Can't connect to server on LAN without using a tunnel

[Michael Olson]

I'm trying to set up a WinSwitch 0.10.0 server on a Linux VM (host is Windows 7). It shares the networking card of the host but has a different IP address. Forwarding apps with ssh tunneling works, but removing the ssh tunnel does not. I'd like to determine whether performance is better without the tunneling, but I'm currently unable to.

I see the following error in winswitch/client/applet.log during a reconnect attempt:

2010/29/08 10:31:29 ShifterApplet.start_link(ServerConfig(kraft:8796762835984)) link already exists for 'kraft', kicking it
2010/29/08 10:31:29 ServerPortMonitor.get_command() remote server ServerConfig(kraft:8796762835984) is not tunnelled - cannot detect server port!
2010/29/08 10:31:29 ServerPortMonitor.start() no command to run!

This does not make much sense to me, because it should not be trying to use a tunnel.

The server log does not show any new messages.

Here are the relevant client settings:

ssh_tunnel=False
host="192.168.1.67"
port=22
username="mwolson"
encrypted_password=[snip]
administrator_login=""
default_command_port=8010
enabled=True
auto_connect=True
auto_start=False
preload_tunnels=False

Here are the server settings on the VM:

ssh_tunnel=False
listen_on="*:8010"
firewall_enabled=False

I can use netcat to connect to port 8010 on the VM from Windows, and I've tried disabling the Windows Firewall. Let me know if there's any additional info I can provide.

[Antoine Martin]

To answer your first question: performance is better without using SSH. SSH introduces some tiny but totally unnecessary latency, the impact of which varies depending on the protocol being used on top.

Generally, if things stop working without the SSH tunnel, something must be blocking the straight TCP connections: either an outgoing port filter on the client (rare) or an incoming port filter on the server (much more common).

However, seeing that you tested the port with netcat (telnet also works), that is not the problem here.
The easiest way to get LAN connections working is via mDNS (auto configured).
If you cannot or do not want to use mdns, I would just delete the existing config and re-try with a brand new one ("New Connection" in main menu), specifying your "direct" port (8010) in the dialog.

Let me know how you get on...

[Antoine Martin]

Not heard back, please re-open if this is still an issue with the latest release.