Can connect to one secondary computer but not the other

Hello,
I have forwarded your questions/problems to the Stardock Support team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. Meanwhile, you should go through with this guide :-

https://forums.stardock.com/486104/multiplicity-support-faq#connectionissues

We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Thank You,
Basj
Stardock Community Assistant.

Thanks for the quick reply. I followed all steps without success.

Its possible that this has something to do with the firewall settings (screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/8KF2nIM). They seem to be controlled by IT. I've tried to telnet port 30564 from the primary to secondary machine but it never connects. Using the MPPortFix batch file doesn't resolve the issue. How can I get further insight into my managed ports?

I've used other software (e.g. Synergy) without issue which makes this even more baffling.

These are both things your IT people would have to answer.   Is the one Secondary you can connect to under the same restricted rules?

That said, one telling test would be to see if you could demote the current Primary (and deactivating it in the process) to a Secondary and promote the Secondary (activating it) to a Primary and see if that works to connect.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager 

The Secondary that I CAN connect to is not under those rules. It's my personal machine.

I switched primary/secondary as you specified and it works perfectly! However this isn't a configuration that will work for me. If I switch back to the original configuration the problem persists.

Then it is a firewall issue - one your IT people would be able to help with (because of the restriction)... What would help them is knowing the ports MP uses:

Rule Name Port/.exe
Multiplicity Service 30564
Multiplicity Clipboard 30565
Multiplicity Application (clipboard) Multipl2.EXE
Multiplicity Audio Service 30567
Multiplicity Remote Screen Service 30569 (For Multiplicity 3 only)
Multiplicity Application (Remote screen control
MPRDP64.EXE (For Multiplicity 3 only)

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

No response from IT yet. In the meantime I installed Synergy 1 Pro again which works as expected. What's strange is that sometimes I'll get the Multiplicity notification at the top of the screen that its controlling the secondary computer. Not sure what to make of that.

I've been doing some more digging. I don't think these ports are blocked by the group policy or firewall. Here's my output from running netsh firewall show state

  TCP    192.168.86.27:5147     171.33.94.121:443      SYN_SENT        10916

  TCP    192.168.86.27:5148     171.33.94.24:443       SYN_SENT        10916

  TCP    192.168.86.27:5149     171.33.94.24:443       SYN_SENT        10916

  TCP    192.168.86.27:5150     148.253.110.51:443     SYN_SENT        10916

  TCP    192.168.86.27:5151     171.33.119.32:443      SYN_SENT        10916

 

  TCP    192.168.86.27:5152     10.6.4.180:10003       SYN_SENT        2484

None of the Multiplicity ports are blocked based on this response. What else could it be?

I really would like to know what your IT people report before theory crafting. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

They spoke to me yesterday about their group policy. It is only in place to make sure that certain ports are ALLOWED and that's it. They still accessed my computer remotely and poked around to make sure that everything was setup correctly in order for the software to work. From their point of view, everything should be working.

We are just very limited in what we can do when the prime suspect is the network itself.

If there is a VPN connection involved, kill it temporarily.

If you have multiple NICs installed on either PC, disable them.

If either leg is over wireless, please try ethernet only.

Ensure that both PCs are not on a 'Public' network:

https://tinkertry.com/how-to-change-windows-10-network-type-from-public-to-private

For added peace of mind, disable any an all Windows / AV firewalls on each box (domain, private, public):

Instead of the hostname, add the Secondary by it's (same subnet as Primary) IP:

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Thanks again for your help. Unfortunately none of that works. I closed the VPN software, disabled all NICs that are not ethernet, set both PCs to Private networking, disabled Windows Firewall on both machines (no other firewall software is installed), and tried connecting to the secondary computer using it's IP address.

I switched the primary and secondary computers around and it works for some reason. But like I said before, that's the opposite direction from what I need. I want the Keyboard/Mouse plugged into my server because its always accessible and turned on. 

Synergy is able to connect without issue which makes it seem like there isn't an issue with the network or ports. 

I can run both Multiplicity and Synergy simultaneously as a solution but that doubles the cost of the solution in both $ and complexity.

Running out of options for you to try here...  

Again, I dont believe I have ever seen this not be a firewall issue of some sort.

Is a 'clean boot' at all possible for the troubled PC?

https://forums.stardock.com/486104/multiplicity-support-faq#cleanboot

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to try this next week when I get back to my home office.

The clean boot did not resolve the issue. I guess I'll just stick with Synergy. Thanks for your help.