Problem with RailPro Assistant Upgrade

[TwinStar]

Everything is talking again and I'm trying to update again as well. I have to purchase a PC for the Signal Suite program for my module set and will eventually migrate RPA and Sim over there as well. Trying to do this via a Mac with Parallels on a sketchy update platform is more than I can take. It really shouldn't be this difficult and wouldn't be in Ring supported OS.

[G8B4Life]

As long as you have to buy a PC for another reason as well I guess it's not the complete end of the world. I'm just glad we got it all downloaded, installed and working, even if the wireless issue (which is an everybody problem) remains. Hopefully it'll also be successful on hotel wireless too now.

I hope the HC-2 was fully charged when you started the update, when I updated I was down by just one bar from full on the meter and it almost conked out by the end of the update, was down to the very last bar!

- Tim

[Alan]

I don't know the reasons, and don't want to know either, why wireless can be troublesome for more than just RP. My wife's laptop occasionally does odd things that can be magically cured by connecting with cable. The hotel comment also rings a bell. My company supplied HP X2 works great on my home wi-fi but when on hotel wi-fi it is a crap shoot. Sometimes fine, sometimes sort of fine, sometimes no company stuff, sometimes nothing. That's when I watch HBO. 

[TwinStar]

I now have RPA and Sim working. The Sim did not recognize the CI-1 but that was fixed in the DEVICE management of Parallels. All of my LM-2S's are now updated to 2.02, my PWR-56 to 1.1, and my HC-2 is now 2.02.

Off the top I can't find the LOAD feature that I used at Lee's but I haven't dove into the specifics yet.

I tried installing the 646 ULT file just to hear it but I don't think it took. The prime move sounds just like the old 567.

As crappy as it is having only Windows support the CI-1 is equally impressive on the other end of the love/hate spectrum. This was the first time I'd ever used it and this is a wonderful addition to the RP family.

[nodcc4me]

The load feature is built in to the module in the latest software version. Just select the appropriate button picture and it should work.

[TwinStar]

The load feature is built in to the module in the latest software version. Just select the appropriate button picture and it should work.

I don't see where. There isn't anything on the screen and nothing in the setup. Am I supposed to changed a button? If so, is LOAD a light, sound, or action?

[TwinStar]

I have the stacked percentages like I saw at Lee's but nowhere is the LOAD button to adjust the actual load. I need to dig a little more apparently.

[William Brillinger]

You can check the button guide for settings, it's number 66...
https://rpug.pdc.ca/index.php/topic,480.0.html

[G8B4Life]

Well I've done some testing and research and I can confirm a couple of things, which are not good news for hotel dwellers 

RailPro software (RPA and both RPA and HC Sim installers) now use UDP instead of TCP for all internet connections. This change happened with v3.00 of RPA. What does this mean you ask? Let me explain.

UDP is a very simple protocol and as such doesn't get along well with NAT (Network Address Translation) unless the NAT routing is set up properly. NAT is what a hotel would be using to assign your computer an IP address on their network so you can use the internet.  I hardly expect any hotel to know anything about this and as such their NAT would not be dealing with the UDP packets from RP software on your computer properly. It's also why previous versions up to 2.02 worked until the new versions came out as versions up to 2.02 used TCP.

The hotels may also be blocking UDP as well, since nearly all the internet software that a guest in their hotel would need would use TCP (like your browser, which is why you could download the installer).

I should have clued onto this long ago when I noticed that RPA no longer worked in my virtual environment when NAT was selected but worked when Bridged mode was used.

In a nutshell, this means for Jacob that even if you had a windows laptop it's highly unlikely that you would have been able to install RPA in the hotel anyway. It also means that even now that RPA is installed and working you will not likely be able to connect and download anything into RPA while using a hotels internet. I would search for a test that you can run but there is really no need, if RPA can connect while in a hotel that's good, if it can't then just be assured it's the hotels doing and not yours.

- Tim

[Alan]

What do you believe is the reason why Ring would make the change? Part of his recent change server change? Speed more important than error checking?

[G8B4Life]

I couldn't even begin to guess why Tim Ring did this, except perhaps that because RPA and HC Simulator communicate to each other via UDP he just went with UDP for all. It's not the smartest decision in my book to go with UDP for the internet side of it. Between RPA and HC Sim that's fine but not for the internet.

I believe he's put some sort of error checking into the download process; there is a fair amount of data being sent back to the RE server for all data that's being received (which actually slows things down). It'd be mighty stupid of him not to include some sort of error checking, just imagine updating a HC with a corrupted file!

- Tim

[Alan]

Sending data back negates the UDP advantage over TCP. Maybe he will rethink that decision if his email volume rockets up.

[TwinStar]

Sending data back negates the UDP advantage over TCP. Maybe he will rethink that decision if his email volume rockets up.

Perhaps he should be here from time to time to hear first hand about issues with his product and customers. I'm not mad but I do think he needs a presence here.

[nodcc4me]

I doubt if he has the time to spend on here. He really is a busy guy. When I have a problem, I usually send him an email, and he almost always responds. The one exception is my CI-1 problem in another thread. I think that email probably went into his spam file, as Time Warner emails often do with other recipients.

I would suggest that any problems be reported to him directly via email.

[Josephbw]

I've been absent from this forum for some time. I came very very close to scrapping RP altogether and going with Digitrak. I tried all the suggestions from you fine folks, and got to the point that I was embarrassed to keep coming back. So I got with Tim Ring and we went round and round with suggestions that didn't work, then I just put it on the back burner as I had other issues to contend with including the death of a family member and all that entails with me being his POA.

There was one suggestion that Tim gave me that I tried when the opportunity came up, and that was to try a friends internet connection. After several vain attempts I was finally able to download the RPAssistant. Then I tried to download a sound file, and that's when I noticed that I needed to have the HC connected as well. I had to suspend that until I could make arraignments to go back to his house again.

Yesterday I had a chance to try again. With a fully charged HC, my notebook, and the USB cord, I connected to his Roadrunner WiFi, I tried again to download a sound file. Again and again my attempts to connect to RPA failed, then finally I connected. I picked a file, it showed up on the list, and after plugging and unplugging the HC at least 8 times it finally started to download the file. It SLOWLY got to 15% when I noticed that the HC said it was not connected, so I unplugged and plugged it back up and that put the stops to the whole thing. At about that time his daughter called and needed help as she had no water in the house, so he had to rescue her and I had to leave.

So that's where I stand now, only slightly less frustrated than I was before, and still without the desired results.