Ok, don;t know what happened but my serrver decided TWGS was a threat and tripped the DEP amd disabled TWGS.

Here's the Error:

Faulting application twgs.exe, version 2.8.0.2272, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.

Windows 2003 SP2....

If you aren't running anything else on that server, you can turn DEP off.

Yeah, I have dep disabled for TWGS, TW, etc, because it does go off too much during dev. But it shouldn't be going off under normal use. I'll make an effort to test without that disabled. It looks like a null pointer. If you see any pattern to this, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just turn on some debug code and put it through some paces and see if I can reproduce anything.

All indications are the program hung. I had it running as a service. The server locked everyone out. (I couldn't get in remotely). I logged in locally and TWGS was open on my screen (not a service anymore) and was not responding (DEP shut it down).

I disabled DEP for TWGS, then rebooted the machine again, this is becoming a habit. You know I haven't shut this machine off in 3 years before I installed the new TWGS, LOL.

Any chance you could run as a normal app rather than a service? If the problem goes away, that would narrow my focus. If the problems continue, the next step might be for me to provide you with a debug compile so I can get debug log info showing me exactly what TWGS was doing when it crashed.

BTW, I'm working on service code right now. I may ask you to test some changes before release to see if anything I do has an impact on your issues.

MB, I just finished a set of changes for TWGSSERV.EXE that I hope will make it easier to avoid the kinds of issues you're having. I suspect that the problem is caused by TWGS thinking it's running as a service when it isn't, or thinking it isn't when it is. I found a few ways this could get out of sync, and I have tried to decrease the possibility. It's always a possibility, I'm afraid, but as a last resort I added a new command, "RESET", to TWGSSERV.EXE and that should put everything right again. I'm anxious to see if any of this makes a dent in the problems you're having.

Some of the other things I did:

1) TWGSSERV.EXE will run in a command menu mode so if you just run it without a parameter, it'll tell you the commands and the current state of TWGS (installed, running, not installed) so you can manage it with one call.
2) InstallShield will run TWGSSERV.EXE to stop and uninstall TWGS as a service before beginning the install, guaranteeing that TWGS is always in the expected non-service state when installed. This is probably the main culprit, because when TWGS is installed as a service, it's set to Console mode, but when it's not a service, it's set to GUI. If it's still installed as a service when TWGS installs over it, the new TWGS is GUI, causing the state of the server to go out of sync like I described above.
3) I added a new menu command to TWGS called "Run as service...". If you do that, it will close TWGS, install it as a service, then start it. This will make it easier to kick it into service mode.
4) I added a shortcut to TWGSSERV.EXE that gets dropped onto the desktop and start menu. You can set this to "run as admin" to make sure it has sufficient rights to manage services.

That's basically it. I'm going to go ahead and post v2.09 as a minor cleanup build. That's mostly all that'll be in it, though there are a few other minor things like the multi-cpu ui bug.

It happened again. This time, when I logged in locally, I found the local interface open and the service running and a popup window that had everything locked up telling me version 10 was out. This always seems to happen when I', away and it's locking my players out. I am on version 2.08 still and in the middle of another reboot. The ONLY error it is reporting is the exact same error I posted earlier and this time, DEP wasn't involved.

I'm going to get 2.10 installed to see if the changes have made a difference.

Also, each time this happens, It causes my router to block the connection to the server, I can't remote in. I opened the router and can find nothing that tells me why. The server is listed as active and available. If I reboot the router, then connection is reset and I can access the server remotely again.

Just friggin weird.

Oh, that makes sense. I overlooked that. I shouldn't be showing any kind of messages if you're running as a service. I'll replace the popup window with an admin connection blurb when running as a service. TWGS used to be able to open in GUI form even when running as a service, but Windows cracked down on that. I'm sure that's what's up.

Thanks for tracking that down for me. That wasn't on my radar at all.

Just so you know, v2.10 won't fix this. I'll have another update soon with the fix. The only work around is to not run as a service for awhile. But I'll get you back in action soon. That's a very easy fix.

Okee Dokee! I am glad I could help.

I just added a system to capture any server messages that would normally go to a popup window. The server will store up to 10 of the messages until your next admin login when it'll display them for you. That way you won't miss any of the messages, but it won't attempt to display them in the gui while running as a service.