Port Enablement: Can't See Client

[slapidus]

While several people have reported problems with getting Retrospect to see other clients on a LAN, one common solution thread has been: "Make sure port 497 is open for UDP and TCP access."

 

Can someone outline how this is done? Is this a Windows or router setting?

 

Thanks.

 

Steve

[jhg]

Where that is done depends on how your network is structured and what

devices are between the two computers. For two systems in the same network

segment, you would have to ensure that any firewall software on both systems

was configured to allow the traffic. If you're running XP SP2 you'll have to ensure

that the builtin firewall is setup correctly.

 

Maybe you could post some more information about your configuration?

[slapidus]

Thanks for your post.

 

I'm actually setting this up on my friend's system. He bought Retrospect v7.0 on my recommendation and now I'm tasked with getting it to work. :-)

 

He has two systems on a LAN, connected through a Linksys router. The server is running XP SP2 and has the firewall enabled. It's also running Norton Antivirus.

 

The client machine is ME. I don't believe it has either antivirus software or a firewall (it's not used for Internet access; only function is to provide a hard drive for backup the server.)

 

What other information can I provide?

 

Thanks for your offer to assist/explain. I look forward to your response.

 

Steve

[awnews]

As step one, turn off the XP SP2 firewall (Security Center, Firewall off) on the server and see what happens. If you're behind a NAT router on a LAN you don't really need the thing anyway.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/internet/sp2_wfintro.mspx

 

If you want to leave it on and play with the exception settings, try:

http://kb.dantz.com/display/2/searchDirect/?searchString=ports&searchType=allwords&searchby=keywords&r=0.81271

and

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/internet/sp2_wfexceptions.mspx

 

and get rid of the firewall warning bubble:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/internet/sp2_disablescalerts.mspx

[jhg]

Try this:

 

Configure/Clients

 

Add..

 

Click the "Test" button and enter the IP address of the client and click OK

 

If this is successful it's an indication that the multicast ("Piton") protocol

used by Retrospect isn't making it from server to client. If this test is

unsuccessful, then it's time to debug basic network connectivity and

firewall.

 

Can you ping the server from the client and vice versa?

[slapidus]

GoAWest:

 

1. I added port 497 TCP & 497 UDP to the Windows' Firewall Exceptions. No luck.

2. I disabled the Windows' Firewall entirely. No luck.

3. I disabled Norton AntiVirus. No luck.

 

jhg:

 

a. I went into Retrospect | Configure | Clients and executed the Test Address. Works fine.

b. XP server successfully pinged ME client.

c. ME client successfully pinged XP server.

 

I'm now reading from my cryptic notes from today's testing and I may not have all the syntax correct.

 

- At one point the backup issued the following error message: Can't access server using the given username and password, error - 1116 (can't access network volume)

 

- I went into Configure | Client | Properties. The Status was "Not Connected." I then hit the Refresh button. Status now reads: "Connected." [Note: If the Connected were present from the beginning, the scheduled backup would work!]

 

- I went into Configure | Client | Properties. Got to a screen that said, "Enter Network Password" then "Server Login"

 

Connect As:

Password:

 

I'm not sure what to enter here and tried a number of combinations. I tried entering the "Server Name, Client Name, Administrater's Name." No luck. I had previously assigned a username and password to the client, so I tried that also. No luck.

 

I think I've tried everything that everyone suggested, so where do I go from here? Any suggestions or comments are appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

xSteve

[natew]

Hi

 

Were you logged in as administrator when you installed the client software? You should not be getting this prompt when you look at the client properties.

 

Thanks

Nate

[slapidus]

Nate,

 

ENVIRONMENT

The Server is XP SP2; the Client is ME. We're trying to automate backing up the Server onto the Client. There are no problems when we manually initiate the Backup; however, the Scheduled Event cannot find the Client.

 

ME CLIENT

The ME Client is a virgin system. Prior to installing Retrospect V7.0 Client, I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled ME. Other than Retrospect, no other software has been loaded onto the ME system. There is only one user account defined and it obviously has Administrator rights.

 

XP SERVER

The XP SP2 Server is running Retrospect V7.0. Under all manual situations, it has no problem seeing the Client and in backing up. However, the scheduled incremental backups on Fridays, and the Recycled backups every four weeks initiate successfully, but get hung up when it looks for the backup sets on the ME system. The message is that the Client is "not connected." But, when I hit the Refresh icon, the client status changes to "connected."

 

Steve

[slapidus]

I've been chasing this problem for over a month now, and have had the problem escalated to Retrospect engineering by two different tech support reps. Unfortuntely, no one has a clue as to why this doesn't work. In total and complete frustration, the person I've been assisting has thrown up his hands, and thrown out his old system. He's buying an external hard drive to facilitate backup and recovery. Perhaps this should be an option when you purchase a Retrospect license ... buy one license, get a new external hard drive for free!

[natew]

Hi

 

Quote:

---

We're trying to automate backing up the Server onto the Client.

 

---

 

Sorry to be picky but I want to be sure I understand this.

-You are using the "backup" feature in Retrospect (not "duplicate")

-You want to save data from the XP machine on the ME client machine.

 

Is this correct?

 

If that is the case you cannot use Retrospect Client to access the windows ME machine. You need to access the ME machine via windows filesharing.

 

Thanks

Nate

[slapidus]

Nate,

 

Please don't feel you're being picky as it's often the details that determine the problem and hopefully the resolution.

 

>>You are using the "backup" feature in Retrospect (not "duplicate")

We are using Backup, not Duplicate.

 

>>You want to save data from the XP machine on the ME client machine

We are attempting to Backup the XP machine onto the ME client's hard drive.

 

>>If that is the case you cannot use Retrospect Client to access the windows ME machine.

>>You need to access the ME machine via windows filesharing.

 

I'm not sure I completely understand this point. We have written scripts to Backup the XP machine onto the ME machine. We can execute the scripts manually, i.e., immediate incremental and recycled backups, but when the scripts are "scheduled" they do not execute, i.e., they Prepare, Scan and begin Executing, but when they try to access the ME machine they simply hang, apparently unable to find it.

 

From the XP machine, the ME hard drive is mapped as the Z drive. Are you suggesting that we direct the scripts to the Z drive and avoid all the Retrospect Client "stuff?" I can see the logic in this, but want to make sure that I completely understand your suggestion. Please confirm. Thanks.

[natew]

Hi

 

OK - this makes sense now.

 

You cannot use Retrospect client to do this. The only way to get the backup data on to the windows ME machine is via Windows file sharing.

 

Another important thing to note is you must use a "disk" backup set to do this. "file" backup sets will fail due to file size limitations on ME.

 

You must enter an administrator user name and password for the XP machine in the Retrospect security preferences. If you don't automatic backups will always fail.

 

So to clarify:

Are you using a "disk" backup set?

Have you entered information in the Security preferences for Retrospect?

 

Thanks

Nate

[slapidus]

Nate,

 

It looks like we're doing all the wrong stuff! :-(

 

>>Are you using a "disk" backup set?

Yes, we're doing "Disk" backup sets. [interesting note to anyone listening. In one of our many marathon phone conversations with Tech Supp, they suggested I change to File backups; however, when that didn't work I changed it back to Disk. This is not a knock against Tech Supp because I feel they make a great effort to help as best they can with the information available.]

 

>>Have you entered information in the Security preferences for Retrospect?

I don't believe we've entered anything on this screen. We're running under the default setup: Run Retrospect as the Logged-in User.

 

Steve

[slapidus]

Hi Nate,

 

Well, this should be my last comment on this thread. Thanks for all your help and assistance.

 

1. I tried going in to the Security screen and changing the userid, password, etc., but couldn't get it to work after three tries. I didn't spend much time trying to diagnose this problem and moved on.

 

2. Ignoring the Client backup approach previously reported, I scheduled backups to the ME machine via the shared drive. It worked perfectly.

 

3. Having spent six weeks trying to get this scheduled backup to work from XP onto the ME client, my friend purchased an external hard drive. We attached it via his USB port and I redefined the backup sets and rewrote all the scripts. Everything is running fine and he's getting rid of his ME system, which is what he should have done in the first place.

 

Steve