Topic: MC29 Won't Connect (Read 2629 times)

AlreadyFree · « **on:** March 12, 2022, 11:57:51 pm »

After downloading the newest MC29 version it fails to connect to the server to download the mp3 encoder or lav filters for video playback. I have it allowed in the firewall rules. It worked fine for previous versions.

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** March 13, 2022, 08:40:44 am »

Security software. Firewall or antivirus.

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #2 on:** March 13, 2022, 02:01:56 pm »

I have it added to the allowed list in Windows Firewall. The only antivirus I use is Microsoft Security Essentials and it tells when it blocks something and it didn't report any problems with MC29. It's weird. I can't figure it out. Like I said, it worked fine with previous versions. Is there a way to download needed plugins manually?

JimH · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2022, 05:04:57 pm »

It's probably Microsoft.

Security software often does things without telling you.

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2022, 06:39:32 pm »

I don't think so. Anytime Microsoft Security Essentials has caught a problem with an installed program or file it has popped up and asked me if I want to allow it or quarantine it. It hasn't done anything like that for MC29. And like I've already said, previous versions worked fine.

But anyway, Security Essentials doesn't have any way to exclude programs like Microsoft Defender did. So how do I work around this? Or if I can just install the mp3 encoder & LAV Filters manually that's really all I need until this bug gets worked out in MC29, how to I do that? What files do I need and where do they go?

[Edit]
Strangely I can connect to webpages within the app. So it seems that would confirm it's not being blocked by firewall. But it just won't download plugins.

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #5 on:** March 14, 2022, 04:12:53 am »

I completely turned off both Microsoft Security Essentials & Windows Firewall and I still can't download plugins. Is MC29 not compatible with Windows 7? Nothing else makes sense at this point.

Chris Li · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2022, 02:24:31 am »

I have the same problem as you。

Hendrik · « **Reply #7 on:** March 17, 2022, 11:57:00 am »

Please post a log trying to install any dependency, then we can perhaps get a better idea in which stage it fails:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Logging

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #8 on:** March 17, 2022, 12:19:57 pm »

Log attached. Attempted to switch to mp3 encoder, which needs to download, and it fails.

Hendrik · « **Reply #9 on:** March 17, 2022, 01:53:49 pm »

It reports an error creating a secure connection to the server.

Since you are on Windows 7, you may need this update:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/update-to-enable-tls-1-1-and-tls-1-2-as-default-secure-protocols-in-winhttp-in-windows-c4bd73d2-31d7-761e-0178-11268bb10392

It should be delivered through Windows Update to you automatically though.

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #10 on:** March 17, 2022, 03:43:40 pm »

I manually downloaded the windows update you suggested but it says that it's already installed. I've also already tried turning off the firewall completely (even though I've already added a rule to allow JRiver) and disabling Security Essentials. I found the url that it's trying to connect to in the log and dropping that in my browser works fine and it downloads the mp3 encoder. I unzipped it into AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 29\Plugins\mp3_encoder but JRiver still won't recognize it as installed. I read elsewhere on the forums that JRiver has to have downloaded it automatically before in order for it to register (security measures I'd assume) so I guess that's to be expected. Don't know what else to do.

There was a post several years ago from someone having the same problem and it turned out that some recent server update was the issue. Could that be the case today?

JimH · « **Reply #11 on:** March 17, 2022, 04:15:56 pm »

Are you running any other security software?

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #12 on:** March 17, 2022, 04:22:06 pm »

Windows Firewall & Microsoft Security Essentials is all. And they are both turned off.

JimH · « **Reply #13 on:** March 17, 2022, 05:18:42 pm »

If you have turned off Windows Updates, try turning them back on.

Win7 is not an OS we recommend any longer.

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #14 on:** March 17, 2022, 05:26:08 pm »

Windows Update isn't turned off. Just the firewall & security essentials, for testing.

I am using Cloudflare DNS. I just thought about that and changed the settings so that it wouldn't be used but that didn't change anything.
Is there any other settings in the wifi properties that could affect it. No other program on my computer has a problem connecting to the internet if allowed through the firewall.

Is MC29 not compatible with Windows 7? From my testing so far everything else seems to be working except downloading needed plugins. Although I can't test video playback at all because it won't download the needed LAVFilters.

Hendrik · « **Reply #15 on:** March 17, 2022, 05:31:16 pm »

MC uses the Windows functionality to access websites, and download the packages that way. This functionality is identical in MC28 and MC29.
It does however require that these functions are functional in Windows, and can access the latest security protocols to talk to secure websites, which requires updates to be installed.

Did you modify your Windows in any way, like removing certain things, like Internet Explorer, or something like that which might impact Windows functionality?

Like I mentioned above, the error we are seeing is coming from Windows, saying it cannot access the required libraries to make a secure connection to the website. It's not our code throwing any errors, it's Windows either refusing or being unable to connect.

JimH · « **Reply #16 on:** March 17, 2022, 05:31:39 pm »

Quote from: Hendrik on March 17, 2022, 01:53:49 pm

It reports an error creating a secure connection to the server.

That's your best clue.

While MC might work on Win7, we don't support it, and it's risky for you to be using.

Chris Li · « **Reply #17 on:** March 17, 2022, 08:35:36 pm »

the problem has been completely solved，Thanks!

JimH · « **Reply #18 on:** March 17, 2022, 09:17:54 pm »

Quote from: Chris Li on March 17, 2022, 08:35:36 pm

the problem has been completely solved，Thanks!

How?

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #19 on:** March 17, 2022, 10:29:29 pm »

Wow, yeah, I don't know if Chris Li had the exact same problem I had or why he's being so cryptic with the solution.

But I'm happy to say that after days of banging my head against the wall I too have finally fixed my problem with this.

At first the question of whether I'd removed Internet Explorer made me remember that when I installed MC29 it had automatically also installed Microsoft Edge at the same time and that was the only other thing that had changed. So I uninstalled that but that wasn't it. (Speaking of which though, it would be infinitely more polite if you'd ask me before you force a Microsoft Edge installation on me completely out of the blue. It's not like it's even completely essential, it's only one of several possible browser options. Meanwhile I have to spend days just figuring out how to connect to your secret secure server to get a simple working MP3 ENCODER.)

But anyway, this comment:

Quote from: Hendrik on March 17, 2022, 01:53:49 pm

It reports an error creating a secure connection to the server.
Quote from: JimH on March 17, 2022, 05:31:39 pm
That's your best clue.

was indeed my best clue. Googling that phrase led me to multiple possible solutions. But I kept seeing mention of TLS. Finally someone mentioned a similiar problem with an error creating a secure connection for a completely different website and one of the suggestions was to make sure one of the TLS options was selected in Control Panel\Internet Options. I looked in my Internet Options and TLS 1.0 was selected but there was another option for TLS 1.2. I don't know anything about TLS but I just figured the newer one would probably be better so turned TLS 1.0 off and TLS 1.2 on. Miraculously that fixed the problem completely. I've never used Internet Explorer or ever touched those settings in the 10+ years I've had this computer so those were stock settings. Like I said, I have no idea what TLS is or does or why no other program I've used has ever needed TLS 1.2 over TLS 1.0 but I'm glad I finally figured it out. Thanks for all who offered pointers.

The necessity of TLS 1.2 or over should probably be stickied or added to the FAQ or WIKI or something because I'm sure it's info that will benefit others and save a lot of frustration. I was very much on the verge of ditching MC altogether over this.

JimH · « **Reply #20 on:** March 18, 2022, 07:34:21 am »

Thanks for reporting what you found. Good to hear.

Edge is required to be able to play protected streaming content.

The TLS problem may be a product of Win7 being no longer supported. Security continues to evolve and get tighter. Microsoft no longer keeps Win7 up to date.

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #21 on:** March 18, 2022, 11:41:20 am »

I don't think needing to change one setting that already exists in the original options of Windows 7 qualifies to make it outdated. Everything else works as it should once that change is applied.

Windows 7 still remains the smoothest & least bloated Windows OS and I'm not giving in to an upgrade yet. (Once I do I'll probably have to go Linux though)

JimH · « **Reply #22 on:** March 18, 2022, 11:45:43 am »

Yeah, well ...

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #23 on:** March 18, 2022, 01:30:16 pm »

Quote from: AlreadyFree on March 18, 2022, 11:41:20 am

I don't think needing to change one setting that already exists in the original options of Windows 7 qualifies to make it outdated.

I think Microsoft already made it "outdated" when extended support ended two years ago.

Quote from: AlreadyFree on March 18, 2022, 11:41:20 am

Windows 7 still remains the smoothest & least bloated Windows OS and I'm not giving in to an upgrade yet. (Once I do I'll probably have to go Linux though)

Be that as it may, you can't expect software developers/companies in general to keep supporting Windows 7, at some point they (and everyone else) needs to fact the truth that Windows 7 is a dead operating system that no longer receives security updates and it's time to move on. In fact, a lot of software (and more importantly drivers) has already dropped support for Windows 7 some time ago. So JRiver supporting Windows 7 for two additional years after Microsoft ended extended support was pretty generous if you ask me.

So, it might be time to consider your next move sooner than later, because running Windows 7 on anything is very insecure and if you have it connected to the internet, hopefully you're aware of the risks (which I don't think is worth it at all).

AlreadyFree · « **Reply #24 on:** March 18, 2022, 04:22:01 pm »

I don't expect anything from software developers. If they want to not support Windows 7 then just state it so that it's known. But MC still works perfectly fine in all other ways on Windows 7. Just because you decided to change the TLS version required to connect to your server without stating that fact anywhere, and not even making Administrators aware of the change so that they can offer troubleshooting suggestions to anyone affected by that, doesn't make Windows 7 suddenly incompatible. The needed setting was there in the OS to be changed, it just required the knowledge that the change was necessary. Seems like a very forward-looking design for a 13-year-old OS to me.

(And I still get monthly security updates. Weekly I think for Security Essentials definitions. So that's not a concern.)

bob · « **Reply #25 on:** March 18, 2022, 04:41:05 pm »

I don't have a win7 machine any more but I can tell you that TLS1.0 has been deprecated for some time and is being removed basically from all large cloud data providers (which we use for this case).

TLS1.2 is generally used as a baseline now and TLS1.3 is being used as well.
You have to enable some level of TLS to do https to a site.

As far as windows 7 vs windows 10 goes, It's not going to make much difference to us building MC until we implement some windows 10 only API.

That said, with all the bad things floating around the internet, it would seem to be prudent to update to windows 10 to at least get security updates.

It doesn't seem significantly slower on my 9 year old Acer Aspire S3 netbook than windows 7 was. You can usually still get the update for free officially. Do a web search on that.

JimH · « **Reply #26 on:** March 18, 2022, 05:46:48 pm »

Split To Update Win7 or Not To Update

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: MC29 Won't Connect (Read 2629 times)