I can't connect to my ETP Server

[andrewgr]

I'm pretty frustrated, I've spent over an hour on this.

My desktop computer has a bunch of files indexed. I want to be able to use Everything from my laptop to search those files.

It took me 20 minutes or so to figure out that the reason I wasn't seeing the ETP/FTP tab from the Tools | Options Windows is because you need to install a plugin from Github. Once I installed that, I enabled ETP. I'm pretty sure it worked, because my Firewall warned me and I had to grant permission to Everything.

I created shares for each of the three drives on my desktop, each with just their drive letter: C, D, and E. Since I don't want everyone who ever connects to our network to be able to connect to those drives, I removed the "Everyone" group from the Share permissions, and just added my own user account, granting it Full permissions.

On my laptop, I put in all the correct information. I gave the host name-- I tried both with and with the initial \\, since neither the UI nor the documentation is clear on which is expected. I'm using the port that was assigned by Everything when I turned on the ETP server, 14630. I put in my username and password. I think the default Windows link type is the correct one to use, but I tried all 4.

I have confirmed that the host name and shares are set up correctly by connecting to them from my laptop with my user credentials through the 'net view' and 'net use' commands in the Windows CMD terminal.

The only think I get when I click on "Ok" when trying to connect is a message that says, "Cannot connect to ETP server: a connection cannot be established." No error code, not indication of whether it was able to see the host, no indication of whether the credentials were wrong, just that generic error message.

It doesn't seem like there's much room to get anything wrong-- I mean, the host name and port number are trivial to get correct, and there are only 4 options for link type, so you can just try them all. That just leaves the username password. I use my Microsoft Live account as my user account on all my Windows computers, which is the only thing that I can think of that might be problematic; I wonder if there's a problem with a username that has an '@' and/or a '.' in it? My username is of the form myemailname@outlook.com I do not have any other user account set up on my desktop computer, nor do I want to set one up, as being able to use my live id on multiple machines is convenient for several reasons. I don't have any reason to believe than a username in the form of an email address would be a problem, it's just that I can't think of anything else it could be, at least with regards to the connection dialog box.

Is there any way for me to get a more useful error message? Or, are there other steps/settings that I'm missing-- the documentation doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, I can easily imagine that there was some other step that I was supposed to do that I didn't? Or any other suggestions?

[void]

Thanks for your post andrewgr,

Please confirm, have you installed the ETP server or the Everything Server.

Both are very different servers.

Please check under Tools -> Options -> ETP Server/Everything Server.

On my laptop, I put in all the correct information. I gave the host name-- I tried both with and with the initial \\, since neither the UI nor the documentation is clear on which is expected.

The documentation states:
Type in the server name or IP for the host.
Connect to an ETP server

The host name is without the \\
However, Everything will just skip the \\ prefix.

I'm using the port that was assigned by Everything when I turned on the ETP server, 14630.

The default ETP port is: 21

The Everything Server is: 14630

I put in my username and password.

Please make sure this matches the username/password you set on your ETP server.

The only think I get when I click on "Ok" when trying to connect is a message that says, "Cannot connect to ETP server: a connection cannot be established."

The host was found, but no connection could be made.
Please make sure you are using the correct port number and Everything is allowed through your firewall.
Check on the ServerPC with Everything or an FTP client and see if you can connect to localhost.

It doesn't seem like there's much room to get anything wrong-- I mean, the host name and port number are trivial to get correct, and there are only 4 options for link type, so you can just try them all. That just leaves the username password.

Everything will tell you if the username or password are incorrect.
But no connection can be made in this case.

Is there any way for me to get a more useful error message?

No.
A connection could not be established == host was found, but a connection could not be established.
Either the host refused the connection or it timed out.

[andrewgr]

I didn't realize there were two different type of servers. It appears I am using the Everything Server. It was the only server I could find-- all the documentation I could find for the ETP server claims that there is an ETP/FTP tab in the Tools | Options windows, but there isn't (at least on my machine). I found a reference to needing to click a checkbox on the General tab of the Options window, something like "Enable ETP", but there was no such checkbox. There was a box for Enable ES URL, which I checked.

I'm fine using either server, as long as it will allow me to run searches using the normal search syntax; but all of the instructions I can find (and I looked for a decent amount of time) for setting up an ETP server assume that there's an ETP/FTP tab in the Options Window, and as I said, there isn't. The only reference I could find for what to do if that tab isn't present led me to installing a plugin from Github; I thought it was a plugin for an ETP server, since I found the instructions while searching for what to do if there's no ETP/FTP tab, but apparently the plugin was for the Everything Server-- I imagine that was spelled out on the github page and I just didn't bother reading, I just downloaded and ran the installer.

[void]

What version of Everything are you using? (Help -> About Everything)
-If you are using the LITE version, there is no ETP/FTP Server option.



If you used the msi installer, the ETP/FTP server is disabled.
To enable the ETP/FTP server after installing with the msi installer:

• Exit Everything (File -> Exit)
• From the Start menu, search for:
  Notepad
• In Notepad, from the File menu, click Open...
• Select
  C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.ini
  and click Open.
• Change the following line:
  
  allow_etp_server=0
  
  to:
  
  allow_etp_server=1
• Save changes and exit Notepad.
• Restart Everything.

ETP
Everything Server
The Github ETP Server plugin is for Everything 1.5 which is in development.

[andrewgr]

I'm using Version 1.5.0.1396a (x64)

The file C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything-1.5a.ini exists, but it does not have an entry for allow_etp_server

I tried adding a new line, allow_etp_server=1, but I cannot see any effect from doing so; there's still no ETP/FTP tab in the Tools | Options window.

[void]

Thanks for the version information.

The file C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything-1.5a.ini exists, but it does not have an entry for allow_etp_server

Everything 1.5 doesn't have an allow_etp_server option.
The ETP/FTP server is now a plugin.



Please check if you have a

etp_server64.dll

in:

C:\Program Files\Everything\Plugins

Please check the ETP server plugin is enabled under Tools -> Options -> Plugins.

[andrewgr]

Okay, installing that plugin at least lets me connect and see the files, so thank you for that.

However, I cannot see any information other than the default columns (name, path, size, etc.) It doesn't show the information that's in columns that are in my index, like tags and rating. HOWEVER, if I use a search like tags:myTag1, it DOES return only the correct rows, and it does it instantaneously, so I'm sure it's using the tag information that's in the index, not going through each file on the disk. On the other hand, if I click on the Rating column header, the small directional up/down arrow changes to show that it's sorting in ascending or descending order, but it doesn't actually do anything-- the order the rows appear in doesn't change. So it seems like the search that I type in is being sent to the ETP service running on my desktop, which knows about those extra fields; but the contents of those fields are not being sent to the laptop to be displayed when I add those columns.

All of the Index menu items are greyed out. I looked through the View and Search menu options, as well as the Tools | Options settings, and I can't find any setting for enabling the contents of those columns to be seen.

What do I need to do to see the contents of those columns?

[void]

ETP only supports name, path, size, date modified, date created and attributes.

[andrewgr]

ETP only supports name, path, size, date modified, date created and attributes.

I assume you mean the client only supports those? Because I can search on tags and it returns the correct results, so it seems like the ETP Server supports everything in the Index?

Unfortunately, only supporting those fields renders it almost completely useless for my needs. Are there plans to add functionality for arbitrary columns in the future? If not, is it worth my time to write up a feature request?

Thanks for all the help with this, BTW.

[andrewgr]

Actually, after doing a bit of reading, it seems like the Everything Server is the newer solution? It also seems like it would support arbitrary columns on both my dekstop and laptop, because each machine has their own copy of the index? I don't have any need to index anything that lives on my laptop, but just from reading, I don't think that would prevent it from working.

I'll probably just try this without waiting for an answer, maybe tonight or tomorrow morning, but if you happen to see this before I post that I've tried it, it would be nice to know not to bother trying if there's some reason it won't work. (The only reason I can think of off the top of my head would be if the fact that the laptop is usually not on would cause some sort of problem, with the desktop Everything Service constantly trying to connect with it and causing some sort of performance issue.)

Thanks again for the help.

[void]

The Everything Server is replacing ETP.

However, the client will still need to index tags and rating.

A property server is planned for a future version of Everything.

[andrewgr]

The Everything Server is replacing ETP.

However, the client will still need to index tags and rating.

A property server is planned for a future version of Everything.

I understand that the Client will need to have its own complete copy of the index that's on the Server, but it's my understanding that it stays up to date by receiving notifications from the Server, so it doesn't need to constantly scan the Server's files or anything like that. Is that correct? Also, if a file is added/deleted on the Server while the Client isn't on or isn't connected, does it receive the notification the next time it connects to the Server, or is the notification lost, leading to out of sync indexes?

Finally, I have a home lab that is a mixture of Windows and Linux machines, and would be happy to use and provide feedback on alpha/beta/prerelease versions of the Everything Server on ~10 TB of video, audio, plaintext, and pdf files including searches that use a number of non-default parameters, including some slightly-esoteric ones such as the video bit rate. I've worked as an SDE and PM at Microsoft for 22 years, Unity for six years, and a small startup for the last two years, which I suppose could make my feedback more useful, more annoying, both, or neither. It would involve intentionally moving some files to different machines in my network, but I'm happy to do that if it would be helpful. Feel free to take me up on the offer now or in the future, or never.

[void]

I understand that the Client will need to have its own complete copy of the index that's on the Server

Yes, but only filenames and basic file information (size and date modified)

it's my understanding that it stays up to date by receiving notifications from the Server

Correct.

it doesn't need to constantly scan the Server's files or anything like that.

Only for tags and ratings (if the file changes).

Also, if a file is added/deleted on the Server while the Client isn't on or isn't connected, does it receive the notification the next time it connects to the Server, or is the notification lost, leading to out of sync indexes?

The Everything Server has an Index Journal.
The index journal is used to keep your client up-to-date.
I recommend a index journal size of 32768 KB. (the default size)
Depending on how many changes you make and how often you run your clients, you may want to increase this size if you find your client reindexing.
The index journal size can be set under ServerPC -> Tools -> Options -> Index -> Maximum Size

Finally, I have a home lab that is a mixture of Windows and Linux machines, and would be happy to use and provide feedback on alpha/beta/prerelease versions of the Everything Server on ~10 TB of video, audio, plaintext, and pdf files including searches that use a number of non-default parameters, including some slightly-esoteric ones such as the video bit rate. I've worked as an SDE and PM at Microsoft for 22 years, Unity for six years, and a small startup for the last two years, which I suppose could make my feedback more useful, more annoying, both, or neither. It would involve intentionally moving some files to different machines in my network, but I'm happy to do that if it would be helpful. Feel free to take me up on the offer now or in the future, or never.

Thank you for the offer.
I would love to have your feedback.