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[stricko]

i've lived with this problem for a while (since mc16?) but it's reached the point where the other users (the wife and kids) have given up using the system because of it.....

I have a library server and a couple of dedicated htpcs, all running w7, mc20, very clean, nothing else to get in the way. library server is set up to sleep when not in use. if i start MC from a client, manually or at start up, MC issues a wake-on-lan, library server wakes, MC connects, everything is good.

BUT, in normal use, the htpcs are meant to be in sleep mode, and controlled only through Theatre View. When woken up, the client pc wakes as it should, and there is MC exactly as it was at last use. But, the library server is still in standby, and after a while MC hangs. Only solution i've found is to reboot the client (this is the point where the wife rolls her eyes and walks away...)

I raised this issue a long long time ago, and i thought that MC was supposed to issue a wake-on-lan after a client resumes from standby. clearly in my case this is not happening.

So, trying to move forward, can i ask the following.

is my understanding of MC behaviour correct? Should it be issuing a wake-on-lan after the clent resumes?

If yes, where do i look for evidence that this is happening, or for clues as to why it isn't .....

if not, does anyone have any alternative approaches? one idea was to trigger a forced restart after the client resumes. Brutal, but would work if i could figure out how to do it.

[RoderickGI]

I believe that I see that behaviour as well. But I never have to reboot the client to make it all work again.

Usually, the easiest thing for me is just to close MC and reopen it. MC doesn't hang as long as I don't try to play anything or change the view, so I am able to close it without problems and reopen. I think I am even able to close it most times if I have tried to change views and get the spinning icon or whatever it is. Not if MC has greyed itself out though, in an apparent lock up.

Another thing to try if it is easier is just to switch to the local Main Library, and then switch back to the server library. That seems to issue wake up commands again, but I can't test it just at the moment.

It would indeed be nice if the client, on resuming from sleep, did send Wake on LAN commands to the remote server, if it is connected to a library there.

[stricko]

Phew, it's not just me.....

Agreed on the "don't play anything", back out and restart option, but it can be very slow and sometimes locks before i get far enough out to restart. bearing in mind that is all being done with just a remote, no keyboard or remote.

[stricko]

Seems like it was only last year that I was asking about this. Seems longer ago somhow.....

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=88197.0

Hendrik, give you ever get any further with this?

[csimon]

+1

[)p(]

You can execute a wol app that wakes up the server when the client wakes up from sleep/hibernation with the task scheduler using Log: System, Source:Power-Troubleshooter, Event ID: 1 to trigger it.

[stricko]

Funnily enough I was was working on exactly that when your message came in 

[)p(]

Funnily enough I was was working on exactly that when your message came in 

  I am glad it's working for you now!

[stricko]

It's probably a bit belt and braces, I've got a batch file which includes a wake on lan (mc-wol), a pause (TIMEOUT) to let the server fire up, and a MC restart just to make sure everything is refreshed.......

Fingers crossed

[csimon]

It's probably a bit belt and braces, I've got a batch file which includes a wake on lan (mc-wol), a pause (TIMEOUT) to let the server fire up, and a MC restart just to make sure everything is refreshed.......

I really think it shouldn't require the user to create Windows batch files and task scheduler items in order for the MC client/server to work properly.  This is far more geeky then having to enter a MAC address on first setup...

If anything is sleeping, MC should automatically sort itself out regardless of the circumstances, i.e. clients should not hang or otherwise be unhappy and should automatically wake up the server, regardless of whether it's been connected to via IP address or Access Key. Instances of MC should never have to be restarted, and data on clients and servers should never, ever be allowed to get out of step.

[mwillems]

Let me start by saying that I've observed this issue, clients waking from sleep already in MC don't always (or usually) succeed in waking MC.  I agree that this is something that could be done better programmatically.  So, +1

That said, there is an easy "workaround" solution to this problem which is far less geeky than batch scripts: disabling sleep on your server. People tend to enormously overestimate the amount of power that computers use at idle, and also tend to overestimate the cost of power.  

I don't let my server sleep not only because of this issue, but also for a few other hardware reasons (sound devices working funny when resuming from sleep, and networking issues).  The difference in power consumption between allowing my server to sleep and not allowing it to sleep costs me less than $1 a month, based on actual comparative measurements at the wall with a power monitoring device.

Obviously computers vary in how much power they consume, and power costs and budgets vary, but most modern computers use well less power at idle than an incandescent bulb, and some of them use less than a CFL.  You will probably save much more power by replacing light bulbs with LEDs than by letting your server sleep.  For my part, the cost is well worth it for me not to have to deal with the many frustrations that sleep entailed.  

But to reiterate, I would like to see better wake on LAN behavior in MC for a few other reasons, I just wanted to point out a non-geeky workaround.  

[stricko]

Mmmm. Two sides of the coin here. 25+ years in IT experience says don't switch it off if you don't have to. But there is also a bit of me doesn't want domestic grade kit running 24/7, especially if there is a solution which should work.

Valid arguments both ways of course, but I don't think that a piece of software (however clever in so many other ways) should require a specific non-supplied solution, especially a non user-friendly one. It just seems like an omission to me. We have automated Wake-on-LAN at startup, and restart, so the idea that a library server might be in standby is understood and accepted, but the method is not complete.

Me, I'm happy to pretend that I have some idea of how IT works in this day and age by writing the odd batch script, but I've got friends who won't go near JRiver because it's "too techie". But they are probably not core audience....

[JimH]

Me, I'm happy to pretend that I have some idea of how IT works in this day and age by writing the odd batch script, but I've got friends who won't go near JRiver because it's "too techie". But they are probably not core audience....

It would always be nice to know why they think that.

[thecrow]

I have a similar setup to the OP and I use an app call Lights-Out

http://www.homeserversoftware.com/

Installed on my systems it automatically wakes my server when needed and puts it to sleep when not being used.

It works well when resuming my HTPC from sleep by automatically waking the server.