Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 kilpatds Jun 02, 2009 15:15:01	Every time a new version comes out, I go through this... On one system, it updates fine. Click the button, get updated character builder. On another (behind a corporate firewall), it doesn't. The download just stops working... quickly. Usually within 5 seconds. If I keep trying again, eventually it will work. Or at least that's usually the case. So far today it hasn't yet, and there have been 119 tries so far. Sometimes it will start the install, but immediately fail with "files failed verification". Sometimes it will start the install, but get hung before the actual install starts...with the mini progress bar just sweeping rather than progressing. Sometimes it will crash. What it won't do is work. The two systems are basically identical: both VM instances running under Virtual Box, with no other software installed. Every month so far I've reported the problem, and every time the response has been "well, keep trying". And since that's worked so far, I have. But seriously? 120 tries? I've tried sniffing the network to see what files you're getting on the theory I'd download it some other way and just put it in place, but it's a maze of httpd redirects, all different. Does anybody that works on this care? Did my prior support requests ever get turned into bug reports? Do the developers even know there's a problem? If they do know there's a problem, do they have the first clue what the problem is? Is there a debugging flag that will show which requests are failing? Would anyone even know what to do with ethernet dumps? 125 attempts. This is well past "due diligence" on my part.
#2 The_Architect Jun 02, 2009 18:09:50	kilpatds Since you seem to have logged in to the update server and reached the point where the updater is attempting to download the new content, you computer should now be authenticated to decrypt the new content. While it's not an ideal solution, you should should be able to copy the contents of the "c:\program files\Wizards of the Coast\Character Builder" folder from your working machine to the non-working machine and be able to run the application. We use a third party solution to manage the actual download and while it works well in most situations, it is hard for us to diagnose specific firewall and router related issues as there are just too many environments for us to test them all.
#3 kilpatds Jun 03, 2009 8:59:57	That worked. I got one final "continue update", and when I clicked it, the install started. What is the download manager doing that could be breaking? The firewall proxies most normal http. It is a Virus-scanning firewall, and it's had issues doing partial gets in the past. Currently, as with almost all transparent HTTP proxies, using https avoids the proxy. So that might be a handy bit to toggle, if your CDN supports it (or perhaps just toggle it if the user canceled the original?)