I restarted my router earlier after a firmware update and data stopped coming through, even after both machines reconnected to the network.
Wireshark captured 6 packets transmitted back and forth after I closed and reopened HWInfo on the main PC, after which no further communication occurred between the machines. I have attached the captured packets.

Expected behavior was to start receiving data as soon as connection was established again, which is not happening. Hopefully the attached packet log helps identify what is happening.

LE: the second attachment contains more data, including data captured during + after closing and reopening HWInfo64 on the NAS (remote machine).

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the data. I'm analyzing it, but still unable to say for sure what is happening there.
It looks like the problem is on the client (NAS) side - it receives a request from the main machine, but its response doesn't get thru.
Is it possible to also dump the content of packets that are exchanged over this port?

 

[Mibix]

I am having the exact same problem. The sensors just go gray on the PC I'm using to monitor the one running hwinfo64 in server mode

 

[Martin]

I am having the exact same problem. The sensors just go gray on the PC I'm using to monitor the one running hwinfo64 in server mode

If it happens after 12 hours, it might be due limitation since v7.00 in non-Pro version. Check on the other machine if "Shared Memory Support" option is enabled.

 

[Mibix]

If it happens after 12 hours, it might be due limitation since v7.00 in non-Pro version. Check on the other machine if "Shared Memory Support" option is enabled.

It has definitely happened before 12 hours. That feature is enabled, should I disable it? I will check if its still checked next time it goes dark I guess

 

[Martin]

It should be enabled.