Troubleshooting

General

• Runtime Problems
  Whenever runtime problems occur, take a look at Zoidcom's logging output. It might contain hints to what is going wrong. How to enable logging is described in Layer 1: Base Initialization.

Crashes

• Sending the same data multiple times
  If you want to send data to several clients through ZCom_Control or ZCom_Node methods, make sure to create a new ZCom_BitStream object for each call to one of the send methods. You can use ZCom_BitStream::Duplicate() to make exact copies of a stream.
• Deleting ZCom_BitStream objects
  After sending a ZCom_BitStream object, don't delete it. Zoidcom assumes ownership of the streams and will delete them automatically after use.
• Replicators And Memory Overwrites
  When registering integer data for replication in a ZCom_Node, make sure to only register zU32 types or anything else with at least the same size. When Zoidcom receives updates for such data, 4 bytes will be written to the registered variable. If you register like that:

    static char c; 
    node->addReplicationInt((zU32*) &c, ....); 
  

  really bad and ugly things will happen, as 4 bytes are written to a memory location with the reserved size of only 1 byte.
• Registered Objects
  Do not delete objects that are registered to other objects:
  • Do not delete ZCom_NodeEventInterceptor before the node or before unregistering.
  • Do not delete ZCom_NodeReplicationInterceptor before the node or before unregistering.
  • Do not delete ZCom_Replicator objects when the node they are registered in is still active.
• Node Event Data
  Do not delete bitstreams received by ZCom_Node::getNextEvent().

Connection Problems

• Connection Fails
  • Use correct port
    When connecting to a Zoidcom host, don't forget to specify the target port in the address string (e.g. "192.168.5.44:9931").
  • Check port forwarding
    When connecting to a server behind a router, the router needs to have the target server UDP port forwarded.
  • Check firewall
    Make sure that no firewall software is running (including Window's builtin one) or open up the used ports for UDP traffic.
• LAN Discovery does not work
  On Unix systems, normal users sometimes are not allowed to use broadcasting on sockets. Check permissions when LAN discovery does not work. The logfile should complain about this problem, too.

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