Standalone CAT/PFV: .NET and PC Configuration

You are using the stand-alone version of the CAT or PFV (i.e. not the on-instrument version integrated with Paragon-100G or Paragon-neo) and you see one of the following issues:

• CAT or PFV fails to start and gets stuck at 10%.

• CAT or PFV starts but shows only the application logo.

• CAT or PFV starts but shows a black empty display.

• Report generation does not work or generated reports contain no images

CAT and PFV require the following supporting software applications to operate.

You can check the installation status of the supporting applications using Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features.

Note that the major versions of the .NET supporting applications are listed in the table above, subsequent minor releases of these applications are acceptable but must be synchronized for the .NET host to run successfully.

For example if you have version 8.0.19 of the ‘Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime' installed then version 8.0.19 of the 'Microsoft ASP .NET Core Runtime' must also be installed.

A mismatch in the latest version of these installed applications may prevent the .NET host process from starting which the CAT and PFV applications rely on to run.

The CAT and PFV installers will contain appropriate, synchronized versions, however the scenario my be encountered where IT policing software updates these applications independently. This is a known issue with these applications and the recommended solution is to keep the versions synchronized.

If all of the above looks OK, then try deleting the CAT settings file. This has been found to get corrupted occasionally and, if this happens, it can prevent the CAT from starting up properly. Go to Documents/Calnex/CAT/Settings and delete cat.default.cps.

Note: This is a settings file - the user settings will be lost but there are no other side-effects; the file will be re-created once the CAT is running.

From version 15.00 onwards, the CAT is based on a client-server model. The client communicates with the server over TCPIP using localhost port 1337. 

The PC firewall must be configured such that communication between the client and server is not blocked. When the CAT is initially installed and run, the user will normally be asked if they want to allow communication or not - allowing this communication should then configure their firewall correctly. 

If your LAN connection is through a proxy server, the PC should be set up to bypass the proxy server for local addresses. This will allow direct localhost connections with no proxy involvement. To bypass the proxy, go to Control Panel and select Internet Options. From the Connections tab click Lan Settings. In the dialogue box, make sure that Bypass proxy server for local addresses is checked. 

If none of the above helps, then some debugging is required:

1. Run the CAT and leave it at the Initialising step for a few minutes. Start a standard browser (e.g. IE, Chrome, Firefox) and then connect to http://127.0.0.1:1337.

   • If this doesn't work, then collect the CAT log files – zip up the folder C:\Users\<user>\Documents\Calnex\Cat\Logs – then raise a Service Request via the https://calnex-support.com/ and attach the logs to the ticket.

2. If (1) works, then try connecting to http://localhost:1337.

   • If (2) doesn't work, then edit the host file (as shown below) and try again.

3. If still things aren't working, then raise a Service Request via the https://calnex-support.com/and attach the logs (see above) to the ticket.

If 127.0.0.1 works but localhost doesn't, then this would indicate a problem in the DNS set up. It is possible that the hosts file is set up incorrectly. In this case you have to run Notepad as Administrator then open file "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" and make sure there is an entry that looks like this:

127.0.0.1       localhost

If there is an entry like

 :: localhost    or     ::1 localhost

Comment it out with a # character:

#::   localhost
#::1 localhost

Then add:

127.0.0.1       localhost

This should fix any problem with localhost mapping.