ExamWritePad - Weird Issue

[HappyAdmin]

Hi Hive Mind,

 

(I know there's an ExamWritePad sticky thread - but it is huge, and this is a discrete, complex issue, so I thought it would be better in a separate post.)

I've got a really weird issue with ExamWritePad (up to date, paid) starting slowly when on the network and I wonder if anyone has any ideas:

I have 10 exam laptops - basic Windows 10 install, domain joined.

They need to be on WiFi for printing, but not to have internet access because exams :-)

Everything about EWP is local to the SSD: program, license, config file, saving, autosave location... The config is set not to check for updates on startup.

I have IP reservations for the WiFi MACs of these laptops, and our Fortigate is set not to allow them to see the internet, limiting them to the internal network - but see below.

 

• When I boot and log in with normal internet access (wired connection, or WiFi but with IP set outside the exam laptop range by changing the reservation) EWP starts in ~5 seconds
  
• When I boot and log in with no internet access (IP reserved into exam range) EWP takes about 28s to run.
  

I've therefore logged all the web traffic from the time of plugging into the wired network until EWP is run (via our Fortigate) and allowed traffic to all the sites accessed from the exam laptop IP range, except for bing.com - they are mostly ocsp related, which I believe is related to certificate checking. However, this made no difference - still a 28s EWP startup time.

 

• When I use a normal internet connection and get the 5s EWP startup I can then revert to the connection with the internet blocked and close EWP or even reboot and still get the 5s startup for some time. However, a few hours later (I'm not sure of exact timing) it reverts to 28s until the next time it is given unfiltered internet access.
  

I know 28s isn't that much, but there's no indication on screen that anything is happening (no "eggtimer" animation except in the first and last couple of seconds) and it is long enough to be confusing, meaning users click multiple times etc. Plus it's the principle of thing!

 

Has anyone got any ideas of what is causing this or what to try? I think I'm at a loss now.

 

Thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas (other than disconnecting from the network - now we are printing via it instead of USB sticks I'd rather wait 28s for startup than go back!)

Ben

[midweek]

Ours does this too. I've only just deployed EWP so I haven't got round to doing any investigations yet.

[HappyAdmin]

Thanks midweek - that's really interesting, and reassures me that I'm not going insane!

[kennysarmy]

Just tested here.

 

Just under 10 seconds when I open the application with my account.

 

35 seconds for the locked down / no internet exam accounts.

 

Following thread with interest now.

 

@ass17

[ITGURU]

Have you done a wireshark or procmon capture.?

[HappyAdmin]

No - not something I often need, so I hadn't thought of that. I'm on with some other things today - I'll try to give that a go later in the week. Good idea.

[ass17]

Hi All,

 

I’ve only just seen this thread, very interesting indeed. What I might do in the next release due out in Feb, is release two versions, one with the code signing cert within EWP exe and another without.

Then you can test it out. I don’t have access to proxy servers/web filters to be able to go through them, not to mention the different levels of configurations.

 

I can certainly tell you the URLs involved with the certificate and its chain, might help but you should be able to capture them from your filters or wireshark.

 

I can only assume that this is the only startup issue that might need internet access but it works without. Therefore certificate checking is done outside of my control as it an assembly process.

 

The only think I can think of that might help is editing the ExamWritePad.exe.config file, or creating one of it doesn’t exist. Then making sure the line below exists within the runtime brackets.

 

 

If you need to create a new file then use below:

 

[ass17]

If this does indeed fix the issue, I will apply it as default for the Feb release..

 

It’s just how Certificate Revocation works in general and handled in .Net frameworks/windows.

Edited January 29, 2024 by ass17

[andy_b]

Fiddler Classic may help diagnose the problem too.

[ass17]

If anyone can confirm that the above works for them, I would be most appreciative, thanks. Edited January 29, 2024 by ass17

[HappyAdmin]

Hi ass17,

Thanks for getting involved to help with this.

I've just tried inserting as the last line in the runtime section, and we are down to sub 10s start times following a reboot!

I have spent so long battling this, that is AMAZING!

Going to go copy that file into place on all 10 machines and I should be able to sign this off - 2nd set of Y11 mocks should go more smoothly now!

Thanks again.

[tg12]

Hi folks, I'm having this issue also with ExamWritePad, but the solutions above appear blank on the new forum. Is anyone able to repost it for me so I can get this fixed? 

 

Thanks!

[Foresthippy]

We also have this issue with networked with the internet disabled.

 

Anyone got the lines from the .ini file?

 

Thanks,

John

[Foresthippy]

The fix for this is to add  <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/> to the runtime section of the .config file as per below:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

[Space_Munkey]

That fix doesn't seem to work for me :(...

 

Only just getting round to looking at this issue. I would contact everway / texthelp / whoever owns it in 2026 and see if they can help, but figured I would check trusty ol' edugeek first!