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About the Error

From version 1.4.11 onwards, EigenD runs a network connectivity check at startup. This checks that the multicast IP networking that EigenD requires to communicate with the Browser and Commander is working properly.

Applications such as firewalls and anti virus systems sometime block this communication. If this is the case, EigenD's Browser and Commander applications won't work.

The symptoms of this problem are that the Browser will just display a blank screen, and that the Commander will not be able to connect to EigenD, shown by a red connection status light at the bottom of the window.

If this happens, please try disabling any firewall or anti virus software and re-run EigenD to check for the error again. If EigenD can run in this case, you will need to configure your system to allow the required traffic.

Required Configuration

EigenD uses IP multicast. It sends UDP/IP traffic from the localhost IP address, 127.0.0.1 to the following multicast addresses and ports:

    Type: UDP
    Source Address: 127.0.0.1 
    Source Ports: Not fixed
    Destination Address/Port: 225.0.*.* 
    Destination Ports 55555 -> 55560

It uses the internal local network adapter to send the traffic.

You will need to configure your firewall to allow this. Exactly how this is done depends on the firewall in use.

Particular Firewalls

We will add details about particular firewalls as we find them.

  • Windows Firewall

Windows firewall does not appear to block local UDP multicast traffic. Even if you deny access to EigenD the Browser and Commander will continue to work correctly.

  • Zone Alarm

Check Point's Zone Alarm does block our UDP traffic.

Unfortunately, we have so far found no way of configuring Zone Alarm to allow it.

Changing the UDP ports used by EigenD.

In the EigenD settings directory,

    Library/Eigenlabs/ on Mac OS
    My Documents\\Eigenlabs\\ on Windows

you will find a file called ports.txt. This contains a number which EigenD uses as the first port in its range. By default this is 55555 which causes EigenD to use the range 55555 though 55560. You can change this with any text editor. You will need to restart EigenD, the Browser, and the Commander for it to take effect.

If you have reason to suspect that this is causing a conflict with other applications, you can change this number. EigenD will use 6 UDP ports from the starting port.