When your internet is down so is ProTools

[Eric Lambert]

Good lord, I just spent two hours troubleshooting an intensely slow booting ProTools, eventually uninstalling and reinstalling the app, and trying all the usual fixes, only to find that nothing worked. ProTools (and even the PT Prefs app) took about 30 times longer than usual to open and close.

It just so happens that our internet is down today (I'm using an iPhone hotspot for this post). I know that some apps have trouble when your connection is down, but I didn't think PT was one of them so I didn't try disconnecting my ethernet cable. The instant I did, voila! PT and the PT Prefs app open normally.

So it seems that PT was trying to make some connection via the internet as it was booting, then stalled while waiting, making it essentially unusable.

Note to all: if you go through a similar thing, disconnect your cable or turn off the internet in the Network preference because PT will get caught up. I don't remember this happening in past versions (I'm on 2021.10) but it's a thing now.

[sw rec]

I was trying to do a project years ago on 12.4, Win 7, and the cable guys were running a new cable from the box to the house at the same time, and even then it threw Pro Tools into a total tailspin. Had to disable the ‘net card so it would ignore it, until they were finished stringing their new cable. Not a new problem, it seems.

[capt kirk]

I'm 'air-gapped' when working, so I never run into it....

[weezul]

I use LittleSnitch and block every request coming from Pro Tools unless it is authorisation server for a third party plugin, and even then only if it won't activate because so many plugins are just phoning home whilst you use them. Works great.

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by weezul

I use LittleSnitch and block every request coming from Pro Tools unless it is authorisation server for a third party plugin, and even then only if it won't activate because so many plugins are just phoning home whilst you use them. Works great.

Yep.

Brilliant application.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Frank Kruse]

I've seen this a couple of times. It happens when your Computer sees a DNS server address from the router. Happens when your router is giving out DHCP info but there's no connection to the WAN.
What happens is that the router doesn't respond with a "sorry no response" message and the packets are simply dropped so the DAW waits for a response and has a very long time-out because there are hardly and apps that don't phone HQ to send metrics data or other stuff.

Also commonly happens when your DAWs are on an isolated VLAN and the router blocks access to the internet for security reasons.

The solution:
For people that have a professional non-household grade router/switch change the block rule to a reject rule for port 80 & 443. The block rule drops packets without notifying the client so the client waist for ever for a response. Instead turn it into a reject rule. The latter sends an instant "sorry, you can't do that" and the DAW will stop waiting immediately.

For people with "all doors open" and a flat network with a consumer router where everything can go everywhere you need to either disconnect the LAN cable when your internet is down (the computer will then also stop try to access the WAN) or you need to make sure the internet is up.

This is not only a PT thing. Pretty much every app and the computer itself will show this ultra-slow boot behaviour if it sees a DNS server but doesn't get a response.

Hope this helps. I've even seen this in large facilities where the IT wasn't aware of "block" vs "reject" and spend days reinstalling everything etc. when the fix is just a very simple change in the firewall rules.

Frank.

[JFreak]

If you find out that DNS is often the problem (and network would otherwise be operational) you can try the free Google (8.8.8.8) and Quad9 (9.9.9.9) DNS servers and see if it helps.

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by JFreak

If you find out that DNS is often the problem (and network would otherwise be operational) you can try the free Google (8.8.8.8) and Quad9 (9.9.9.9) DNS servers and see if it helps.

Yeah, that won't help if your WAN is down regardless of google, QuadNine or Cloudflare or other usual suspects. Neither will it help if you have a secured network that blocks outbound traffic for the DAWs the way I described. But the latter is really simple to fix.

Easiest temp fix if you can't fix the router or internet is: unplug the LAN cable. Start the machine, start PT and whatever else you need running. Plug cable back in. Should be fine until the next restart.

F

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Frank Kruse

This is not only a PT thing. Pretty much every app and the computer itself will show this ultra-slow boot behaviour if it sees a DNS server but doesn't get a response.

It's true that it's not only a PT thing, but while this issue was occuring I tried opening about 30 different apps and only PT and the PT Prefs apps exhibited slowed behavior. Logic was just slightly slower as it tried authenticating some plugins which it had previously authenticated, but the different in load times was minor.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by weezul

I use LittleSnitch and block every request coming from Pro Tools unless it is authorisation server for a third party plugin, and even then only if it won't activate because so many plugins are just phoning home whilst you use them. Works great.

OK now I'm interested in Little Snitch. Not only for ProTools but some other apps as well.