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Network & Connectivity Troubleshooting ​

Web UI Not Loading ​

Symptoms: Browser shows "This site can't be reached", "Connection refused", or a blank page.

Diagnosis steps:

  1. Confirm Exaplay 3 is running — check the system tray icon.
  2. Confirm you are using the correct URL: http://<engine-ip>:8123/ (not HTTPS).
  3. From the engine machine itself, try http://localhost:8123/.
  4. Check Windows Firewall: inbound TCP port 8123 must be allowed.

Windows Firewall rule (PowerShell):

powershell
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Exaplay Web UI" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 8123 -Action Allow
  1. If the page loads on localhost but not from another machine, the firewall is blocking external access.

UI Connected but Data Not Updating (Stale Project State) ​

If the UI loads but shows a project that is not the one currently open in the engine:

  1. Hard-refresh the browser page: Ctrl+Shift+R.
  2. Check Vio, the orb in the header — it reports a lost engine connection. While /info is down, the Offline screen covers the whole app.

The UI uses two WebSocket connections to the engine:

  • /info — project events (cue changes, media status, license)
  • /perf — performance metrics

A stalled /perf feed is reported by Vio. Exaplay automatically retries the connection every few seconds.

OSC Messages Not Being Received ​

OSC receive is always active — there is no enable switch.

  1. Confirm the port in Menu → Settings → Communication → OSC Listen (default *:8000) has not been changed or cleared.
  2. Confirm the sending device is targeting the correct IP and port (default: 8000).
  3. Confirm the address matches /<prefix>/<composition>/<command> — the prefix defaults to exaplay, and the composition segment is the composition's ID (comp1, …) or its name (_ = space). The Inspector's Show Control section shows the exact address.
  4. Test with a simple OSC sender (e.g. TouchOSC, OSCTestCase).
  5. Check Windows Firewall: inbound UDP port 8000 must be allowed.
  6. Check the Monitor tab in the Control View — incoming OSC messages appear in Network Traffic if the connection is working.

ArtNet Timecode Not Locking ​

Set Menu → Settings → Timecode → Timecode Mode to Receive Art-Net timecode and put the composition's Inspector → Timecode Sync into a slave mode. In any other mode incoming Art-Net timecode is shown as status only. Check that the console sends OpTimeCode to this machine on UDP 6454 (inbound firewall), and watch the Monitor for artnet:timecode events. See Timecode Sync.

NDI Sources Not Discovered ​

  1. Confirm the NDI sender is on the same network segment as Exaplay.
  2. NDI discovery uses mDNS (UDP port 5353). Ensure multicast is enabled on the network switch.
  3. Check Windows Firewall: allow UDP 5353 and TCP/UDP 5960–5989.
  4. Try using NDI Studio Monitor on the Exaplay machine to verify whether NDI sources are visible to the OS at all. If they are visible there but not in Exaplay, restart Exaplay.

Remote Exaplay Instance Not Appearing in Network Tab ​

Exaplay machines find each other by UDP broadcast on port 45454; each machine sends a beacon every 5 seconds, and a machine that falls silent drops out after about 30 seconds.

  1. Confirm the Exaplay engine is running on the other PC (tray icon).
  2. Confirm both PCs are on the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.x/24). UDP broadcast does not cross subnets.
  3. Allow UDP 45454 (discovery), UDP 45455 (fleet heartbeat) and TCP 8123 (engine) inbound in Windows Firewall on both machines.
  4. Some managed switches block UDP broadcast — enable it, or skip discovery: + (Add machine by IP) at the top of the NETWORK tab's machine list reaches a machine on its engine port directly.
  5. Open http://<other-pc-ip>:8123/ in a browser — if the interface loads, HTTP works and only discovery is blocked.
  6. Two PCs cloned from one Windows image share a computer name, and the second is dropped; the master warns Two machines are using the identity …. Give each machine its own name.

Windows Firewall rules (PowerShell):

powershell
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Exaplay Discovery" -Direction Inbound -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 45454 -Action Allow
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Exaplay Fleet Heartbeat" -Direction Inbound -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 45455 -Action Allow

A machine that appears but does not follow the master's playback, or stays on an old show, is covered in Multi-Client Setup → Troubleshooting.

Effects Not Updating ​

Effects are rendered by the engine itself, on the GPU — there is no separate effects service and no port to open for them, so a firewall is never the cause. (Earlier documentation described an "Effects Server" on TCP 3001; no such service exists.)

If an effect does not change the picture:

  1. Confirm an effect is actually selected — the Inspector's Effect picker is a choice, not a stack, and No Effect is the default.
  2. Check you are editing the clip you are looking at. An effect is a property of one clip, not of the track or the screen.
  3. If a client of a multi-client rig shows the old look, confirm it runs the master's current show — live edits reach only clients on the same show, and a client on another one refuses them (Sync Health counts those as refused). Let file sync bring it over, or press Copy Files. See Multi-Client Setup.
  4. Collect the engine log and contact support if the effect still has no visible result.

Remote Control View Not Working from Another Machine ​

The Control View (/control) and User View (/user) are standard web pages served by the engine. If they load on localhost but not from a remote browser:

  1. The remote browser must use http://<engine-ip>:8123/control.
  2. Firewall on the engine PC must allow port 8123 from the remote device's IP or subnet.
  3. Ensure the devices are on the same network (or connected via VPN).
  4. Do not use HTTPS — Exaplay serves plain HTTP by default.
  1. Confirm the projector's IP and port in the Control tab → TCP Devices → PJLink projectors (Edit projector on the projector's card).
  2. Ping the projector from the engine machine: ping 192.168.1.50.
  3. Test the PJLink connection with a PJLink test tool.
  4. Ensure the projector's PJLink port (default: 4352) is not blocked by a switch ACL.
  5. Some projectors require a PJLink password — ensure it is set correctly in Exaplay.
  6. Check the Monitor tab's Network Traffic for TCP errors when attempting a command.

Exaplay 3 User Documentation

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