Problems with online users showing up as offline

[thunksalot]

I've got 10 people using Groove on my geographically dispersed staff. The
"online" indication in the "Workspace Members" tab is invaluable to us. It
lets us know when each other is "at work", especially useful at odd hours.

However, in the last month, we've started to notice a growing problem. The
Online and Offline indicators seem to completely wrong for many of us. We
can be on a conference call and confirm that we are all logged in to Groove,
yet, some of us will see in our Groove installations that many people are
Offline. And everyone seems to see different people as either "Online" or
Offline even when everyone is Online. And, it's not the same people that
show up incorrectly everytime. It changes.

Any idea what could be causing this and how to fix it?!! It is a major
problem.

-Sam

 

[Don]

We had the same problem you're having Aug. 20, 2007 -
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...56F4-C0D4-D4DB-2249A9A182A6&lang=en&cr=US&p=1

Everything "mysteriously" cleared up after a couple of days. Mark Smith
responded to my post and thought it may have been related to a relay server
problem.

We are also a geographically dispersed group (13 users). Because of these
recent connectivity issues, we're starting to experiment with Hamachi
(www.hamachi.cc) to see if it will improve communication amongst ourselves.
Will let you know how the hamachi experiment turns out.

Sorry I'm not more help...if you've been working fine in the past and it
quits all of a sudden, you may just need to give it some time 24-48 hours and
the online/offline problem will probably clear on it's own. If you've always
had the problem, they you may have some router/port/firewall issues you need
to clear up.

 

[Matt Crider]

Don, the other person who replied to your message, and I have been working
together using Groove for about 2 years. When it works, it's great - no
doubt about that.

However, we noticed all along, that there were times when 'presence' seemed
out of sync between us (we were performing a proof-of-concept for our company
in the beginning). We first noticed this on Groove Chat. It was so
unreliable that we completely dismissed Groove Chat as a viable communication
vehicle. As a result, we NEVER use it.

Then we began to notice delays in the synchronization of files. When Groove
was good, he and I could be on the phone and I could hear him hit the return
button to save a file to Groove and I would instantly see a green downarrow
indicating that changes were incoming. When it's bad, the delay could be
over a day - absolutely unacceptable.

This intermittent behavior has been seen by us for the two years we have
been using it. And, now that we have 13 users, the few times we have seen
the problem, it has had ill effects on our business.

We were extremely frustrated last week and then all of the sudden it's
working again. It's like "Return of the Jedi" - Groove has come back from
the Dark Side.

I can honestly say that we were frustrated to the point of calling Apple to
enquire of any similar Groove-like software for the Mac. I can tell you that
we aren't going to Vista or to Groove 2007 until we get a handle on this. If
Apple or someone else comes up with something for the Mac in the meantime and
it's reliable, we're going with them. That ought to tell you something of
our frustration level.

Matt

 

[thunksalot]

I've just figured out that there is a pattern to who shows up as Online and
who doesn't (when everyone is actually online). One of our offices recently
installed a hardware firewall and VPN. So, it looks like everyone outside
the firewall can see each other as Online but no one inside that office. And
all the people in that office can see each other as Online but no one outside
that office. I had suspected that a while ago but had been confused by the
fact that sometimes staff in those offices were logging into Groove from
their laptops, and were therefore visible as Online.

So, what do I need to do to get the Online/Offline indication working
correctly? And perhaps Groove mail as well (since there is some indication
that there are delays being caused that have a similar pattern). I know I
read that one of Groove Server's components is designed to connect workspace
members across corporate firewalls. Does this mean I need to spring for
Groove Server now?

-Sam

 

[Don]

Please see - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907740
SSTP uses TCP on port 2492 (WAN)
There is a LAN presence using UDP on port 1211
Groove can/will also use ports 443 & 80

I'm no network guru, but if you can get your people in/out of these ports
between your locations, it should work....I'm still trying to get mine
working...different people using different routers is a pain.

Not sure about your question on the Groove Server.

Perhaps someone else can comment???

 

[Don]

see also c1sbc's answer in the "Groove 2007 on Vista" thread

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...2d75&mid=d46a2947-931f-4ad4-a321-a12702ea90fa

in reference to router ports