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Why is there a connection to akamaitechnologies.com when starting TestStand?

Hello,

when i am starting TestStand with my custom C#-Userinterface using the appMgr.Start() i get an exception (attached).

Windows/TestStand is trying to connect to an IP which belongs to akamaitechnologies.com.

I think this Domain has someting to do with the Windows Update.

Problem is now: This computer has no internet.

So i have a timeout while this happens before TS can start.

 

How can i solve this?

 

Thanks

Thanks

 

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Message 1 of 15
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I have a feeling this is not related to TestStand but some other assemblies you are using in your UI.  To prove it you can take the out of the box C# UI that ships with TestStand and see if you get the same issue.

 

Regards,

jigg
CTA, CLA
testeract.com
~Will work for kudos and/or BBQ~
Message 2 of 15
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Hello,

the exeption is always when executing applicationManager.Start().

The returned IP 23.211.157.14 in the exeption belongs to akamaitechnologies.com which can be find out using reverse-IP-lookup.

Then i used google with search term "akamaitechnologies.com national instruments" and one of the results (attached) is that akamai delivers software for NI.

Question is now: How can i stop this connection to a server that cannot be reached without internet.

The current workaround is that i put this IP in the firewall.

 

Thanks

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Message 3 of 15
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I've ran TestStand on hundreds of PCs that weren't connected to any network.  I have never seen nor heard of this.  My guess is that you've got something else in your UI. 

 

Did you try to run the out-of-box C# UI?  If so did you observe the same behavior?

 

How are you licensing TestStand?

jigg
CTA, CLA
testeract.com
~Will work for kudos and/or BBQ~
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Message 4 of 15
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I think this is the same thing as reported in this thread:
https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-TestStand/Sometimes-sequence-is-freezing-in-edit-mode-for-20-seconds-why...

 

I think that TS is there also having a timeout traying to connect to the IP.

But only when using VisulStudio i can visualize this socket-expetion.

 

I am using two licences on this machine.

The runtime licence for daily use

and a developer-licence which is activated on 3 systems for editing testplans.

Is it possible that TS checks that this licence is not running on two systems at the same time?

 

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Message 5 of 15
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I think you need to isolate the problem.  Hence why I've suggested twice that you run an out-of-box UI and see if you get the same behavior.

 

Do you see this issue when running the sequence editor?  Because guess what? The sequence editor uses the exact same components that your UI is using under the hood.  So if you see this in your UI and not the sequence editor then it is something you've added to your UI. 

 

I highly doubt it is licensing unless you have your license manager pointed to an external server somehow.  If you open NI License Manager and click on the Network License icon at the top what is the server name?

 

jigg
CTA, CLA
testeract.com
~Will work for kudos and/or BBQ~
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Message 6 of 15
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After doing this the problem seems to be away:

Problem was that windows is doing a cerificate test. For this windows is trying to load the Certified Revocation List (CRL) from a certified server.

 

And because the pc does not have a direct connection to the internet the connection is going in a 30sec socket timeout.

This is not happening when you have no network connected to the pc (as mentioned by .

But there is a network connected but not with direct connection to the outside. So somehow windows thinks there should be internet but cant connect.

To remove the connection to CLR follow this steps:
1. Select Start » Control Panel.
2. Double-click Internet Options.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
4. In the Security section, uncheck the Check for publisher's certificate revocation option.

 

Done.

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Message 7 of 15
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TestStand 2017 is now signing all of its binaries. For signed binaries, it is possible that some Windows API calls can initiate the OS to verify that a binary signature is valid. Since release, we have hit two instances were such API are called. One occurred when TestStand attempts to activate its license using NI License Manager. TestStand 2017 includes NILM 4.1 and this issue occurred. Our testing shows that upgrading to NILM 4.2 prevents the issue. The second case was found with some internal testing during the development of TSM that works with TestStand 2017 and we changed TSM to not use that API causing this.

 

This issue is being tracked in TestStand under ID 704932. Our are investigating mitigating any future problematic API calls that NI or customers might make in the TestStand process by setting the <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/> in the Sequence Editor app.config file. We are targeting addressing this issue in a service pack release for TestStand 2017.

 

If you can, I would like to know if your issue is addressed by installing NILM 4.2 when the control panel workaround you are now doing is reverted.

Scott Richardson
Message 8 of 15
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In my case the timeout occored when running "applicationMgr.Start();"

 

Where can i find the Sequence Editor app.config file?

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Message 9 of 15
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You should be able to place a text file with the name SeqEdit.exe.config next to SeqEdit.exe and include the following content in the file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6"/>
  </startup>
  <runtime>
    <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

I have attached the file (remove extra .txt suffix). I have not tested this against the actual reported issue, but this is the fix we will be testing.

Scott Richardson
Message 10 of 15
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