My entire Poser 9 library interface window disapeared all of a sudden. It flashes an error message, which I can't decipher. I've tried to launch at the factory setting, and rebooting, etc. But nothing seems to work. Perhaps this has already happened to someone in this community. I am hoping not to have to reinstall. I've attached a screen capture.

Any suggestions?

Either your firewall has started blocking Poser's internal communication, or you have another application running first which has stolen the required TCP port.

What has changed? Did you install any software? Did you do any updates? Did you change firewall values? Were you presented with a dialog asking permission to let Poser do something and you answered No?

Are you running AOL Topspeed? Did you ever run that in the past - maybe even years ago?

Hello? tap tap tap Is this thing on?

Sorry, I was submitting a ticket with Smith Micro.  

No, there was absolutely no new software install.  And I was not using AOL. 

Are you saying that this might be a virus protection action?

I had been playing around in the Python Script area, but I don't recall doing or enabling anything.

Not sure that I've seen this in Poser 9 but in Poser 8 I just do a reboot. This usually fixes it for me.

Not a virus but something that might seem like one to virus protection.   Poser's inter task communication between poser and the library uses ports to communicate and that can appear to be an attempt to break security.

Bill

In the Performance Tab, click the button "Resource Monitor..."

In the Resource Monitor that appears, click the "Network" tab.

Open the section called "Listening Ports".

Click on the "Port" column to sort it.

Scroll down looking for numbers beginning with 11, such as 11530, 11630.

Do you see this or something else?

TCP ports 11530 and 11630 should be open to Poser.exe or PoserPro.exe with Firewall Status = Allowed, not restricted

Notice in my screen shot, two down from Poser, is the Daz Studio content manager. I disabled that program and it is still running, refusing my instructions and trying to listen for connections.

This has nothing to do with Poser, but I thought some people might find it amusing.

OK, I'll review that. Stay tuned. Thanks for gthe advice. (Am also in contact with a tech support at Smith Micro.

I'm running Vista, and perhaps that explains why I don't see the Listening Ports option in the Resource Monitor/Network menu selection. I'm not quite sure where to look for the "Listening Ports".

Quote - Run Task Manager.

In the Performance Tab, click the button "Resource Monitor..."

In the Resource Monitor that appears, click the "Network" tab.

Open the section called "Listening Ports".

Click on the "Port" column to sort it.

Scroll down looking for numbers beginning with 11, such as 11530, 11630.

Do you see this or something else?

TCP ports 11530 and 11630 should be open to Poser.exe or PoserPro.exe with Firewall Status = Allowed, not restricted

Quote - Notice in my screen shot, two down from Poser, is the Daz Studio content manager. I disabled that program and it is still running, refusing my instructions and trying to listen for connections.

This has nothing to do with Poser, but I thought some people might find it amusing.

I DO find that very interesting....lol. Very unmannerly ;)

Laurie

Oh - Vista.

OK. Go get TCPView from Microsoft

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437

When you run it, your OS will probably ask permission like 511 times. Say yes, please.

Then sort by Local Port again, and look for Poser.exe on the two ports I listed.

This tool won't show firewall status, but it will at least show us if something else has stolen the port.

OK, that's all a bit above my pay grade but I'll gewt going on it and give a report.

Oh - Vista.

OK. Go get TCPView from Microsoft

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437

When you run it, your OS will probably ask permission like 511 times. Say yes, please.

Then sort by Local Port again, and look for Poser.exe on the two ports I listed.

This tool won't show firewall status, but it will at least show us if something else has stolen the port.

I'm running Vista as administrator. I see 4 instances of Poser.exe.  The 2 TCP instances are listening. No other process is listed under these ports.

TCP - port 11530

TCP - port 11630

UDP - port 11423

UDP - port 51608

OK. With Poser running, click this link and tell me what happens.

http://localhost:11530/apps/lms/api.py?op=appConfig

Possibilities include:

Browser error - telling you the site cannot be found or some variation.

Browser error - telling you the connection was refused.

A blank screen.

A screenful of XML.

It says: "Oops, Google Chrome could not connect to localhost:11530. I tried the same with IE and it's the same result.

===========

OK. With Poser running, click this link and tell me what happens.

http://localhost:11530/apps/lms/api.py?op=appConfig

Possibilities include:

Browser error - telling you the site cannot be found or some variation.

Browser error - telling you the connection was refused.

A blank screen.

A screenful of XML.

At first, I suspected that it might have been caused by a Windows update, and one of its "malicious software removal tool", or something like that. With this in mind, just about 2 hours ago, I restored my system back 2 days. I rebooted, but the problem persists. 

Something else to keep in mind, I have been running Vue Esprit 9, sometime concurrently with Poser 9 (with no problem). Another program that might have been in conflict is Poser 4 and 5 (yes, lol) I still have those installed and sometimes use them for quick work. 

I have been opening files saved in Poser 4 or 5 and opening them with Poser 9. I've been doing that for several weeks, with no problems or issues. 

The only problem I have encountered was the incompatibility with Vue 9 (the SDK plugin is clearly not working for Poser 9).

At this stage, I am contemplating deleting and re-installing Poser 9. Since it's a recent install. I would not be losing a lot of work. I'm not sure it would resolve the issue.

Then you have an active firewall blocking the port. The port is there but your browser cannot reach it.

Do you know how to manage your firewall configuration?

No, I don't. any advice?

I want to report that all is well, after I followed Bagginsbill's meticulous run-through of potential issues and problems.

The solution (hanging my head in shame for not thinking of this in the first place), was to allow my firewall (McAfee) to allow Poser 9 as an exception.

As far as I can tell, a new virus definition or update from McAfee last night or this morning suddenly blocked access to program file.

Actually, I never would have figured it out without Bagginsbill's patient and thorough walk-through dissection of the issues. I also learned about my own system and have a better understanding of how to troubleshoot. Thank you, thank you.

I can't remember much about Vista, and also some updates have made it closer to Windows 7.

In Win 7 I can click the start button and there's this search field where I can type what I want to do. I type (without quotes) "allow firewall" and Windows search suggests "Allow a program through Windows Firewall". I click that and it takes me to the Control Panel section:

Control Panel - All Control Panel Items - Windows Firewall - Allowed Programs

In there is a big list. Any program not listed, or missing a checkmark, will not be allowed.

I see every version I have of Poser in there with checkmarks.

Do you have all that?

It may be you're not using Windows Firewall, though. I don't know if other programs honor the control panel.

Do you know if you're using a different one? If so, why?

That's correct. I am using the McAfee firewall, not the Windows firewall. Now that I have allowed McAfee to accept Poser 9 as an exception, it seems like all is back to normal.

I hope that others are not facing similar firewall issues, due to recent updates to software virus definitions.

Thanks!

Great.

Sorry about the cross-posting there at the end. I didn't notice you'd already resolved it before my last two posts. Great job!