eSignal and Internet Explorer Issues

[nbeaufour]

Hi all

sorry to post such long topic here but I've sent an email to Esignal Tech last week and still no answer.

I have a lot of problems for the trader i'm supporting concernnig eSignal and internet explorer, in various conditions.

There are three major cases that happened.

The first one concern a huge amount of CPU usage. After several hours of using eSignal, the computer start freezing when we're moving the graph windows. The computer hang for couples of seconds. This problem occured even after the restart of eSignal.

The others problems concern eSignal and Internet Explorer.
In the first case, it's impossible to connect to internet with Internet Explorer when Esignal is working. In fact, the internet connexion is working well for some time and suddently it's impossible to connect again. This problem remain even after we close eSignal. The only solution so far is to reboot the computer.

In the other case, eSignal is no more able to retrieve realtime data after we use Internet Explorer to browse any website, www.yahoo.fr for exemple. Everything is working well for some time and then, the flux is no more coming.

I don't know if these problems are known and/or if a solution exist.
You can find below the informations regarding the computer, the operating system and the version of eSignal we're using.

NOTE : The version 7.6 RC3 have the same problems.

*********
eSignal
*********

version: eSignal 7.5 (Build 628), symbols: 1, MKPR,Market Profile FI,File INTL,International / Full Capture PCFC,PC Full Capture SC1,Symbol Count 1 AXH,ActiveX 3rd Party User CME,Chicago Mercantile CME-S,Chicago Mercantile Spreads CBT-S,Chicago Board of Trade Spreads CBT,Chicago Board of Trade MFMM,Mutual & Money Market MIDA-S,Mid-America Spreads MIDA,Mid-America DB,Index LIFE,London Financial MATF,Matif LCE,London Commodity (LCE) DTB,Eurex (DTB) SPC,S&P Cash Indices CBTE,Chicago Board of Trade eMini CMEE,CME Electronic DBC Headlines/Reports (DB) DBC Reports (FI) ,

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Internet Explorer
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Version 6.0.2800.1106
Build 62800.1106
Product ID 55736-260-7485443-04579
Application Path C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer
Language English (United States)
Cipher Strength 128-bit
Content Advisor Disabled
Update Versions ;SP1;Q828750;Q330994;
Java VM Version 5.0.3810.0
IEAK Install No

*************************************************
Operating system & Hardware General Info
*************************************************
OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4 Build 2195
System Manufacturer NEC Computers International
System Model POWERMATE ML4
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~2489 Mhz
BIOS Version 05/13/03


Thanks fo your time

[DuaneG]

Hi nbeaufour,

Thanks for the information. This helps. There are a couple of things that may be worth checking in regards to the CPU usage and resources that are being allocated to help figure this out. If you could provide some information in regards to Applications, Processes and Performance, we can get specific with any programs that may be causing this. Specifically, I would be interested in looking for any issue that is using an unusually high amount of CPU processing power. Any additional information you can provide in this area will help isolate the underlying problem. Thanks.

[jschaller]

Hi Duane and nB,

I am having exactly the same problem that nbeaufour describes. It started while using 7.5 but continues with the 7.6 upgrade.

I have tried keeping task manager open to see if there's a specific application causing issues but it never shows anything unusual (when it comes up). Generally when the IE browser stops working or gets slow, task manager doesn't even come up anymore. Also, the only way to shut off my PC is through a power/off, the "shutdown" command no longer works.

I'm using XP home edition OS on an AMD athlon box with 512MB RAM.

The issues only seems to occur after several hours of using esignal - approximately 4 - 6 hours of use seems to be the magic number, or a large number of symbol history downloaded.

The lock up issue occurs only after using esignal, no other applications seem to cause this slowdown to occur.

I am launching esignal through the MBT navigator. Generally the only applications I have open are IE and MS Excel while using esignal.

winsig is using 66M of RAM as shown in Task Manager, using no more than 4% CPU time (when I can check it).

[DuaneG]

Hi jschaller,

I've been looking for some sort of common denominator to help isolate what both you and nbeaufour are experiencing. I wanted to check and see if you happen to be running any EFS studies and if so, how many.

Another thing that came to mind was the possibility of Spyware or Adware on your respective machines. I'm not sure if you have ever run a system scan for these types of issues, but if not, it is recommended as it can directly affect the performance of the browser. In regards to Adware, you may want to look at Adaware. Spybot Search and Destroy is also another good program for determining if there is something occurring behind the scenes that could affect the overall performance of the computer. Please let me know.

[nbeaufour]

No one here is using eSignal Formula Script so far.

And for spyware, adware, etc, computers are clean.
We check computer regulary, and by the way, we are, like almost every company, behind proxy, firewall, and protected by AntiVirus

But just in case I've run the programs.
CWShredder didn't detect anything and ad-aware only find some tracking cookies but nothing serious.

The computer here are very light, the only programs running is eSignal on a win2K professionnal workstation. The other program installed are no more than current desk software : MS Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Winzip.

While I did not have the problems you describe, I have had pretty good success with Avant Browser. I loaded this alternate browser when I had a trojan virus securely fastened to Internet Explorer and my virus software could not dislodge the virus. It is freeware, and is quite nice. In my opinion, installation of this would be a very low risk evolution.

I did notice that Duane is using MyIE2. This alternate browser is also available at the link below.


Alternate Browser Links

[nbeaufour]

I've not tested this solution yet, because the problems can happen at any time. And for now we (the IT support) don't want to install add-on for IE or alternate browser.

Another solution is to reboot the computer but I don't think it's the good one. There must be a solution for making eSignal and Internet explorer working at the same time.

Based on you indicating that you are part of IT, It sounds like you may be accessing eSignal through a Local Area Network. If these machines are not stand alone, then I would suggest you take at least one of them off the LAN and make it stand-alone and see if that makes a difference. If it works, then the problem may be with the LAN. If it does not work, then you may have eliminated the LAN as a possible problem.

I wish you the best of luck.

[gspiker]

nbeaufour,

Have you seen the CERT (recently released) that advises either NOT running IE or disabling active scripting and active X pages if you insist on running IE (and thereby making IE all but unusable IMO)?

Since many IT shops at major companies have to react to a CERT, this is causing a bit of a scramble for some...either switching browsers or justifying to their security officer/management why they aren't.

Just extra fuel for thought.

Garth

[nbeaufour]

Computer showing malfunctions were updated with latest security patch.

Also some computer were stopped for the week end, and restarted from a clean situation. (some were working for 495 hours)

for now, the problem seems to be resolve but I don't know with which operation.