Hi Torben, this is I think more connected to iTunes.
Wednesday the connection to the iTunes library worked fine, tonight something is amiss. mAirList hangs up trying to connect to the database. Remove iTunes in the config and everything is OK.
The iTunes XML file is just under 54mb, there is also a similar file appeared in the mAirList folder. The itunes.itl file too is 55mb. None of the content in the XML file seems to relate to the audio library or mAirList.
If we delete these files will they be re-created on a reboot.
Hi Torben and Cad, dropped into the studio to check things as I had not seen the database connection working (just explained over the telephone).
Connection is made to the iTunes database only it takes an age (well at least 2-3 minutes).
Playback tends to drop out for no apparent reason, which I think may be a driver issue somewhere as it will suddenly correct itself.
You can also click start on a player and although the progress bar is moving there is no audio present. Click a second player and it all fires into life. Strange as its only sporadic.
The guys at the station had recently run a virus scan and found over 200 infections/malware/spyware on the system so this may explain things.
This may be due to the size of the library: how many tracks are in their iTunes?
Playback tends to drop out for no apparent reason, which I think may be a driver issue somewhere as it will suddenly correct itself.
You can also click start on a player and although the progress bar is moving there is no audio present. Click a second player and it all fires into life. Strange as its only sporadic.
Both of these sound—on the face of it—like they are sound card (or maybe video card?) driver issues.
The guys at the station had recently run a virus scan and found over 200 infections/malware/spyware on the system so this may explain things. Any thoughts?
Apart from 'install some kind of firewall and AV,' and of course being CERTAIN that EVERY bit of malware effect is gone, not really (!). If they can't afford to buy AV etc., I'd recommend avast! for AV and Comodo Personal Firewall to prevent nasties creeping in; plus Spybot Search and Destroy as an extra safeguard. All of those have free versions. I'd also advise at a bare mimimum, banning ALL instant messenger use (whether MS, AOL, Yahoo!, or whatever). Plus of course, banning all surfing of 'porn' sites, many of which are riddled with viruses, malware, etc.
I would also say that any action which causes malware, virus, etc. to appear on the playout PC should be a disciplinary matter. This includes loading ‘dodgy’ CDs of software or audio bought for £1 at the market.
If the PC in question is affected as badly as that AND has had 200+ malwares in it, personally I’d prefer to raze its HD to the ground and reinstall everything clean, from scratch. Anything else is frankly just too risky, because you can never be sure precisely what internal carnage has been wreaked by the bad stuff (and therefore may potentially reappear later to bite yer bum).
Cheers Cad, dropped home today for a couple of days.
The guys at Radio Lutterworth caught me on the off chance.
Their RSL went On Air on the 13th, just hours before they lost the database connection to iTunes. Unable to get mAirList running again with iTunes or an On The Fly database, they are running without.
Presumably they never bothered getting rid of their malware and if necessary reloading XP (or whatever) from scratch?
If they didn’t, suggesting anything further seems a bit pointless; with the sole exception of always making sure their portable drive is ON when they start up.