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[Geewiz]

Greets, all...

I've been playing with X10Dispatcher on and off and have had the MSN logon working successfully.  I came back to it last night and it will not log on.  I've logged into the account from Messenger and that works fine...just won't log in from Dispatcher.

Is anyone aware of any changes to MSN Messenger that would stop Dispatcher from working?

[Puck]

The same thing has started for me about a week ago (at least that was when I first noticed it). I generally don't use MSN to connect to my system but I do like to have it working as an alternative.

X10Dispatcher just says "connecting" but never does. The only thing I tried was to drop my firewall to test, but that made no difference. Seeing that someone else is having the same issue, I'm more curious about it now.

[Knightrider]

Oh crap.
It no work here.  I had been running it on my carillon machine so the FD could remotely operate my storm siren.  Good thing you guys tipped me off, or I would never had checked.

[Geewiz]

I was just starting to get excited about using X10dispatcher tied in to MSN Messenger.  I recently upgraded my cell phone to an Android model (no more "caveman phone" for me!) and was using it to send remote "sendplc" controls through messenger.  What a great feeling of power to turn the lights on and off from my cell phone! 

Well, that feeling of power was short-lived wasn't it! 

I wonder if a fix will be forthcoming...or an alternative?  Iphone has a couple really nice apps for controlling X10.  Hopefully those developers will port over to Android sometime?

Dispatcher is a pretty nice little program that I had found some good use for! 

[davideinmd]

Well there's still my method! 

http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=19197.0

[jflo]

I have had the same issues.  It seems like MSN must have made a change in how login takes place.  x10 Dispatcher uses some software library called dotMSN (look in the Help->About) which is apparently as old as x10 Dispatcher.
The thing I love about dispatcher (that the GMail Remote Controller method can't do) is that it executes the command immediately after it is sent.
Does anyone know of a way to get in touch with the author and beg for an update?  And with all the people using x10, why aren't there any up to date applications to drive it? 
-Jody

[kg0rp]

I too noticed this problem about a month ago.  I think the problem is with the way MSN accepts logins, not with X10Dispatcher although that's where the fix will have to be implemented.

I watched the X10Dispatcher logon process with an IP monitor program.  It tries to send the logon data to IP address 64.4.9.254:1863 and never receives a response. 

If you log on to MSN using messenger it goes to a different IP address.  It sends the initial packet to 64.50.4.62:1863 and receives a response that sets up an exchange of data.

My guess is that MSN changed and X10Dispatcher is working with a hard coded address.

I don't think the author is actively supporting X10Disatcher anymore, but perhaps this will eventually come to his attention.  Or perhaps someone else has the sorce code and can provide a fix.

I wonder if some routers could do an address substitution on that initial packet.  Professional routers can, but I'm not sure how it could be done with the average linksys home router.

I also tried to use the X10Dispatcher web interface to trigger macros but there seems to be a different problem there.  The web interface works great as a monitoring tool but as soon as you execute a couple of macros it seems to crash and wont work again until X10Dispatcher is rebooted. 

Hopefully someone can fix one or both of these issues (if I have the diagnosis correct) so we can use this great little program.  I use it to monitor and control my vacation property which is located in a different state.  I still use it, but I have to go through the XP remote desktop to get at it.  A pain under any circumstance, worse yet when the target is on the other side of a satellite with a propagation delay of 1.2 seconds!

[Knightrider]

I talked to X10_Dispatch_Dave about a month ago.  He's lost interest in the handy little app that some of us really like.  It's now been open-sourced and you can grab the code here:

http://x10dispatcher.codeplex.com/

My kung fu is pretty weak, but I'd love to see someone pick this up and run with it.  I'd even be glad to beta test it.

If anyone wants the old installer for the latest version, drop me a line.  I may post it on TAH.

The old website X10dispatcher.com is gone as of last November.  I'm surprised that Tuicemen hasn't mentioned that fact.

[Tuicemen]

I was hoping to hear from Dave and thought maybe He might pick it up again.
 
I'll look at the code as probably 50% is from my suggestions  ok maybe not 50 maybe 40.
 

[Noam]

I'm not a programmer, but I'd be interested in testing this, if someone can get it working with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.
One feature that I really loved was the power outage notifications. This was the only free program I found that was actually able to send me an e-mail when my UPS went onto battery power, and when it went back to AC power.
Every other free program I tried either didn't work with my Belkin UPS, or couldn't send emails. Since upgrading to Windows 7, I had to put together a few batch files that worked off an Event trigger, but it is not my ideal solution.

If anyone picks this up, please add me to your beta test list. Send me a message, and I'll send you my e-mail address.

[Tuicemen]

I'm not a programmer, but I'd be interested in testing this, if someone can get it working with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.
One feature that I really loved was the power outage notifications. This was the only free program I found that was actually able to send me an e-mail when my UPS went onto battery power, and when it went back to AC power.
Every other free program I tried either didn't work with my Belkin UPS, or couldn't send emails. Since upgrading to Windows 7, I had to put together a few batch files that worked off an Event trigger, but it is not my ideal solution.

If anyone picks this up, please add me to your beta test list. Send me a message, and I'll send you my e-mail address.

Dave was the one who actualy turned me into a programer and the power feature was one of the many adds I requested for X10Dispatcher.

I've downloaded and looked into the code. Making it load on windows 7 64 bit isn't a big deal.
It is writen in C# which isn't what I usualy code in. The MSN link part I believe is a dead end since MSN messanger changed( seems I read something about this else where).
I upgraded the code to C# express 2008 and it does load on my Windows 7 64 bit system.
I'll see if I can put together a quick installer and add it to my web site for those that wish to test it.
However I can't say for sure what all will work or if it will crash your new AHP as it uses the original SDK.
Once I get caught up On my other projects I'll dig into this a little more as I too would hate for this handy program to vanish.
 

[Noam]

The MSN link part I believe is a dead end since MSN messanger changed( seems I read something about this else where).

Hmm. Here's a crazy idea: Let it update a Twitter account with every command that it sees, and have it monitor a Tritter account (perhaps the same account, or mabye a second one would be needed) for commands to execute. Can it be done?

(just a wish list, I don't use Twitter, but this might be a cool reason to start ;-)

[Tuicemen]

I don't use Twitter, but this might be a cool reason to start ;-)

I don't either and don't plan on it in the future
I'll see what I can come up with.
Who knows I or someone else may get it working with MSN again.
 

[Tuicemen]

I've been looking into the code or at least the MSN part.
The Dll that is used for the MSN code is no longer supported.
How ever it does seem that if someone was familiar with the MSN periodical X10Dispatch could continue the way we love.
Sadly this is beyond my grasp .
I would have thought someone besides my self would have attempted this
I have created a  discussion thread at http://x10dispatcher.codeplex.com/ as I seen there were others that downloaded this code. Sadly the author is the only one to respond to reply to this thread.
With his advice I downloaded the windows live SDK which for whatever reason I can't get to work on windows 7 64 bit.
SO I'll look into Jabber, that is unless someone else is willing to look at the MSN side.
Hey, Jabber may be over my head too
 

[Tuicemen]

Good news on this front.
I hear a new version is in the works using twitter instead. 
No word on when a test build will be ready but it may turn up on Codeplex with the source code first.