NEWS

2/09/05 - Server instability has been addressed and now most members are at Phase 1 level. The PatroNet home channel has been swapped with the Quickstart Kiosk in order to prevent spontaneous crashing by some XP users while we address the problem. Likewise, the TRTV home channel has been swapped with the Calendar channel.

If you've been experiencing this crash, you can try navigating to these swapped channels to check if the problem is still affecting you. We have removed the soundtrack from the PatroNet home channel to see if this is the problem. Please inform us of any changes in the channels behavior.

For an overview of the changes and additions in the update, click here.

If you are experiencing major problems, like loss of TRTV service, try the troubleshooting suggestions below. If you still have a problem, send an email with a description of the issue, including the steps to reproduce it and the details of your computer environment to support@patronet.com .

TROUBLESHOOTING

The Interocitor says it can't reach Metaluna.

Metaluna is the name of the server that connects you to your channels and to chats and other interactive experiences. There may be several reasons why the server can't be reached, such as failures in some part of the internet or an actual crash by the server itself. Occasionally we will take the server offline for testing or updating software. In such cases we will try to inform you beforehand.

If you get this message, try connecting again later. If the server has crashed, it may take several hours (as many as 24) to recover, so please be patient.

Members who have just changed service providers (such as a move up to broadband) may suddenly be unable to connect. This is usually due to the activation of a firewall. Firewalls (programs that help protect your computer from unauthorized connections) can take on many forms from system to system, so a discussion of how to configure yours is beyond the scope of these suggestions. You can verify this by deactivating firewall protection. If you find you can connect, then this is the problem. If so, you are likely to have problems with certain other applications as well. The Interocitor uses ports 1626 and 1627 for communication with Metaluna.

I've suddenly lost my TRTV service.

Sometimes the Interocitor's settings files may become corrupted (for instance, if the application should crash during a session). To correct this, you need to discard the corrupt settings and recreate your membership:

1) The settings file is nested inside your PatroNet folder. The path from the folder is PatroNet/Interocitor/assets/settings . Delete or trash this file.

2) Start the Interocitor. You'll see the 'virgin' channel, which has a direct link to the Personal Info channel ('become a member'). If you already have a membership but have forgotten the password, enter your email address in the proper field and click on the ENVELOPE icon next to the password field. Within a few moments you should receive an email with the information.

3) Fill out and submit your membership info (click on the LIGHTNING BOLT icon to submit) and you should be reconnected to your service.

If you still cannot connect to your service, contact support@patronet.com .

My Interocitor crashes when I try to launch it.

While the Interocitor keeps it's essential components up to date automatically, there are occasional updates to the Interocitor itself. It may be that you are trying to run an obsolete version. If this is a possibility, the best thing to do is start clean:

1) Locate and and delete any folder called PatroNet. You should do a search of all your disks for such folders, then put them in the trash and EMPTY THE TRASH. This is important to ensure that new installer does not try to update old versions.

2) Download the latest version for Windows, Mac OS9 or Mac OSX.

3) Follow the enclosed ReadMe instructions, then recreate your membership when the installer launches the Interocitor.

On some systems, the beginning of a 'sequence' will cause a crash. A sequence is an object in certain channels that displays a series of 'subchannels'. The home channel of most services has a schedule that counts down to the start of the sequence, which is when the crash occurs (The PatroNet Channel and TRTV both start sequences, but Member Services does not). The Interocitor is in the midst of a major rewrite in which this problem should be eliminated. Meanwhile, those affected should try to navigate to another channel as soon as connection is complete, then be sure to visit a Member Services channel to prevent the crash on the next startup.

I need to connect through a proxy server.

Many networks in corporate environments need to connect to outside servers through a proxy server. The Interocitor can connect through your network's proxy server if you do the following:

1) Create a text file named 'proxy' next to the Interocitor application (PatroNet/The Interocitor/).

2) The text of the file should be as follows:

<servertype>  <ipaddress>  <portnumber>

For example:

http  123.456.789.0  1234

When I try to purchase something, I get a message saying my country code isn't recognized.

Credit card billing information is kept on your local computer (not our server), and is only accessed when you try to purchase something. Our card approval and collection service insists on being passed a 2 letter country code, which our server tries to derive from the billing information you have saved. Sometimes a combination we haven't thought of fails to be converted to the proper country code and is rejected. For instance, "NETHERLANDS" and "HOLLAND" are both converted to 'NL', but until we made a recent adjustment, "THE NETHERLANDS" was unrecognized.

If you experience this problem, try changing your country designation to something more common, or perhaps some other variant. If you still have problems, contact support@patronet.com and we'll try to make adjustments on our end.