Request: Use optional "real IP" for 'Open in browser' textbox

[Zinny]

Hello,

I love HFS, but there's something about it that just drives me nuts.

I use HFS all the time to share simple files with friends.
But every single time I do it, I have to:

* open the program "IP2" (keir.net/ip2.html) which is a small freeware program to show your real IP address.
* copy the IP out of IP2
* switch back to HFS and carefully select the "192.168.1.201" part of the address in "Open in browser"
* Paste in my real address.
* Reselect the whole URL line and copy it.

Now finally I can paste this to my friend.

I beg of you.. PLEASE, please, please incorporate the functionality of the "IP2" program directly into HFS.

I've done the process I just described at least 500 times and it makes me blue in the face.

Humbly, I beg you.
It would make HFS so much better a program.

Thanks,
Zinny

[Zinny]

I realize there's a "Find external address" checkbox in the "IP address" menu, but it has never worked on any system I've ever tried it on.

IP2 works every time.

From their website, it says they use the following methods:

Queries one of the MyWANIP servers and deciphers the response containing your IP. www .mywanip.com
Queries the web site checkip .dyndns.org
Queries the web site www .whatismyipaddress.com
Queries the web site ipchicken .com
Queries the Geektools Whois server whois .geektools.com

[bacter]

Please tell us what version of HFS you use. In actual Versions (2.3 beta Build 242) the 'Find external address' works without problems.

Another solution would be: Get a free domain (from DYNdns, no-ip ..) like 'zinny.homeip.net' and set it in HFS with IPaddress->Custom..' . once defined, select this domain instead of the address. And you don't need anymore to paste addresses. Even more, ytour friends can save it in favourites of therir browser and access your server even if your ip changes.

[Zinny]

I was using the release version.
Now I am testing the 2.3 beta 242.

It works sometimes, but often I get this:

img34.imageshack.us/img34/4512/scr1249245676.png
Notice the typo in "ip-adress.com"

Also, 1 time out of 20, it says:
"Can't find external address (< ')"

It would be great if there was an optional setting for "Find external address on startup" so that I don't have to do it each time I start up HFS-- just automatic.

[bacter]

It would be great if there was an optional setting for "Find external address on startup" so that I don't have to do it each time I start up HFS-- just automatic.

Rejetto knew you would want someting like this, so he implemented it long time ago ... this option already exists:  Menu -> Start/Exit -> Find external address on startup 

It works sometimes, but often I get this:

img34.imageshack.us/img34/4512/scr1249245676.png
Notice the typo in "ip-adress.com"

Where do you get this? This has nothing to do with hfs ... maybe this is something that has to do with your template and you see it in your browser?

[Zinny]

Where do you get this? This has nothing to do with hfs ... maybe this is something that has to do with your template and you see it in your browser?

It's definitely HFS

I get this quite often when I go to 'Menu -> IP Address -> Find External Address'
The bad part is when it fails on the first try. But sometimes it works.
I also get ( < ' ) instead of whatever is in there.

img38.imageshack.us/img38/221/scr1249274761.png
It's definitely part of HFS -- It pops up as a dialog box of the hfs242.exe process, and blocks access to the HFS window until I click ok. I checked in WindowSpy and it's a child window of HFS.

The 'Start/Exit -> Find External Address on Startup' fails 100% of the time.
It always says 'Search for external address failed' in the status bar.

..

The reason I recommended the "IP2" program as a good reference is because it's perfect. I've been using it for years and it's never failed ever for any reason. I can't remember it failing even once.

[FRENCH CAN CAN]

Use this service (is free) and you should have no more problems, ALWAYS works even if your ip address changes often.

Link:

http://www.no-ip.com/newUser.php

[Zinny]

Use this service (is free) and you should have no more problems, ALWAYS works even if your ip address changes often.

Even still though, I hope the bugs can be worked out.

[bacter]

Zinny:

Sorry, i missunderstood you. I thought you received a link to imageshack!

There is a problem with whatismyip.org/com. It seems they have changed on their server how to access their service.
Their web address is www.whatismyip.com - this returns their page. To get only the clean ip, access is http://whatismyip.org (without www !).

You could try to change the list of servers used to get your ip in the hfs.ini file. Edit it with a text editor (like notepad++) and you will find in line 153 the header ip-services . Remove there 'www.' from the whatismyip url. (Shutdown your hfs first and close it).

[Zinny]

Great! Thank you, it has fixed the problem with "Find external address", and now it does not fail anymore.

There is just one problem remaining.
When starting HFS, it will say "Search for external address failed" in the status bar 50% of the time.

It never fails now if I go to "Find external address" from the menu, but it does fail half the time on startup.

Try enabling "Find external address on startup" in the startup menu and exit/reload HFS about 10 times. Does this happen for you too?

It almost seems like it's not "waiting" long enough, because the half of time when it fails, it always says it failed immediately as soon as the program opens.

[bacter]

I have no problem with finding external IP on startup with hfs, and I've never read complaints in this forum about this.
Maybe your Internet connection has some quality problems. I believe we have to wait until rejetto or another coder could say if 'find external address on startup' uses diferent timing from the 'find external address' option.

Meanwhile, you could try the clean up the ip-services list, as there are two more errors there:
ip-services=http://www.dovedove.it/hfs/ip.php|;http://www.checkip.org|;">;http://whatismyip.org/|;http://www.melauto.it/public/rejetto/ip.php|;http://checkip.dyndns.org|:;http://www.ip-adress.com|My IP address: 

remove the two  parts marked in red ;">   and :

[Zinny]

That's it. You fixed it!

Removing the two parts in red fixed the problem.
Now it works on startup.

Thank you
Let's hope these changes go in an official version of HFS so it's good for everyone else too 

[Zinny]

I'm sorry, I take that last post back!
I was so happy that I didn't test thoroughly..

It started failing again on startup, it still fails.

I have no packet loss.
I can run pings to google, msft, etc for hours and get 0% packet loss.
There's no issues with the connection.

I have also tried pinging every entry in the "ip-services=" list (all 6 of them) for 10 minutes each and 0% packet loss on all of them.

Other IP programs never fail, only HFS.

[r][m]

Very strange.
Did some testing, based on what I read here.
I could't reproduce. Maybe a system problem?
I'm having no problem with this.

[bacter]

There seems to be 2 different problems:

1. There are three minor errors in the serverlist that hfs writes in hfs.ini: the url of whatismyip.org and the two fragments (red) mentionned in a post above.

Also, the different url's return the ip in different ways:

a) www.checkip.org and www.ip-adress.com return a full htm document, difficult to parse for the ip, and checkip.dyndns.org returns a small htm document that could be parseably.

b) only  www.dovedove.it/hfs/ip.php,  www.melauto.it/public/rejetto/ip.php and  whatismyip.org return a clean ip.

This means - if clean ip is requested for hfs to work - that without correction of the serverlist only 2 out of 6 urls could return an apropriate value.

2. On the other side y also think that there exists a system problem. I would try checking three things: stop antivirus , firewall(s) and if it's not a local but a provider problem, check with another domain name server.