Guide Data Outage - 2019 Summer Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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suzakuofLE

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#141

Post by suzakuofLE » Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:31 pm

Paul Anderegg wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:22 pm On January 14, 2020, when Windows 7 officially goes "end of support", I would assume they will just turn off all these guide servers and such and pull the plug on it for good. #ripguide

Paul
It is not 2020 yet, we should not be having so much trouble. :sick:

has it ever been this bad before?

JohnW248

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#142

Post by JohnW248 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:05 pm

stevethebrain wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 5:43 pm anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB
You can use our former guide provider zap2it which has an online guide which you can set with your cable company, etc and was/is often more correct than Rovi. Just google the name.

JohnW248

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#143

Post by JohnW248 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:06 pm

suzakuofLE wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:31 pm
Paul Anderegg wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:22 pm On January 14, 2020, when Windows 7 officially goes "end of support", I would assume they will just turn off all these guide servers and such and pull the plug on it for good. #ripguide

Paul
It is not 2020 yet, we should not be having so much trouble. :sick:

has it ever been this bad before?
I recall one time when the guide ran out for a day or two and I had to do manual recordings of my series records. Was a couple of year ago and I don't remember the root cause of the outage.

superdave6653

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#144

Post by superdave6653 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:20 pm

i just noticed that when I click on Settings, TV, Guide, Guide Terms of Service, I get a response of No Internet Connection. I have never noticed this issue before.

Is that issue also connected to the EPG failure to connect to server?

I am absolutely positive that I do not have an Internet connectivity problem using any other application on the computer.

iam144

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#145

Post by iam144 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:24 pm

I've got the same problem as superdave6653.

I started realizing that I couldn't get the latest guide listings today when the messages started popping up that I had only 3 days left. I went to manually download the latest guide listings, tries and then reports download failed.
Being curious, I clicked on the Terms and Conditions button and was unceremoniously told that I was not connected to the internet. Hmm, it looks like I'm connected, I can browse web pages, I can get my email. So, I did an internet connection test (I'm hardwired to my router which is hardwired to my cable modem) and that says test successful.
Well, back to the Download Latest listings link and the same thing, download failed.
Any suggestions?

jimij1000

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#146

Post by jimij1000 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:27 pm

superdave6653 wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:20 pm i just noticed that when I click on Settings, TV, Guide, Guide Terms of Service, I get a response of No Internet Connection. I have never noticed this issue before.

Is that issue also connected to the EPG failure to connect to server?

I am absolutely positive that I do not have an Internet connectivity problem using any other application on the computer.
Most likely MS pulled the TOS web link that is being called from within the MCE program and throws that error. I receive it to.

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garyan2

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#147

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:27 pm

We noticed this back when Microsoft announced dropping their metadata support for CDs and Movies. It disappeared using that button, but if you start a new TV Setup routine the Program ToS will still be shown there. The one for TV Setup is stored locally, while I guess the button in the Guide page actually reaches out to MS servers to get the info.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

jimij1000

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#148

Post by jimij1000 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:28 pm

Intentional repost:

So I put on my engineering hat and took a video of the TCP connections in resource monitor on windows 8.1 once the manual click of the "get latest guide listings" was pressed inside MCE. The video shows that an instance of mcupdate.exe makes a connection to a few different IP addresses, and then spawns additional mcupdate.exe's to run over the course of about 3 minutes. the IP's that were recorded are these:
10.223.55.10
65.55.186.113
191.232.80.197
134.170.29.74
134.170.29.194
10.223.55.10

I have the 10.223.55.10 address listed twice intentionally as it opens, closes the connection several times. Also important to note is that 10.x.x.x IP's are not routable over the internet. Not being able to fully understand or decompile the mcupdate.exe code it seems the process is trying to make a TCP connection to a non routable IP address. I'd be curious if others could give it a try and see if my findings match yours?

AChanceFind

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#149

Post by AChanceFind » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:32 pm

superdave6653 wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:20 pm i just noticed that when I click on Settings, TV, Guide, Guide Terms of Service, I get a response of No Internet Connection. I have never noticed this issue before.

Is that issue also connected to the EPG failure to connect to server?

I am absolutely positive that I do not have an Internet connectivity problem using any other application on the computer.
I literally just noticed the same thing minutes ago. Either the guide terms of service does some internet call which now does not work due to the down server, or MS has stealthy applied some update to turn the TOS info off as to say it is finished.

Also if you go help page which useless @microsofthelps tweeted out, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ng-started ,
you will see it was last updated 1/23/2019, very recent considering this is a "dead" product. Also really no true mention of the guide in detail (perhaps that's what was edited out). I clicked on the "not useful" link on that page and submitted a comment - perhaps everyone can do the same and see if that gets any response (doubt it).

If all this is true then guess goes to show how much MS cares about people who paid for WMC and how they handle things. Or, if this is just another IT issue them maybe it will miraculously start working again some day. EOL for Win 7 is not an excuse (and technically not Jan 2020 yet), as providing the guide is trivial to MS and probably the same resources that do the xbox guide.

foxwood

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#150

Post by foxwood » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:47 pm

Paul Anderegg wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:22 pm On January 14, 2020, when Windows 7 officially goes "end of support", I would assume they will just turn off all these guide servers and such and pull the plug on it for good. #ripguide
The EPG has absolutely nothing to do with the Windows support cycle - you agreed to a separate Terms of Service for the WMC EPG when you were setting up WMC, and the TOS that you agreed to states that Microsoft may discontinue providing the EPG at any time.

foxwood

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#151

Post by foxwood » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:10 pm


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davidhp

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#152

Post by davidhp » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:22 pm

stevethebrain wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 5:43 pm anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB
Try Titan TV: https://titantv.com/default.aspx

Chalres

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#153

Post by Chalres » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:22 pm

stevethebrain wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 5:43 pm anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB
Yes TitanTv is awesome, free, and no ads (that I recall). I believe it's at www.titantv.com

Edit: Oops, sorry didn't see that davidhp had already answered this the same way. Thus, I second his suggestion.

m056678

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#154

Post by m056678 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:01 pm

Guide data is back for 01731 (Burlington, MA)!

adam1991

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#155

Post by adam1991 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:07 pm

I wonder if that indicates guide data restoration is alphabetical (Burlington) or geographical, starting in the east (MA).

jimij1000

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#156

Post by jimij1000 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:08 pm

m056678 wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:01 pm Guide data is back for 01731 (Burlington, MA)!
My guide is back as well!! crisis averted till next time. Philly market ota

dab2kab

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#157

Post by dab2kab » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:10 pm

Guide data also back for buffalo ny ota. Just as i was thinking i would epg 123 a try.

JohnW248

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#158

Post by JohnW248 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:12 pm

Thanks, updating now in progress in zip 91324/Spectrum Los Angeles

AChanceFind

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#159

Post by AChanceFind » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:12 pm

Back for me too in Bay Area , CA ! Date now up to 7/11/19 1AM !!

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SugarFree

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#160

Post by SugarFree » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:19 pm

> Guide data is back for 01731 (Burlington, MA)!

Hallelujah! Till what date? And who is your provider? After these outages, restorations tend to go alphabetically by provider. Did you try a manual update, or did it just appear? I'm on Verizon, just tried another manual, which failed.

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for letting us know.

UPDATE: Got the error message - but the guide uploaded correctly anyway. Talk about "just in the nick of time."
Last edited by SugarFree on Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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