Because I still have all the problems I have always had with syncing over USB with 2.0b7 I decided to give up on USB finally and use Ethernet instead. I have used Ethernet to sync before using the office LAN, but I hadn't tried it at home before.

So I plugged my Mk2a into my home LAN and tried to sync. It didn't work. I tried first letting the empeg get it's address via DHCP, which worked (i.e. it got the right address but the sync didn't work). I later reverted to a fixed IP address to see if that would help, it didn't.

I have tried choosing both "network broadcast" and "specific address" in emplode but neither worked. I could quite happily ping the empeg from all the other machines on my network, so I was puzzled that it wasn't working. I fired up Ethereal to see what was going on. What I discovered was that no data was being sucessfully transmitted onto the network by emplode at all.

The next thing I did was turn on the logging in emplode, here are the results.

Using "broadcast":

12:30:48.793 emplode.cpp(178) : I [08dc] Starting emplode version 2.0-beta7a

12:30:48.904 EmplodePlayerTemplate.cpp(59) : I [08dc] CEmplodePlayerTemplate::Attach

12:30:48.964 Binding to 0.0.0.0:8300

12:30:48.974 Found interface '212.135.232.130'

12:30:48.974 Trying to broadcast packet on address '212.135.232.143'

12:30:48.974 Failed to broadcast packet on interface '212.135.232.130'

12:30:48.974 Found interface '212.135.232.130'

12:30:48.974 Trying to broadcast packet on address '212.135.232.143'

12:30:48.974 Failed to broadcast packet on interface '212.135.232.130'

Using "specific address":

12:32:07.957 emplode.cpp(178) : I [0970] Starting emplode version 2.0-beta7a

12:32:08.087 EmplodePlayerTemplate.cpp(59) : I [0970] CEmplodePlayerTemplate::Attach

12:32:08.148 connection_win32.cpp(1058) : W [094c] connect() failed: 10061

12:32:08.158 connection_win32.cpp(1058) : W [094c] connect() failed: 10061

12:32:08.158 connection_win32.cpp(1058) : W [094c] connect() failed: 10061

12:32:08.168 connection_win32.cpp(1058) : W [094c] connect() failed: 10061

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going wrong ?

Trust me, I feel your pain. I have had my EMPEG for a year now and it is awesome. Just the whole synching thing is really a downer. I still do not understand why it can not do 18GB of synching at one time. I can transfer 18GB via FTP to a system on my local network without problems so I would think EMPEG could do their transfer and synching without problems. I do not care if it takes all night, I just want to start it and not worry about it failing after a random number of tunes. Yes I am sure it is more complex but still since the only way to get files onto the system is to synch, I would think that would be the top thing to have work flawlessly.

With b7 I am having much better luck at synching via ethernet. Although it seems as if u let emplode sit there overnight and it does not do anything, it can no longer connect to the player. I did this last night. Synched 2 albums worth of songs, then I went upstairs to take care of other things and just let it sit there. This morning I could not do anything else to the EMPEG without powering down the EMPEG.

I gave up on USB because it is slower and it has too many problems.

I know this does not help you...sorry...

Your problems are very strange; certainly with 1.03 I've done large (ie, 20GB+) syncs in one go with no problems, over both USB and Ethernet.

The sync protocol is not really designed for ethernet though; there is an extension which uses a separate socket connection to send the file data (much like FTP) but there is still plenty of unnecessary work going on - the sync protocol itself deals with a lossy, error-prone link (eg, USB with flaky usb slave controllers like...errr... most of them).

Hugo

I have discovered what the problem was, it was a conflict with the firewall (Tiny Firewall) on my desktop machine. The firewall software should have prompted me when emplode tried to connect to the unit and asked if I wanted to create a rule to allow it. For some reason it was not giving me this prompt. When I went in an added an explicit rule myself it worked fine.

Problem solved, now to see if Ethernet syncs are anymore robust using this machine that USB syncs are...

My problems with USB syncing have been on going. I have always had problem with large syncs on my Mk1 (and now on my Mk2a), I have supplied long log files on many occasions to try and identify the issues.

The issues do get resolved in the end, but then I just move onto the next thing that makes large syncs fail...

There has been the odd build of emplode where the problems only happened fairly rarely, but I have just had to accept that I have to do small syncs. It just seems that emplode/empeg doesn't like my USB setup.

I'm not surprised that it is possible to find a machine that doesn't like large syncs with USB, the USB standard is just too new (compared to things like Ethernet) to expected to be 100% reliable on all machines/software.

I'm sure if empeg had been around in the early days of Ethernet then someone would be having similar problems to me with their Ethernet syncs. Anyway, I'm trying a large Ethernet sync now on my Mk2a, expecting it to be somewhat more robust.

Well, I'm pleased to report that the Ethernet sync went perfectly (and about 3 times as fast as any USB sync I have done). That's the last time I bother with USB, for my Mk2 at least...

In reply to:

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Your problems are very strange; certainly with 1.03 I've done large (ie, 20GB+) syncs in one go with no problems, over both USB and Ethernet

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I always get the strange problems. Ask Dave Moss...Emplode suddenly refuses to work (it locks up right after the 'finding player' dialog box shows up) on my PC at work but works fine at home. I even uninstalled and installed b7 and it still dies...

As for the 20GB transfers...you are Hugo of EMPEG so of course it all works for you!!! I am lucky if I get 650MB transferred over in one go. Whether it is USB or Ethernet. Now I do have an AMD CPU (TBird 800) which some people have alluded to as being the culprit. I just can not see how. Maybe you guys could compile an 'Optimized for AMD' version of Emplode. I know compilers can do it for Intel CPUs but not sure about AMD.

Oh well...as long as I get some synchs completed I will not be too upset...

Glad to hear your ethernet synch problems are taken care of.

For the record, the "firewall" suggestion is specifically in the FAQ, under the heading about ethernet.

Now I do have an AMD CPU (TBird 800) which some people have alluded to as being the culprit.

More likely, it's a problem with the USB drivers for that motherboard. That's my guess. You might want to check the website of the motherboard manufacturer and see if they have updated USB drivers.

The fact that you've got one computer which works fine (your work machine), and another computer which does not, seems to support this theory.

It must be a more general problem than that (or two separate problems):

I am lucky if I get 650MB transferred over in one go. Whether it is USB or Ethernet.

In reply to:

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It must be a more general problem than that (or two separate problems)

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The thing is that currenty my work PC (which is Intel P3 sorry for the confusion in the first post) is the one where Emplode just locks up. I sent a log to Dave Moss for 2.0b3.

My home PC is the AMD and it is working so far via Ethernet on 2.0b7 (except for the overnight issue i mentioned). I have not tried a large transfer yet and I have not tried USB yet. I have also downloaded all USB patches/etc. for my mainboard (ABIT KT7-RAID).

I will try 650MB tonight. If that works I will try 1.3GB transfer and work my way up till my drive is full...but if I get 1.3GB at once I will be much happier!

In reply to:

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As for the 20GB transfers...you are Hugo of EMPEG so of course it all works for you!!! I am lucky if I get 650MB transferred over in one go. Whether it is USB or Ethernet.

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when i initially loaded my collection onto the player, i was able to sync 40GB in a single attempt over ethernet. i've done many smaller syncs since then, and never had a failure.

--dan.

A chipset problem is a possibility with USB syncing, but not really with ethernet; we did know of an AMD K6 chipset(?) that had problems early on, but not really aware of any others. v2.00 is more flaky than 1.03 though - it's beta software.

Hugo

I sync'd almost exactly 18GB of music to my player at the weekend (using Ethernet) in one session and it worked fine.

There is a known problem with restarting the player, but the sync is complete by that stage.

Rob

Now I do have an AMD CPU

For months I had the same problems you are having, as best we could figure related to my AMD K6-2 processor. I think the problem pretty much disappeared for me, though somewhere around software version 1.03.

There was a pretty long discussion of this starting here.

tanstaafl.