Microsoft it's time to patch .Net

<rant>

Something goes wrong with .Net 1.1 in production. I passed the critical boiling point and I am fed up doing anything else than my current job.

I can't anymore innovate with .Net. My days are spent on debugging.

And I am not talking about my mistakes. No I am ranting now about Microsoft mistakes.

The list now of issues start to be long. I also losing my credibility with my colleagues.
If only it was my hosting server. No this happens with other solid rock hosting companies.

OK here we go with 3 of the very very annoying things which turn my .Net dreams in nightmares.

1 - General Network Error
I tried everything possible (thanks to Minh, Travis, and everybody) to give me their feedback.
The problem is that nobody can agree on one and simple solution.

2 - System.OutOfMemoryException

Yes you read well, in .Net 1.1 you can occasionally have this mysterious error crashing your site.

3 - Viewstate errors

This one can be fixed by adding EnableViewStateMac=false in the Page directive. It's just a pity that we have to think this will happen maybe some time soon or later. No thanks to Microsoft to not providing this answer in their KB.

I checked the Knowldege Base for .Net related issues, and yes the list is long.

It's quite incredible also that for most of them you haveto call Microsoft to receive a fix. Download don't exist anymore with Microsoft ?

Give me back my joy to be a developer, and release all these fixes as a Service Pack as soon as possible.

We can't afford waiting another year. I don't want any more new functions, I want thing fixed.

Do we need to write a petition to have thing moving ?

 Microsoft it's time to patch .Net !

</rant>

17 Comments

  • Let's hope they listen.

  • Justin, there are a set of fixes for .NET 1.1 that have not been distributed yet. The one that is the biggest issue for me is the 508 patch for the datagrid and VS.NET 2003. Suppossedly, there will be some type of service pak for .NET 1.1 that will come out around the time of XP SP2.



    Wally

  • Justin my point is this kind of errors should provide a better explanation than the laconic message saysing something like I gotcha you but you can't find me. I am going to try your siolution for General Network error, but as I read this so many times, it could be something else. I already found something like 20 different solutions for this error, and not a single one from Microsoft.

    I can't spent my time ont the phone to receive a patch but I would be happy to download some service pack.

  • I guess I'm lucky, because I've never had those problems. Me, I just want VS 2005 yesterday so I can spend less time fighting the current version's designer.



    Oh, and I want my KB article for the RewritePath bug I found. :) It's not a show-stopper, I just want to say that I have a KB article.

  • Alex, are you saying that instead of debugging, we should call MS whenever something goes wrong?

  • Why not just decompile the .NET libraries in question, make the code fix yourself, then email them to Microsoft?



    You'll get the job done and have the satisfaction of patching a problem before they do.



    Just a thought.

  • Frankie very funny !

  • Shannon,



    No, I'm not saying that you should cal MS whenever something goes wrong.



    I posted my response for a variety of reasons:



    1) Paschal has posted about these problems in the past and sought help from others (which he has recieved) to no avail



    2) In his post, Paschal says &quot;No I am ranting now about Microsoft mistakes.&quot;. So, this would indicate to me that he believe these are Microsoft's problems, not his. I know of only one way to determine if it is a)truly Microsoft's problem and not his and b) get him a fix if it is Microft's problem and that is to call Microsoft's support folks.



    So, if you have exhausted all of your options in debugging the problem, have had someone else look at the problem (another person's eyes can usually spot a problem if one exists), and can reproduce it with simple code that could be given to a Microsoft support person then you should call Microsoft support.



    More to the point, given the two items I listed above it sounds like a better use of Paschal's time would be to call and get a hotfix for a known problem and maybe even open a support ticket to look into his other problems.

  • Alex the problem there is not just me. I know a lot of other developers who have the same issues.

    My post is a rant yes, becuase I usually like Microsoft products, but there waiting another year for something that could be done is incredible.

    And no I am not going to spend my precious time on the phone for something that many already raised before in newsgroups. Microsoft want a strong community. OK fine but it has to listen, find fix and repair and the community will have an easier life. Like many I work alone. So I don't have really the time to search.For the General Network error, after all the efforts I did to fix it, I doubt anything now on this would be my mistake.

  • For info, I just received this email from an ISP. I trust them regarding their skills on .Net. They are professionals and read their comment on General Network Error happening on a site I didn't code at all (and working perfectly well since many months):

    &quot;Thanks for the update. We do not have any additional information regarding this error at the moment. There have been a couple occurrences of a similar issue on a different SQL Server in the past 2 weeks, and we will be installing some monitoring tool to capture additional information and work this issue with Microsoft. We will let you know when we have any additional information.&quot;

  • Oh, and I'll continue to listen and dig and hopefully find fixes or explanations for those that I can. So keep up the good ranting.... =)



    Alex

  • Alex, my choice not to get the patch is because I'm not allowed to distribute it to my customers, so if I do get it my app will work as long as nobody else uses it. Maybe that's good enough for you but most of us have to make living coding.

  • I had the GNE error at a previous client (Spring 2003, v1.0) that was very sporadic and might have been due to their flaky network. At that time, support didn't have a fix for us so it was very frustrating.



  • Alex, I was under the impression that Paschal had already made the call, sorry about the confusion. However, I now see that he hasn't and CAN'T because he apparently doesn't own and run the servers. I am prohibited from installing any hotfixes myself for the same reason. If I were to install any of them locally, I would no longer be able to confidently deploy any .NET application to another server because 90% of the time I am not in control of those servers and neither is my client. You ever tried to get a web host to install a signed, authorized, commerical product on a shared box? I have and it is usually impossible. I wouldn't dare try to ask ANYONE to install a &quot;fix&quot; from MS that is not in wide released because, in MS's words, it hasn't been tested enough.

    Hotfixes are 100% useless to me and too far too many people.

  • I'm not an ISV guy (I play one on TV) but Jerry's issue is a known &quot;problem area&quot; that is being addressed. I've inquired as to how it will be addressed and what the timeframe is. Hopefully, I'll have some kind of a response soon.



    Shannon, that is a good point. I'll inquire as to what can be done in that scenario. I haven't the slightest idea if that is something being addressed at this point.

  • Well, the answer I recieved was that we are still not at a point where we can allow all customers to redistribute hotfixes. Hotfixes are exactly that, Hotfixes. As we've gone over this before but....Hotfixes do not undergo the same level of testing that Service pack fixes do for example.



    We do have some ISVs that are able to redistribute hotfixes with their product. I would encourage any ISV with this problem to contact support and inquire about the problem and what it would take to get the 'ok' to redistribute a hotfix that is crucial to their application.



    Ultimately, it seems to me that we need to be able to provide HotFix plus adequate testing much quicker than we are currently able. I think we are attacking this problem from a variety of angles (people, technology, legal/liability, etc.) and hopefully this is something that will evolve as the .NET Framework evolves.

  • i have some problem in my net in window xp

    after 5 min my pc driect off

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