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New error starting 2018.2

JST

JST

Alibre Super User
I am repeatedly getting an error when starting Alibre, which prevents it working. This is new, as of 2018.2. 2918.1 did not do this,

I believe it is error 4308, SOAP authorization failed. Usually after several tries it will start up, but there seems no good reason for this to happen.

If this is due to being unable to access the internet, that is not supposed to be the case. 2018.1 would work without a connection, 2018.2 does not.
 
oldfox

oldfox

Alibre Super User
I think Alibre has to check your "key" every time you open it. If the server goes down it won't open. and there is no request to enter your key.
This happened to me yesterday. I waited a short time (minutes) and then it started working again.
 
dwc

dwc

Alibre Super User
oldfox said:
I think Alibre has to check your "key" every time you open it.
Click to expand...
I sure hope this is not the case.
I work often offline and have never had a problem with 2018.1 (the one online start every 30 days is not very limiting).
I will check 2018.2 offline this evening.
Don
 
oldfox

oldfox

Alibre Super User
Don't quote me as saying that about the key. It is just my thought. My computer is always on the internet so I don't really have any experience with "offline" work.

I'm sure someone from Alibre can chime in and give us all the definitive answer.:)
 
Serenity

Serenity

Alibre Support
Staff member
This error code references a timed out connection the the license server. It is recommended to bring the computer back online to see if the automatic connection will be successful upon the launch of Alibre. If the error persists, you will need to delete your cached license (.lic) file from the following folder (where <Windows userid> represents the name of your user account on the computer).

C:\Users\<Windows userid>\AppData\Local\Alibre Design

NOTE: the AppData folder is hidden by default in Windows, you may have to turn on Hidden Items on the View tab of File Explorer.

Once the file is deleted, launch Alibre again and enter your license key. This should re-establish the connection to the license server. If you have a node-locked license, you should be able to work offline for 30 days after this connection is made to the server.
 
Jonathan

Jonathan

Administrator
Staff member
As Serenity mentioned, Alibre Design does not require consistent internet access to use for node locked licenses.

JST - it's best to submit a support ticket when issues like this appear. Our support team could have responded much sooner and provided the fix. If every customer submitted licensing issues direct to the General Discussion forum instead of creating tickets... this would be quite a dull forum to look at :)

We have a handful of customers (less than 10) with tickets who have experienced the issue related to the 4308 code. This particular error message only shows up in support tickets 3 times this year. The rest happened last year. I believe it's a coincidence this happened to you with 2018.2...
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
It has never happened with any other version.

It started right after I upgraded to 2018.2, so I am sorry to have to tell you that yes, it IS associated with 2018.2

It happened first just one time on the second or third start after the upgrade. Then it did not happen, so it seemed no need for a ticket.

It has now happened 5 times, 3 of them in the last 15 hours. In between times Alibre has worked fine, so it HAS obviously accessed the license server, but that has NOT SOLVED THE PROBLEM.

I can open a ticket, but I am here just to figure out what the issue is.

EDIT: I have just this moment confirmed that Alibre WILL start when the internet connection is cut off (disconnected from WIFI network). So whatever a "node locked" install is, this must be one.

And , the error is NOT caused by being unable to access the internet.
 
P

pottersfriend

Member
@JST: I've had the same issues start recently as well. Initially I thought that it had something to do with internet access but I don't get any messages when I disconnect then fire up Alibre.

To me it seemed like it was happening more often right after I had parts lockup/crash while trying to rebuild to last feature but couldn't. I would then kill Alibre and try starting again, and that's when I'd get the authorization message. It would eventually start after a few tries though.

And though I agree that "Correlation does not imply causation" I'll say that I also never had this happen prior to 2018.2.

Anyway, just sharing my experiences.
 
DavidJ

DavidJ

Administrator
Staff member
I've noticed AD being slow to start over the weekend - I suspect the licensing provider may be having issues. The timeout and failure is just an extreme version. There have been occasions previously where licensing provider problems caused issues for AD users.
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
Jonathan said:
Correlation does not imply causation :)
Click to expand...

All I said was that there is correlation.... It is "associated with" 2018.2.... that's correlation.

Please do not put words in my mouth as if I blamed 2018.2, Alibre, or yourself personally. I do not, and I DID not.

But your statement is QUITE WRONG, I am sorry to say.

Correlation DOES "IMPLY" causation. It "suggests" (i.e. implies) that there is/may be causation, because if there IS causation, then there WILL BE correlation of some sort (perhaps not a correlation in time as this is). The two are related. Anyone who has done new product development and introduction knows that you need to check up and prove non-causation when things happen.

What correlation does NOT do is PROVE causation.

It may be "caused by 2018.2" simply because there are more folks updating and hitting the server. That would be a coincidental effect having nothing directly to do with the new program, for instance.

Certainly after 5 occurrences in the week following update, one is entitled to suspect some sort of causation, especially when the problem has never before occurred in several years of use. One cannot STATE that there "is" causation.

I have no idea what to even say to customer service, since there is nothing I can give as data other than "Du-uh, it gave me this error, and I dunno any more". Hardly helpful.
 
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JST

JST

Alibre Super User
The MAIN problem I see is not the error itself. What seems more serious is that the program is supposed to work even without a connection, but this error aborts the program, so that one cannot access it. THAT seems to be a considerably bigger issue than the fact that there is a problem accessing the license server.

The program WILL work if I shut off the WIFI connection before starting it, but somehow the error blocks use of the program, so in THAT case it will NOT operate. That seems wrong.

Thank You
 
Jonathan

Jonathan

Administrator
Staff member
JST,

Try running a trace route to the licensing server and let me know how many hops show "Request timed out"

To do this, navigate to Run (in Windows) and type in CMD. This will open the Command Prompt. Then type in:

tracert 166.78.76.230

Based on what you mentioned, it sounds like there may be a bad "hop" somewhere between your connection and the licensing server. This article explainshow this might affect your connection to various sites.

I used a VPN to run a trace route from many locations around the world. I am not seeing any abnormal activity. I was able to launch Alibre without issues in each of these locations.

We've had thousands of upgrades to 2018.2 already and only one other ticket related to this error code within the past 24 hours. Considering the affected persons seem to be around the same geographical location in the USA... I am thinking this is related to a network issue that may beyond our control. Fortunately, these types of issues tend to be temporary.

Normally, your computer is either connected to the internet or it is not. If there is no internet connection, Alibre simply launches. I am not sure specifically what is going on, but I am guessing there is a unstable connection that gets interrupted during the "phone home" to the license server. This may corrupt your license file - the fix is to simply reset your license file as mentioned above by Serenity. I assume if you try to launch again when connected to the internet with an unstable connection... you'll run into the same issue again as you mentioned. Resetting your license file with a stable connection and running offline should prevent the error from happening until your connection stabilizes.

This is certainly a rare issue given the small number of tickets with this error code over the past year. If you want to avoid the headaches of seeing the error message and/or launching without internet connection - shoot me an email (jonathan@alibre.com) and I'll switch you over to an offline license until the issue is resolved.

Thanks,
Jonathan
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
One timeout

Remember, I got the same thing when several states away from my primary location.... using a very different provider, so the chances of hitting the same bad hop are not super likely.

And, while I can only do one thing at a time, I saw no internet problems at the time I was locked out of Alibre. Quite the reverse.

The error should not cause a lockout. that seems to be a bug. maybe not a very often seen bug, but it is one, and in something that should not have bugs.

The error had not been "persistent", and so far it has not caused any permanent lockout.
 
Jonathan

Jonathan

Administrator
Staff member
We have a case logged for development to investigate how to prevent this from happening in the future.

There haven't been any more reports of this error code. Are you still having the issue?
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
Not for 48 hours or so. It went a week previously before repeating.

The workaround would be to just shut down the WIFI so that the S/W cannot initiate a connection, Then it cannot be interrupted by a bad hop, or an "inadvertent DDOS" due to server volume, assuming that the connection is the issue.

Is it just at startup" Would it initiate a request if the WIFI were restored after opening the program and beginning work?

Quite odd that this would NEVER have happened in all the prior time using the program, and then would happen several times in one week, from radically different locations in different US states (Ohio and Missouri).
 
DavidJ

DavidJ

Administrator
Staff member
As I mentioned above - at the weekend my AD was painfully slow to launch, but didn't get to the stage of actually failing (must have been close). It cleared up - so either internet congestion somewhere, or an unacknowledged issue at the licensing provider.

I have occasionally seen SOAP timeouts in the past - usually works OK at next attempt.

I believe the licence check is just at launch - so restoring network connection after launch shouldn't trigger problems.
 
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