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Spark 2.8, Windows 10, Constantly Reconnecting on Network Interface Change

Spark Spark Support
#1

Spark 2.8 gets in a “Reconnecting” loop when using Windows 10 and the network interface changes. I can duplicate this problem on several Windows 10 machines. It persists until the user “Logs Out” of Spark and logs back in. More details:

I’m using Spark 2.8 with Windows 10. When a user’s laptop is docked, they’re on the dock’s wired ethernet interface, and they connect to Spark without a problem. When they undock, their wifi connection now handles networking. Spark will not reconnect, it instead goes into the “Reconnecting…” loop, gradually adding seconds and minutes. Meanwhile the user is not necessarily aware they’re no longer logged into Spark unless they have their Buddies window open.

If they Log Out of Spark when on Wifi, and log back in, they’re fine… until they dock again and it gets stuck in that same Reconnecting loop.

Basically it’s like Spark is binding to the available network interface and when that interface changes, it keeps trying that interface even if it no longer exists. We only have a few Windows 10 laptops and all of them exhibit this problem. We have many more Windows 7 laptops running Spark and they do not have this problem.

Anyone else seen this problem or know what the fix is?

#2

I remember having similar problems with Windows 7 laptops, but not with changing interfaces. Just going into sleep and waking up was often causing similar problems, so we have increased sleep time to 3 hours to avoid this during short meetings, etc. And i think this also happened when undocking and then docking back (but not using wifi). We haven’t used Spark enough with Windows 10 to see if it had same problems and now we don’t use Spark, so i can’t test anymore. Anyway, such networking issues are very hard to pinpoint and fix, especially when Spark doesn’t have regular developers. Here’s ticket i have filed recently which most resembles your issue (with other linked) https://issues.igniterealtime.org/browse/SPARK-2027 But that’s all i can do. Btw, which Windows 10 version?

#3

All the Windows 10 laptops have the latest version with the 2017 Fall Creators Update and fully patched up.

I’ve experimented with switching clients but unfortunately there aren’t that many out there and the few I’ve tried have not gotten good reviews from my Windows 10 users for various reasons. Spark was the one client that did what we needed it to, but unfortunately it’s not very usable for laptop users if the user has to constantly babysit it’s connection.

#4

Still doesn’t appear to be any fix or progress on this matter. Shame as we’ve been gladly using Spark for many years but simply can’t continue with it because the users get disconnected (and won’t reconnect) after every sleep or hibernation. They know that they can Log Off and log back onto Spark to get it to come up, but they frequently forget to do so. As I roll out new Windows 10 laptops I can see our Spark roster filled with more and more Offline users.

#5

Kind of surprised we haven’t had more people reporting this problem. Every single one of my Windows 10 laptops exhibits this behavior with Spark.

Anyway, here’s hoping bumping this thread will get some traction. The ticket that Wroot has made hasn’t gotten any visibility in almost a year.

I’m going to try a few nightly builds to see if they’ve resolved it.

#6

I doubt there will be difference. But Smack has been updated in the latest builds (underlying library). So by some chance it might has some effect. Btw, current builds have a few other bugs though. So probably not very usable. Issues blocking 2.9.0 release

#7

Not sure if you are still using Spark, but if you do, maybe you can try this with Spark 2.9.3. @ilyaHlevnoy says he is not able to reproduce this issue anymore. https://igniterealtime.atlassian.net/browse/SPARK-2027