Monday 22 March 2010

Mionet -> Freezes Windows XP , Vista and Windows 7 with Microsoft Security Essentials Anti Virus running

This article :
notes that Mionet freezes / blue screens on Windows operating systems with Symantec or Kapersky antivirus installed

I can verify that the same applies to Microsoft's "security essentials" anti-virus software. My guess would be in fact that any anti-virus (A.V.) software that does real-time checking of system processes will have the same result.

In order to get Mionet to work I had to disable the anti-virus software prior to installed Mionet.

The solution they offer to Kapersky and Norton/Symantec users is to disable the packet filter provided by the Anti-virus software. I don't know whether I need to point out that this is hardly an ideal solution. (AV software includes a packet filter by design.) In any case this is not the issue with Microsoft Security Essentials which does not install a packet filter. But even so, with any real-time anti-virus protection enabled the freezing problem still occurs.

Don't think that you can get away with either enabling one or other product alternately! My attempts at doing this led to hours of wasted time. (Trying to disable Mionet also causes my Windows XP system to freeze completely.)

The only way I can see to get round this at the moment, is to uninstall Mionet completely and then enable the anti-virus software. Then when I need to do another backup, disable the anti-virus and install it again!!!

At least NOW I KNOW. If the software had come with instructions warning about this, it would have saved hours of time and system crashes while I figured out what was going on. But I suppose equally if it had come with instructions warning about this, then I wouldn't have bought one.

Installing and uninstalling Mionet is obviously not ideal. I certainly would not recommend buying a Western Digital MyWorldBook while this problem is not fixed. Maybe in the next version of MioNet they will fix it... We can but hope. In the meantime it does at least mean I can use the one I bought - and not have to fight with Dixons to try and get a refund out of them.

BACKGROUND FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED:

Mionet for those of you who don't know is a piece of software which (as far as I can tell) is the ONLY WAY to connect a Western Digital "MyBookWorld" Backup device (in my case it is a 1 Tera byte device) to a PC network.

The MyBookWorld has a USB connector hole in it, but this is only for the purposes of stringing several of these devices together. Where as I had incorrectly assumed from what I read on the box and in reviews that the device could connect either via a network hub (to the PC network) OR via USB. I also have a IcyBox with a 1TB drive in it that very happily connects via USB. But anyway.

So basically the only way of getting the "MyBookWorld" 1 Terabyte device to connect to my Windows XP machine is to use Mionet - which is basically a defective piece of software. (I mean a piece of software that cannot be installed on a machine that also has anti-virus software on it, would seem to me to fall in to the category of defective.) A.V. software is pretty much obligatory.

I guess I am just left feeling cheated by Western Digital, and having to install and uninstall Mionet every time I want to use my back up device... WHAT A PAIN!

Addendum


Ah! It looks from posts like this and this that there are alternative ways of connecting to a "MyBook" or "MyWorldBook" that doesn't require using MioNet at all.

In fact if you visit this website:  http://mybookworld.wikidot.com   and in particular this page: http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/hacks-and-howto   ,   we can discover that it is possible to do ALL KINDS OF WONDERFUL THINGS with out MyWorldBook.

However, many of the procedures and script hacking suggestions come with caveats and comments of the "THIS MAY TURN YOUR DRIVE INTO A BRICK" kind.

For me, all I wanted here was a straightforward backup device. I never intended to get on board with the MioNet project and I never really wanted to have to start hacking around with Linux operating system scripts.

All I wanted here was to have my Network Assigned Disk Storage operate like it was Network Assigned Disk Storage.

Now as it turns out you can quite easily REMOVE MIONET completely and still access any data you may have already put on your MioNet K drive.

Here's how...

(1) Before you remove MioNet, log in to it one last time. (Remember to disable any real-time antivirus software before going anywhere near MioNet).
















(2) At the end of the login procedure, you will be shown a dialog box like this one below.
Make a note of the user-name and password.
This is the Username and Password which is used internally by MioNet to access the share on your MyBookWorld where it stores any files you put on to it using MioNet.

For example put this into a notepad file so you can refer to it easily later.




(3) Now once MioNet has started up, go to properties of the MioNet drive.




(4) In my case that is the K drive. Think I saw it is usually mapped to K by default.




(5) Now go to the "DFS" tab of the properties of the share used by MioNet





This will show you the IP address that your local DHCP server has allocated to your MyBookWorld.
And it will also show you the Share name that MioNet has created to stored your files in.
(Something like IDXXXXXXX ).




(6) Now completely remove MioNet from your computer.


(7) Once MioNet has been completely remove (you may have to reboot), you can now connect directly to the network path that we found out in part 5. above.
In fact, we can make it easy by Mapping a Drive letter to this path.
In the drive mapping, use the account name and password that you noted down in part 2. above.
(You can copy and paste these credentials from your notepad window.)
In the "Folder" text box, type in path and sharename you found out in step 5. above.





(8) That's all there is to it.
You now have completely removed MioNet (so you can reactivate your anti-virus software without the freezes and blue-screens.
You haven't had to hack any linux scripts on the MyBookWorld.
You haven't had to move any files that you had previously put on the MyBookWorld (while you were using MioNet to access it).
You have complete access to network storage device and can treat it just like any other windows network drive storage.
(What I wanted when I bought the MyWorldBook in the first place, and before I was assaulted with having to deal with the MioNet software stuff which I had never asked for or bargained for having to deal with.)

End result: Me very happy! 8-)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have used Mionet with Kaspersky and NAV and it works fine. I share with some people who have other AV and it works. This sounds like an issue that may strike a few people but far from everyone.

Did you contact their support or are you complaining without all the details?

I'm not sure if you got the Mybook world for the Mionet or for the NAS? The NAS part works like all NAS boxes I have used without Mionet so I don't get why you wouldn't buy one...

freepcadvice said...

Another option is to access through internet explorer, just enter your ip address in the address bar i.e
\\192.168.1.3 your IDXXXXXX number should appear just click this and then login using the mionet-yourusername and the password. I use AV and this works fine with MIONET. Is your problem with MS essentials



http://free-antivirus-softwaredownload.blogspot.com/