Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

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universalweb
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Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by universalweb »

Hello,

I am trying the networking feature of EPIM Pro Business 8.5. I have managed to get it work in my home office network between 3 computers and one server, but now I want to be able to use the database when not in my office from the internet and therefore I used the external IP as described in the HELP : "If you connect to the server via VPN or Internet, the Server field should be filled with IP address of the server computer. In case of a VPN it should be internal VPN address, in case of Internet the external IP address"

I have set up everything right but I get the following message: Unable to complete network request to host "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

Does anyone have a solution or had experienced the same problem.

I dont think the issue is port related or firebird related since when I use my LAN network with my internal IP it works fine.

PS: I have disabled the Windows firewall on both the client and the server.

I am using a windows 7 machine as a server and a windows 10 machine as a client and I tried a windows 7 as a client but ends up to the same message

Thank you
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

You never actually said if you were using a VPN or your external IP address?

If you are using a VPN then you will probably* use your internal IP address and it should* work just like your connected to your normal network if you have it setup correctly. If this is the case you should probably let us know what tools you are using to setup the VPN.

If you are using your external IP then triple check that your port forwarding is setup correctly as that is the #1 issue with trying to get anything to connect to a server on a home LAN through an external IP. There are routers that have a lot of issues doing this properly. Historically I have ran into massive issues caused by different routers when trying to setup servers that work on the open internet. [also note that unless you are paying for a static IP address your IP can change often depending on your provider. I've had some that changed the IP address every hour...]
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by Max »

+1. Port forwarding is no.1 usual culprit in your case.
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universalweb
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by universalweb »

Yes perfect thanks a lot I managed to make it work and you guys where right it was a port related issue with the router I use. So I opened the 3050 and 3051 and now it works. But now the other problem I have is that it loads so slow. I have to wait sometimes up to 5 minutes for the database to be loaded on my client computer if I'm not using the LAN network but the WAN or the Internet. Any suggestions for that issue? If I try using linux as a server would it be faster?
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

Seems like that is going to mostly be a database size or internet speed issue.

On the database size side:

I've never looked so I'll try and setup a traffic analyzing tool to see how much of the database EPIM actually requests when it connects... If Max or an admin knows for sure though it would tell you if the database size is really going to be a major factor.



On the interned / ISP side of things:

A lot of non-business internet plans come with horrible upload speeds in an attempt to prevent people from sharing files or hosting their own servers

What's your upload speed?
[you can find out using a site like https://www.speedtest.net/]


Once we know how much of the database is sent up front you can then take that and divide by your upload speed and that will give you a theatrical idea of how long it should take to load.

Example:
If my LAN speed is 955Mb/ps [Note the little b means it is Bit not Byte.]
If my WAN/ISP Upload speed is 10Mb/ps

If my internet database is 10MB [Note the big B means it is Byte]

[1MB = 8Mb so the database would be 80Mb]

Therefore if the whole database is request at the start:

On LAN this means it would load in 0.08 seconds
On WAN It would load in 8 seconds


[Side note / Reminder: Upload speed has nothing to do with download speed. You can be paying for a Gigiabit fiber connect and still only have an upload speed of 10MB or less. This is very common practice with IPS and consumers plans.]
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
[I'm helpful and often reply to questions, however I am just a fellow user and not staff.]
MetalDrop
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

Using windows 10 task manager for a quick and dirty check.

It looks like you get parts... but I'm not sure of what kind of parts since this is really quick. XD
On a database that is 114MB it sent 2.9MB at start [Notes only nothing else DB]
On a database that is only 6MB it sent 700KB on start [Notes only nothing else in the DB]

WAN upload of 10Mb would then mean:
2.9MB x 8 / 10Mb/ps = 2.32 seconds
700KB x 8 / 10Mb/ps = .54 seconds

Extra side note:
It's not uncommon for consumer upload speeds to be 1Mb/ps or even below for home internet. Most DSL for example is still only 500Kb/ps and a lot of satellite providers cap you out at 256Kb/ps

Cellphones on the other hand normally have faster upload speeds because they want you to have a good experience uploading your photos and videos to social media and the cloud.

My cellphone actually has a 50Mb/ps upload which is faster then it's download speed.
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
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MetalDrop
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

Just for fun I tossed my 15GB encrypted email/contacts database on the network and connected to it.

Task manger shows that at start up it grabs 3MB and then grabs chunks of about 1MB~3MB every time I click on an email folder or scroll down a bit.

So database size seems to hit an upper limit pretty fast for effecting just startup time it would seem.
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
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universalweb
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by universalweb »

I once more managed to make it work and now it's normal load speed time since what I did is not only I've created a virtual server (NAT) inside my modem/router with the IP of my server computer and the ports 3050 and 3051 being as EXTERNAL/INTERNAL but I have also changed firebird.conf file.

I've uncommented the RemoteServicePort and the RemoteAuxPort and set those to 3050 and 3051 respectively. By doing this I was able to connect from a client computer to the server computer much more faster (less than 4 seconds) but problem is now that when I connect a few minutes later my internet connection disappears and my modem/router reboots. I've communicated with my ISP to try figuring out the problem. I've upgrated the software on the modem/router and again same goes on. Connection is lost after a few minutes especially when trying to connect simultaneously two clients to the same server. I don't know if switching those two ports inside the firebird.conf file is something that could trigger that but it's very strange to me. In terms of speed it's very fast now but the problem with the signal being lost and the modem/router rebooting is very strange.
If I change back he firebird.conf file ( RemoteServicePort and RemoteAuxPort) to default options the connection stays normal but the load speed of the database on the client computer from the server is extremely slow.
Does that make any sense, am I not getting something right here?

Again I use a Windows 7 mahine as a server and another two windows 7 computers as clients and one windows 10 as a client too. My modem/router is a Smart/RG brand.
In your opinion would that be a problem with the modem/router or with the network configuration?
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

Are you running both an Internet and LAN server at the same time on the same system?

Some servers/routers/NICs/Drivers have issues handling cross traffic on the same ports to the same computer through different IP addresses.

That's about the only thing that comes to my mind... Though it could certainly be just a weird router OS / firmware issues too.
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
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universalweb
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by universalweb »

Yes I guess it's both a LAN and an INTERNET server running and this might be the issue. I will try with another port other than 3050 and I will also try to connect from outside actually and not from the location where I am having the network and see if that is going to change anything. Hopefully it will, but as you're saying it could also be an issue with handling cross traffic from the ROUTER. I could try to add and actual router because right now I am using a device that is a router and a modem combined together.
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

If it's really cross traffic you have to figure out how to get things going to a single IP to a single server.

You may actually look into setting up a VPN as they help you bypass a lot of strange things like this.

The only real reason you would want to go with a server directly exposed to the WAN vs a VPN is if you are sharing with other people or planning to access the server from computers you can setup a VPN on.

A good example:

Direct exposure is good for web servers where you want any public person you give a link to, to easily come and look at the web page or otherwise interact with the server. [Which FYI with an exposed firebird server you really need to change the default system account from SYSDBA to something else and use a strong password. It will be under attack from a botnet at some point.]

A VPN is good for LAN gaming where you only want your friends accessing the server so you can play with them or if it's just a server you are using for your own private use on computers you have control over and can setup the VPN on.
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
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MetalDrop
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Re: Getting: Unable to complete network request to host

Post by MetalDrop »

MetalDrop wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:20 pm If it's really cross traffic you have to figure out how to get things going to a single IP to a single server or how to run two separate servers on different ports.

You may actually look into setting up a VPN as they help you bypass a lot of strange things like this.

The only real reason you would want to go with a server directly exposed to the WAN vs a VPN is if you are sharing with other people or planning to access the server from computers you can't setup a VPN on.

A good example:

Direct exposure is good for web servers where you want any public person you give a link to, to easily come and look at the web page or otherwise interact with the server. [Which FYI with an exposed firebird server you really need to change the default system account from SYSDBA to something else and use a strong password. It will be under attack from a botnet at some point.]

A VPN is good for LAN gaming where you only want your friends accessing the server so you can play with them or if it's just a server you are using for your own private use on computers you have control over and can setup the VPN on.
EPIM Portable Pro Running/Tested On: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit US-ENG|i5-6400+Quadro P620|i7-7700K+1050ti|i7-8700K+970GTX|AMD 5600x+1080ti|16GB+RAM&NVMe SSDs
[I'm helpful and often reply to questions, however I am just a fellow user and not staff.]
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