Exceed started hanging on my home to work connection

February 2, 2005 10:19 PM

Problems with Exceed: I use exceed to connect from home to a UNIX workstation at work. Recently it started "hanging" on me, i.e. it takes infinite time to open a new xterm window. Some people suggested that there is a virus (I cannot find it). Others say it might be Exceed, or even my Internet provider (NY Roadrunner). Today I tried SLAX -a Linux OS loading from a CD- which is also "hanging". Any clues? Help!
posted by carmina to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Are you tunneling all your X11 traffic through an SSH session?

If not, it is possible X11 port traffic after tcp 6000 is being filtered or shaped by Roadrunner. Subsequent ports are used for additional X11 sessions, unless you do everything through SSH, at which point this becomes moot. (You should use SSH for X11 forwarding, anyway, if you're not already doing so.).

Have you tried another X11 client, such as the free one that can run with Cygwin, if you are using Windows (you mentioned a virus, so I'm assuming Windows)?

This may tell you if the problem lies with Exceed.

Is the Linux disc hanging on boot? Hanging on a network connection attempt? Where in process are things going badly?

Have you tried a different network adapter? (Borrow or buy a cheap Ethernet adapter and install it, perhaps.)
posted by AlexReynolds at 10:42 PM on February 2, 2005

Alex, thanks!

Yes, I have Windows at home. Yes, we have a firewall at work and I only use SSH. I did not try cygwin, but I will try that too. The Linux disc is loading the OS fine and I log on to my account at work, but again when I try to do xterm or matlab it's hanging. Nope, did not try different network adapter, yet.

I should probably add that I had been using Exceed a lot up until sometime in late December and then I don't know what happened.
posted by carmina at 10:57 PM on February 2, 2005

Does the xterm eventually come up?

Ssh into the work machine. Point your DISPLAY at your home machine. Run xterm from the command line. See if you get error messages that give you a clue what's going wrong. Try running some other x client such as xeyes. Make sure that your server allows clients from your work machine (xhost). Try launching xterm and xeyes with the ssh tunneling (don't use them, just see if they take less time to start up).
posted by rdr at 11:53 PM on February 2, 2005

Are you only using SSH to log into the machine, or are you also using it to tunnel X? Using it to tunnel will solve any firewall problems, and it sets your DISPLAY variable for you, handles xhost, and everything. (With PuTTY, "Enable X11 forwarding" in the Tunnels category; With command-line ssh, the -X option)
posted by zsazsa at 7:25 AM on February 3, 2005

rdr, I don't need to set DISPLAY as this is done through ssh, I am pretty sure...?

zsazsa, actually I do use putty. And X11 forwading. It is a bit complicated because of the firewall but I first telnet to the outside machine, then run exceed in the background and I use PUTTY window to get behind the firewall in my workstation. I manage to get through the first time, but any subsequent xterm application is hanging. What is strange is that I could work fine before January on both laptops...

I forgot to mention, I have 2 laptops at home and they both have the same problem.... (Same Internet connection, same Exceed, same Putty versions. But they cannot have infected each other with a virus).
posted by carmina at 8:20 AM on February 3, 2005

What happens without Exceed? I'd start by trying a different X client. Viruses generally cause other unrelated problems; I generally consider viruses as a last resort.
posted by AlexReynolds at 8:38 AM on February 3, 2005

Alex, I just downloaded cygwin and I am trying to ssh but it does not seem to recognize the command (huh?) I am going through their user notes to see how I can ssh.
posted by carmina at 11:02 AM on February 3, 2005

You probably have to install OpenSSH separately with Cygwin. Rerun their hideous setup.exe and make sure OpenSSH is included. BTW, Cygwin's free X server is now excellent; I no longer have a need for Exceed.
posted by Nelson at 12:50 PM on February 3, 2005