[biscuit]

It seems that Proteus isn't working today

The website for it is also down.

So it seems that the program is 'dialling home' whenever it launches and now that the wesite is offline the app won't work. Seems a few folks at VT noticed this too, anyone here know anything about it?

While I think Proteus is a fantastic application and the best of the IM Clients (on any platform), I reckon this was a very bad thing to implement. I'd say so in the User forums but they're down too

biscuit

[proton]

When Proteus starts up it sends a DNS request for www.indigofield.com so that it does not attempt to connect when you aren't connected to the internet. Kinda useful for those of us who are on modems and don't want it connecting when we aren't on the internet.

Unfortunately it also has the side effect of making Proteus unusable when the DNS servers for www.indigofield.com are unreachable, as they currently are.

You can make Proteus work temporarily by making a fake DNS entry on your machine for www.indigofield.com.

WARNING: If you mess things up in NetInfo Manager you can screw your Mac. You have been warned.

1. Open NetInfo Manager in your Utilities folder.
2. Unlock NetInfo Manager by clicking the lock in the lower left corner and entering your administrator password.
3. In the machines section, click "localhost" and then the Duplicate button in the toolbar.
4. Edit the "name" attribute of the duplicate to read www.indigofield.com
5. Choose Save Changes from the Domain menu.

Now you'll need to tell lookupd to look up the NetInfo database before it looks up DNS. If you are on a modem, open up Proteus before you go onlie and you won't need to do this.

From the terminal:
Note that the % and # characters are just indicating that this is the terminal prompt.

Get a root shell WARNING: Messing with root can be dangerous to your health, as well as your Macs:
% sudo -s
Now make sure the /etc/lookupd directory exists
# mkdir -p /etc/lookupd
And add to the hosts config:
# echo LookupOrder CacheAgent NIAgent DNSAgent >> /etc/lookupd/hosts
And restart lookupd:
# kill -HUP `cat /var/run/lookupd.pid`

Now fire up Proteus and it should work.

While this entry is in place you may have problems connecting to www.indigofield.com even when it comes back online, so you had better remove, or rename the entry before trying the website. Maybe rename it to www.indigofield.kom or something :-)

Note: when it comes back online you can remove the www.indigofield.com entry from your NetInfo database, and the /etc/lookupd/hosts file and /etc/lookupd directory if you haven't made any other customisations there yourself. A default Jaguar install doesn't have an /etc/lookupd directory at all.

- proton

[edit: added information on changing lookupd order and note about removing the modifications]

[Phoenix1701]

Oops. Never mind, better explanation was provided while I was typing.

[biscuit]

Thanks for the tip proton, I'll give it a try in a mo.

I can see that checking for a net connection before signing in would be useful to dial-up users, but isn't there another way to do it? One that doesn't rely on an external server like indigofield.com?

I suppose my first post was a little stern, but it just made me think of spyware, that was all. I should have realised it'd be something a bit more innocent, the developer doesn't strike me as the voyeur type...

biscuit

update: Didn't seem to do the job for me, maybe because I trashed my Proteus prefs? Anyway, maybe I'll just wait until the server is back up, messing with NetInfo makes me nervous.

[honz]

Would this have anything to do with why some of my msn contacts don't receive the messages I send them? I always have to end up quiting Proteus and switching to the real msn =[

[proton]

Originally posted by biscuit:
<snip>
I can see that checking for a net connection before signing in would be useful to dial-up users, but isn't there another way to do it? One that doesn't rely on an external server like indigofield.com?
<snip>

Well probably the easiest way to fix this will be to change the lookup to try multiple sites. Say do a lookup on www.apple.com as well. Better to try two sites than just one, and www.apple.com is very unlikely to have all it's DNS servers knocked out at once. (They have 4 DNS servers in the US, on two different subnets, 1 in Europe and 1 in Asia).

- proton

[proton]

Originally posted by honz:
Would this have anything to do with why some of my msn contacts don't receive the messages I send them? I always have to end up quiting Proteus and switching to the real msn =[

This is most likely a bug in either Proteus' interactions with the open source MSN library it uses to communicate with MSN, or a bug in the MSN library itself.

When the site comes back it might be an idea to look through the forums to see what people have said about this problem, someone else will probably have at least found the problem, and maybe a solution.

The forums are at http://www.indigofield.com/forums

- proton

[honz]

Thanks Proton, I'll check it out when the site comes back up

[Jerommeke]

It is really weird. I messaged Justin and the even didn't say a single thing. Oh man, it wouldn't be true we have to live with FIRE all life long, isn't it?

[biscuit]

There isn't a way we can hack some plists or something to change the url to apple.com as proton suggests is there?

I suspect Justin is asleep maybe? Isn't it about 6 am in the states or something?

biscuit

[proton]

Originally posted by biscuit:
There isn't a way we can hack some plists or something to change the url to apple.com as proton suggests is there?

I suspect Justin is asleep maybe? Isn't it about 6 am in the states or something?

biscuit

Unfortuantely, the address to lookup appears to be embedded in the application binary itself.

You'll have to get Justin to make the application lookup more sites. Maybe we could convince him to put it in a plist that we could edit ourself if it happens again...

BTW biscuit, you might want to look at my earlier post again, I edited it to add instructions on changing lookupd's search order, you'll probably need to do that.

- proton

[biscuit]

Thanks for the update proton. Before I attempt this, I just want to check how to put things back to rights in lookupd. Or is that not necessary?

Anyway, I assume I type:

⁄# echo LookupOrder CacheAgent DNSAgent NIAgent >> /etc/lookupd/hosts

Or is that all irrelevant?

The MSN client won't connect now, so I really need Proteus back!

Cheers,

biscuit

[JustinWood]

Wow, I don't even know where to start.
First of all, I'm really sorry for the downtime on the website, normally it wouldn't be that much of a big deal, but it seems to have unearthed quite a bug.

Here's the scoop on why it isn't work, and whats going on. When an account connects it tests for network connectivity (a good network connection) before it attempts to connect, quit similar to what Mail.app does, as well as iChat.

The problem here is when I was writiting and testing this code I was trying a number of things out to make sure it worked.

Upon inspection of the line of code that does the checking for you, I think most of you will see the problem we have right now.

Code:
    return [[NetworkController sharedInstance] isNetworkUp]&& [[NetworkController sharedInstance] isHostReachable: @"www.indigofield.com"];

Now, what this means is it checks to see if the network is active (don't worry about this part.. just a magic function basically!) and the second part checks to see if www.indigofield.com is live. Now I'm not quite sure why I was doing this, but it was probably to test out my "isHostReachable" function.

As you can see, this is where the problem is, indigofield.com isn't responding, so it won't connect.

I've fixed this now, and am just trying to fix one more bug I have with message layout, then I'll release a patch on this board sometime soon (in an hour or so). I'm told that my site will be back up pronto, but my host had some serious problems with some network upgrades.

I've been reading a couple posts from people with concerns about privacy issues and I ican understand the concern. I can't do much more than to say that no information at any time (other than to ICQ servers, AIM servers, and the other IM servers) is sent off -anywhere-, especially to indigofield.com. There is no 'call' home for piracy check, no spyware to track usage. This was just a piece of old code left in by me that checks to see if a website is online.

As prescribed here you can change your hosts file to get indogifle.com to point to somewhere else and all will work just fine. Had some sort of spyware been in effect, a simple switch of servers might not have been enough since it would not be getting the necessary information from say, macnn.com.

Again, I'm really sorry about this, and I'll answer any questions people have to offer, but in the meantime I'm hitting the code and trying to nail this one last bug so I can put a temporary build up for you.

- Justin

[proton]

Originally posted by biscuit:
Thanks for the update proton. Before I attempt this, I just want to check how to put things back to rights in lookupd. Or is that not necessary?

Anyway, I assume I type:

⁄# echo LookupOrder CacheAgent DNSAgent NIAgent >> /etc/lookupd/hosts

Or is that all irrelevant?

The MSN client won't connect now, so I really need Proteus back!

Cheers,

biscuit

To clean up lookupd when you're finished, just do
# rm -r /etc/lookupd

That directory doesn't exist on a standard install of Jaguar, so unless you've installed something that plays with lookupd removing it will be fine. Check there are no other files in there first if you want to be sure:
# ls /etc/lookupd

Then restart lookupd:
# kill -HUP `cat /var/run/lookupd.pid`

- proton

[biscuit]

Justin: Glad to see you've got this figured out; I await the new build with baited breath. Sorry if I made it seem like I thought it was spyware, I just was annoyed that it wasn't working.

proton: Thanks for all the help, but I think I'll wait for the patch....

Panic over, the world can return to normal...

biscuit

[JustinWood]

Ok, I have a temporary build all set up and hosted on my .Mac.

Before downloading, please heed this. This version is -not- ready for popular consumption. I've been messing around with draw stuff left right and centre. If anyone has been following in my forums then they will know what I'm talking about, if not, then just take warning, its all new.

There is a near finished Message window layout, so far I know of 1 bug with it that causes it to not layout properly, this can be fixed with a little resize of the window though, so nothing too serious. I haven't tested the new code for lack of memory leaks, so it might be a memory hog, I'm not sure.

The classic window layout as of this version has not been rewritten so you're stuck with the new message layout. I know this will cause some friction as people don't like the pretty setup and prefer just text, but just give me time, I'll have it back.

There are quite a few bug fixes rolled into this, and probably quite a few bugs too. So please, hold back on the massive bug reports for a little while and if it crashes on you, sorry, thats what its like to grab one of my pieces of code mid-work

That all said, it works pretty well so best of luck.. Here's the link

Proteus VERY Test Version

Please only link to this forum if you're trying to tell others about it. I'd prefer people just waited until later this afternoon when the site starts up again, but if you need a working version now, feel free to use this.

Sincerely,
- Justin

[KidRed]

Yep, mine isn't working here either. Bummer, I guess I'll use ICQ instead. Glad i saw this thread, I wouldv'e played with proteus for hours trying to figure it out.

[iNeusch]

This test version is great ! Work so fine

[kefka]

My client was left on all night and was dead when I woke up. It seems its more than just a start-up connection if you ask me.

[twong]

The Development version has fixed things! Thanks Justin!

[Lucidwray]

Wow! for a test build, im impressed. I like the new message format. Thanks Justin for creating such a awesome program overall!

Keep up the good work.

[Cory Bauer]

Justin,

Thank you VERY much for the fixed version! I was freaking out this morning when Proteus wouldn't work!

I really love the way names and time stamp are displayed in this new version too! It's great!!

Thanks Again!

[Hennker]

Kefka: Only because your client was running all night doesn't mean the account was connected all night. And if there was a disconnection, for what ever reasons there may be (24h kick, ...) the account will reconnect, and i guess the specified code will be executed.

Hennker

[Gul Banana]

Thank you very much, Justin, for fixing this problem promptly. I admit that at first, I was extremely irked by what I saw as a single point of failure in Proteus - I thought that it was such bad design that I might as well switch to Fire. Having found out that it was just a simple bug, though, and having actually attempted to use Fire for the past 24 hours, there's no chance of my switching away any time soon, and I'll be registering as soon as there's a finished version

[OwlBoy]

Thanks for the help Justin, your a great guy.

I also wanted to let you know I love the new message layout and reply consept a lot.

And those contact list mock-ups people were making were starting too feel pretty groovy too

-Owl

[RevEvs]

really like the new message look.... keep up the good work!

[andretan]

Originally posted by JustinWood:

**snipped**
That all said, it works pretty well so best of luck.. Here's the link

Proteus VERY Test Version

Please only link to this forum if you're trying to tell others about it. I'd prefer people just waited until later this afternoon when the site starts up again, but if you need a working version now, feel free to use this.

Sincerely,
- Justin

It's a test app right? When will we see a fixed version?

(If Proteus had file transferring features, I'd dump ICQ in an instant. I look forward to see an update soon )

Cheers,
Andre

[Sarc]

please correct me if wrong, but isn't OS X sopposed to support a "Hosts" file similar to the one seen in OS 9 ?
This would be much simple than messing with NetInfo, IIRC the format was something like,
undesired.ip.number A new.ip.number
or something like that ...

anyone ?

[nythe]

Yup .. that's what I did. Making an entry in the hosts file is orders of magnitude easier. You just edit a file.

Open Terminal.
Type "sudo pico /etc/hosts".
Add a line "127.0.0.1 www.indigofield.com".
Hit ctrl-x.
Hit y.
Hit enter.
Fire up Proteus!

When the new version comes out [or you want to get to indigofield.com ], remove the line.

[Sarc]

Originally posted by nythe:
Yup .. that's what I did. Making an entry in the hosts file is orders of magnitude easier. You just edit a file.

Open Terminal.
Type "sudo pico /etc/hosts".
Add a line "127.0.0.1 www.indigofield.com".
Hit ctrl-x.
Hit y.
Hit enter.
Fire up Proteus!

When the new version comes out [or you want to get to indigofield.com ], remove the line.

thx, thoguh it was easier