NTL and myfamily
 

Hi, i use a website called myfamily.com. It has chat for family and a place to post pictures etc. One of the features they have is a chat room and a who's online (They both use java, don't know if that makes any difference).

My java is 100% up to date and i'm 99% sure it's not java because people with basic PCs from years gone by can access this websites features. Everyone i have asked to test this on BT can do so fine, but no-one on NTL can??? Maybe it's only cos i know one other person on NTL!?

When using the chat room and who's online features i get the following... It appears to try to connect to a server 66.43.25.128. The error message is: Error connecting to server: java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: Socket write error.

I would be eternaly grateful for some help else i shall be forced to try another ISP. It's quite important when all the family accross the world get into a chat room at one time! Please help!

I've tried searching and can't find any other posts with this issue on various search words.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Is this problem recent or long term? If it is recent, it may be the site are having problems.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Long term. I thought i would live with it. But now i realised i shouldn't have to and am trying to solve it!

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Maybe it uses a port which is being blocked by your firewall, or (less likely) is blocked by NTL?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Thats where i started, so i disabled the software firewall and and removed my router from the equation and no difference.


Don't want to blame it on NTL but i don't know where else to look at the moment!... Unless anyone has anything i can suggest trying? (I'm no techie)

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

I can't see a chat anywhere on that site ?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Sorry should have explained... you would have to create an account first associated with a family's website. Once in... you get the chat and whois options. Whois tells you who's online and chat is for scheduled family meetings.

Thanks.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

That is a timeout error, you either have something blocking it, or the connection to the site (route) is too slow.

It's possible that your anti-virus is blocking it, what have you got and can you try replicating this without it running?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

My Anti-Virus is also connected to my software firewall which is Zone Alarm Suite. So when i tested connecting to the website without the firewall my anti-virus would have closed down too. As previously said i removed the router from the equation so it isn't that either. What else could be blocking it? I use windows XP, is there anything on XP Pro that could be blocking it?
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I should have said Windows firewall wasn't running so it's not that.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

How did you disable the firewall and have you made sure that you haven't allowed ZA to create a rule that is causing problems?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

I just clicked shut down firewall and then that windows message comes up saying you have no firewall active yarda yarda yarda. I checked through Zone Alarm and there is nothing special set up, all very low security settings too

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

The proper way to disable zone alarm is to tell it not to run at windows start up (in the options for it somewhere, haven't run it for a while) and then restart the pc, when it boots up ZA will not be running. If you just close it manually quite often the service sits in the background blocking site access etc.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

OK, i just just done that and the only difference is:
It still says:
Error connecting to server: java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: Socket write error
But occasionally it says:
Error connecting to server: java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: Connection Reset
I turned off ZA as instructed and am connected directly to the modem, no router. Thanks for the continued help everyone!

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Unless we can get access to the chat to try it, then it's very hard to see what it's doing. What browser are you using ?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

IE6 SP2. Default privacy, content settings etc.

The only way someone can get access is obviously if i dish out my password to someone, but obviously thats not recommended?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

If it's the exact same error you should remember to turn your firewall back on as it's not that and you are wide open without it.
Have you tried to access the site running firefox? This would help us pinpoint wether it's a problem with IE.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

No, not a good idea, esp publicly.
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I was going to register a test user, but it seems to be a pay site, so no chance !

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Just tried with firefox and no change.

It use to be a freebie but then users abused the space allowed i think... sounds a sort of familiar tale thet eh?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

I just got my brother also on NTL to try the site (he has a newish PC) and he can't get it to work either, says exactly the same thing for him (in case that's of any interest).

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Proxy issue? :shrug:

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

I would guess so. Maybe it's trying to use port 80 with non standard / non http requests, the caches will reject these. That's why I was going to try it, and monitor the traffic, but alas, I'm not paying to test. :)

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Hi again, are there existing threads that can help with proxy issues? I don't even know what a proxy is or where to look to solve the problem. Any advice? Thanks very much!

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

There's a thread right at the top of this forum. ;)

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=19532

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Just so you know, if you're using the Sun Java VM you can specify a proxy independantly of your browser using the Java plugin icon in the control panel.
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Another thing.. can you open http://66.43.25.128/ in your browser?

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

I tested it today and it's a bit strange. The software in the browser POST's to the server, but there is something not quite right about the POST - my software does not seem to recognise it as a valid POST, and apparently neither do the ntl proxy servers - as they simply don't respond to it, and drop the connection after a short timeout.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Is there anything i can do to further this? Or will i have to change ISP to get this to work?

Thanks again for your help!

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Have you tried using both inktomi and netapp proxies? Sometimes they behave differently.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

If i had any clue what they were i would answer that question! I presume a google search will tell me more?
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Update: I did a google search and found the proxies you described, presumably i applied this right but it still didn't work. Running out of options now...

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

the link explains all about ntl proxies & how to change the settings, if you want to check - also a list of NTL proxies with the Inktomi ones tagged 'INK'

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...trancache.html

- thanks Robin :tu:

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

The list on this site is a little more up to date than Robin's now mind. I've also added to my own list which groups are definately netapp and which are inktomi (marked as trafficserver, correct when last checked)

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Have tried several of those proxies including the ones you suggested and none of them work for the who's online and chat for this website. Looks like it's off to BT i go :-(

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

This is possibly due to your PC not having the Microsoft Java client. Sometime ago MS and Sun came to an agreement that MS would remove their Java client from XP.

Now you could be using the Sun Java VM but I know the colour selection bit on the Dulux paint website does not work with the Sun JavaVM. This could be the same.

Could probably find the install of the MS JavaVM somewhere --- MS had to remove from their website.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Nice idea, :welcome: to Cable Forum :tu:

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

I have the MSJVM - as I said in my post before - there appears to be something about the POST request that is causing the cache servers to simply ignore it - and timeout the connection.

Re: NTL and myfamily
 

Didn't see any mention of the MS Java VM (only a suggestion on proxy setting for Sun Java VM). Just a thought on why long-term a Java enabled site does not work for you or your relatives newish PC. As I said a new PC will not have the MS Java VM installed.

As I mentioned, the Dulux (www.dulux.co.uk) has a Java application (called MousePaint I think). Give it a try because if that works it at least proves MS Java VM working.