Hi Bob,

What is your upload/download internet speed (both at the server, and at the remote clients)?

I've got anecdotal experience with more frequent connection problems if there isn't enough speed (and although the problem is rare, it seems to happen most often with WIFI, not wired, connection.

lksseven wrote on Apr 17^th, 2012 at 1:44am:



Thanks for the info. I am pretty sure thats not the issue. Everyone with the problem and the server unit is on a network consisting of 3 bonded T1's. using speed test software they all show about 5.29 Mbps download and 5.28 Mbps upload speeds.


The Cow wrote on Apr 17^th, 2012 at 12:58pm:


Sounds logical, However I would think other users not in Sesame but connected to other apps via the web would also have  connection issues at the same time and they don't.

The only common denominator is Sesame.

The Cow wrote on Apr 17^th, 2012 at 12:58pm:


Nope, but todays learning experience will be traceroute.

Thanks for the ideas and help!

Two years ago I had similar complaints from a client -- Sesame was losing connections to the server when connecting over the Internet.

It turned out that the routers were closing TCP connections after about 10 minutes of inactivity. Since you've added new users, maybe they work differently than the existing users (i.e. maybe they are leaving Sesame idle for 10 minute periods, and the old users were constantly doing something in Sesame).

I couldn't find a way to disable this TCP timeout function of the routers (at least not in the consumer grade boxes). So, the solution I came up with was to add some code that would "Ping" the Sesame server on regular intervals. This keeps the routers from closing the TCP connection. It's worked well for the last two years this way.

You can easily find out if this is what is happening in your case. Just leave Sesame open (from one of the off-site locations), and don't navigate among forms or records for 15-20 minutes. Then, after that time has passed, try to search for some records, or something. This is the point where you will see Sesame have trouble. (I can't remember if there was an error message, or if Sesame simply closed at this point.)

If this turns out to be your problem, let me know so I can post my full solution.

Robert,
One of the most frequent ways we have seen users lose connection is the client-side firewall. A couple of them, including the MS default firewall, allow a connection to persist for a while before shutting it down. I have no idea why. Furthermore, some of them, including the MS default, will reset their port settings after any OS update. So even if you set the port / application etc as "allowed", a quiet update to the OS will reset it back to disallowed.

These problems are compounded if the client is running multiple firewalls. Many of the third party security apps now come with firewalls and these interfere with one another. Never run more than one on a box. Or, better, use a hardware firewall between all of the boxes on any one leg of the network, and none on the individual computers - unless you are concerned that boxes behind the hardware firewall are attacking each other.