mouse without borders stopped working

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I have 2 Windows 10 computers. They are both plugged into Ethernet ports on the same router provided by my Internet service provider. I have used mouse without borders for some time and I have been pleased with it.
Yesterday, I shut down both computers and disconnected all of my peripherals in order to change the way in which they were racked and the way that wires were routed.
With one exception, I reconnected everything in the same way except for the physical position of devices. I.e., electrical connections are the same.
Everything works just as before except for mouse without borders. It can not connect to the two computers. I have uninstalled and re-installed the product. That did not help.
The one exception that I mentioned is that I have not yet connected my USB hub, so none of my external USB disk drives are attached. This should be irrelevant.
Any thoughts?

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Are you sure you have the mouse / keyboard connected to the correct computer?

cheers, Paul

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I use Synergy rather than Mouse without Borders but I guess the basic premise is the same, i.e. client/server using device names/IP addresses. Could the IP addresses have changed?

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I use Synergy rather than Mouse without Borders but I guess the basic premise is the same, i.e. client/server using device names/IP addresses. Could the IP addresses have changed?

Possibly, but not likely. In any event, both computers are on the same local Ethernet which has a “listen and transmit to everyone when the line is clear” protocol, so the installation process should find the other computer when the computer name is given.

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Possibly, but not likely. In any event, both computers are on the same local Ethernet which has a “listen and transmit to everyone when the line is clear” protocol, so the installation process should find the other computer when the computer name is given.

I understand that Mouse without Borders uses device names mapped to IP addresses. As the Windows default is to use DHCP rather than static IP, I would suggest ‘likely’ rather than ‘possibly’ unless you know with 100% certainty that the IP addresses aren’t stored by ‘Mouse without Borders’.

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I understand that Mouse without Borders uses device names mapped to IP addresses. As the Windows default is to use DHCP rather than static IP, I would suggest ‘likely’ rather than ‘possibly’ unless you know with 100% certainty that the IP addresses aren’t stored by ‘Mouse without Borders’.

I don’t have extensive documentation; I only know what I can infer from the user interface.
There is an option to enter machine name to IP mappings. It comes with the following instruction:

You should always connect to other machines by name but if there is problem resolving machine name to IP address (rarely), you can manually enter the mappings below. The app will use the IP Addresses from the mappings below and the DNS resolution result.
Note: If your machine IP address is dynamic, you will need to change the mapping each time the machine IP address changes.

I infer from this that IP addresses are not normally stored permanently by mouse without borders.
In the past, it has always worked.
I doubt that I am looking for something of technical sophistication. I imagine that I have done something stupid or failed to do something obvious. It is probably right under my nose.

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You should always connect to other machines by name but if there is problem resolving machine name to IP address (rarely), you can manually enter the mappings below. The app will use the IP Addresses from the mappings below and the DNS resolution result.
Note: If your machine IP address is dynamic, you will need to change the mapping each time the machine IP address changes.

I infer from this that IP addresses are not normally stored permanently by mouse without borders.

I’m guessing that Mouse without Borders (MwB) is using the system’s NetBIOS name cache to resolve the device names to IP addresses, i.e. MwB isn’t storing this info, it’s just using info stored elsewhere by the operating system. I think it’s most likely that MwB is now using information that has become out-of-date because one or more IP addresses have changed.

I think there are 3 possible solutions: a) clear the current NetBIOS name caches on both devices, or b) manually enter the name/IP mappings into MwB; or c) change from dynamic to static IP addresses.

a) Clear the current NetBIOS name caches on both devices. This will make each device ‘forget’ the table of name/IP address info saved by the OS. The cache will be rebuilt automatically.

Pros – Quick and easy to do.
Cons – I don’t know how MwB works so it’s only a guess that this will work.

1) Make sure MwB is not running.
2) Right-click on the Start button.
3) Select the Command Prompt (Admin) option and agree to the User Account Control dialog.
4) Enter the following exactly (capitalisation is important): nbtstat -c
This will show you the current table of mappings.
5) Enter the following exactly (capitalisation is important) nbtstat -R
This will clear the resolver cache. You should see a Successful purge and preload of the NBT Remote Cache Name Table message.
6) Enter the following exactly (capitalisation is important): nbtstat -c
This should now show you a No names in cache message.
7) Restart, but don’t try MwB yet.
8) Do steps 1-7 on the other device.
9) Try MwB again.

b) Manually enter the name/IP mappings into MwB

Pros – Quick and easy to do.
Cons – I don’t use MwB so it’s only a guess that this will work. Note that I have downloaded and installed MwB on one device only, solely to get screenshots. I haven’t done anything else in case it mucks up my current Synergy setup.

1) Make sure Notepad is running.
2) Make sure MwB is running.
3) Click on the MwB icon in the Notification Area and select the IP Mappings tab.

46065-mwb
Click to enlarge

4) Click on the Mini Log link (top right of dialog). An Info dialog will appear showing that a Log has been placed in the clipboard.
5) Swap to Notepad and select Edit > Paste (or use CTRL+V together).
6) Use the host name and IP address in the log to amend the sample IP Mappings in MwB on both devices.

46066-mwb-log
Click to enlarge

7) On MwB‘s Other Options tab, place a tick in the Validate remote machine IP Address checkbox. This should help determine any errors.

46068-mwb-validate
Click to enlarge

8) Restart MwB in both devices.

c) Change from dynamic to static IP addresses

Pros – This will be a permanent fix and will survive any further changes you make, e.g. adding more hosts.
Cons – Takes a little bit more time and you may still need to carry out (a) in order that stored NetBIOS mappings don’t interfere. If you do want to change to static IP addresses (which I had to do in order to make my Synergy setup resilient) then let us know.

PS – You should be able to use MwB‘s Mini Log to check for errors.

Hope this helps…

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Possibly, but not likely. In any event, both computers are on the same local Ethernet which has a “listen and transmit to everyone when the line is clear” protocol, so the installation process should find the other computer when the computer name is given.

Yes, it SHOULD work just based on computer names, but I’ve found that the changes in Win10 networking make some things problematical.

There is a way to specify IP addresses and I’ve found that doing that has fixed connections problems that I have had in the recent past.

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Suggest you go through the setup again. That will make sure the correct IP addresses are registered.

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Do you have the most current version? See Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders. It was updated October 7. The comment says it works better with Windows 8.1 & Windows 10.

--Joe

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Thanks for the comments so far.
I am using the latest version. I uninstalled from both computers and installed the latest version. Of course, that means that I went through the setup process. In fact, I tried it several times.

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You might try at Community powered support for Mouse without Borders.

--Joe

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You can use ipconfig at a command prompt to determine the IP address for each machine. In the IP Mapping tab of MWB, you can tell it what IP belongs to each machine. That should allow it to resolve the connections.

It can take a minute after starting a computer or after waking it from sleep before the connection will resolve.

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I tried the suggestions a) and B) provided by Rick Corbett.

The command nbtstat -c on one machine showed nothing in the NETBIOS name cache. The other machine had a single entry pertaining to my wife’s computer (also attached to the same router). It should have no bearing, but I cleared it anyway. This did not solve the problem

I had already tried suggestion b), but I did it again. The IPv4 address as shown in the mini report and the the IPv4 address as shown by the ipconfig command (as suggested by gsmith-plm) matched (as they certainly should). I hope that the syntax for the entry into the mouse without borders table is as shown in the example (the computer name, a single space, and the IP address). That did not work either.

I plan on trying the link suggested by JoeP517. If no one there has a solution, I will have to try the static IP address method.

Meanwhile, there is another strange mouse behavior that may have a bearing. The mouse cursor on one of my machines (but never the other) gets stuck at the top of the screen. It is totally out of view. I can find it only because I have chosen a mouse setting that causes the cursor location to be displayed whenever the Ctrl key is depressed. To recover cursor control, I press Ctrl+Alt+del. The cursor becomes visible again; I then select “cancel” to avoid a reboot. I don’t recall seeing this before my recent problem with mouse without borders began. These things may or may not be related.

Thanks to everyone.

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The Windowssecrets website has failed to respond to my attempts to add a new reply for several days. I hope that this works.

I have been trying to get help from the Mouse without Borders community using the link suggested by JoeP517. They have mostly made the same suggestions found here. I may still get help there.

Meanwhile, here is some interesting data. Perhaps it will prompt another suggestion.

I have named the two copmputers “Jim-cyber” and “Jim-Gateway” (I am Jim; “cyber” and “gateway” are the manufacturers.)
Jim-cyber is a very recent computer. Jim-gateway is slightly older, but not ancient.

From a command prompt on Jim-cyber, the command “ping Jim-gateway” always works (all 4 pings so generated are successful in milliseconds).

From Jim-gateway, the command “ping jim-cyber” is less successful. At least 1, usually 2, and sometimes 3 of the pings fail.
From Jim-gateway, the command “ping jim-gateway” (i.e., pinging itself) also results in partial failure.
However, using the numerical values of the IP addresses works.
I.e., from jim-gateway, “ping 192.168.1.65” and “ping 192.168.1.68” both work well. This, I think, is telling.
Nonetheless, explicitly entering the IP-address-to-computer-name mapping in Mouse without borders did not fix the problem.

Here is a partial list of the ipconfig/all commands from each computer.

From Jim-gateway:

WindowsSystem32>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Jim-Gateway
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8071 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-22-68-49-1A-33
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2602:306:bc06:8990:84d8:c6:3e36:a21d(Preferred)
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2602:306:bc06:8990:55a4:91ae:5b9f:f875(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::84d8:c6:3e36:a21d%2(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.65(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::fa18:97ff:fe7d:4a55%2
192.168.1.254
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 83894888
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1E-70-C5-07-00-22-68-49-1A-33
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

NOTE SPECIFIC LINES:

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

From Jim-cyber:

C:UsersJim>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Jim-Cyber
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : attlocal.net

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : attlocal.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : D8-CB-8A-56-9F-9E
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2602:306:bc06:8990:a1a4:b1ce:c043:6ce2(Preferred)
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2602:306:bc06:8990:248d:42de:a6da:d872(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::a1a4:b1ce:c043:6ce2%10(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.68(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, December 4, 2016 11:33:50 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, December 5, 2016 11:33:46 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::fa18:97ff:fe7d:4a55%10
192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 47762314
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1F-91-A3-A7-D8-CB-8A-56-9F-9E
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter VirtualBox Host-Only Network:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 0A-00-27-00-00-09
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::8cca:6ab6:ec58:f355%9(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.56.1(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 386531367
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1F-91-A3-A7-D8-CB-8A-56-9F-9E
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

NOTE SPECIFIC LINES:

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : attlocal.net
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : attlocal.net
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Also note the VirtualBox Ethernet adapter. This is the adapter that appears to be selected by default
by Mouse without Borders on Jim-cyber, though manually selecting the hardware adapter doesn’t fix my problem.

Does this mean anything important to anyone?

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Caveat: I don’t use Mouse Without Borders (MWB) nor VirtualBox (VB)… nor am I a network expert

Here’s what I noticed:

[*]The VB virtual adapter appears to be in Host-only mode rather than the default NAT. Have you changed this? It looks like there are limitations to using Host-only mode.
[*]Jim-cyber’s Realtek and the VB adapters are using DHCP but Jim-gateway isn’t. However, this shouldn’t be a problem.

I think the issue is MWB’s client-server communication needs to be between physical adapters. Instead you have MWB selecting the VB virtual adapter (using Host-only mode) instead of Jim-cyber’s Realtek adapter (i.e. the physical adapter).

If the MWB server is running on Jim-cyber and thinks that the MWB client is using the VB virtual adapter (which is also on Jim-cyber) then obviously the KVM won’t work. Conversely, if the MWB server is running on Jim-gateway and thinks that the MWB client is using the VB virtual adapter (which is on Jim-cyber in a way but in Host-only mode) then again the KVM won’t work.

Thinking about similar issues I experienced setting up Synergy to share a mouse and keyboard across multiple devices (as well as multiple virtual adapters in VMWare Workstation) I think you may well be better off using static IP addresses and either NAT or Bridged mode instead of Host-only.

Hope this helps…

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Thanks to Rick Corbett. His latest reply may be useful. I have been out of the country for the last month and have not been able to work on this problem. I am back now, but have a lot of catching up to do. I will work on this more when I can. Until then, thanks to all who have tried to help.

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This is strange. As I previously reported, I had a number of personal distraction that took me from this issue for several months. Yesterday, I returned determined to solve the problem. I thought I might try fixed IP addresses. However, when I turned things on, everything works as they should. I did nothing to fix it. It just works. Perhaps one of the Windows updates changed something.
Thanks to everyone who offered comments.

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Great!!! Glad it is resolved. Thanks for posting back.

--Joe

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I have mouse without borders, and have been using it for years on 2 PCs. I am using Windows 10. I got a 3rd device, and connected it to my other 2 devices, and everything worked fine for a few days, and then it stopped working. I have spent HOURS with microsoft personnel, and no one has been able to resolve the problem. One of the error messages is about IP addresses, but one of the microsoft tech people tried resolving that issue, but unsuccessfully.

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More info would be helpful.

Q1. Are you using the latest version (v2.2.1.327) of Mouse without Borders (MwB) on all three devices?

Q2. What errors are shown? Either paste text or screenshot.

Q3. Have you rebooted the router (for its DHCP server to restart) and then rebooted devices (so they poll for an IP address from the router)?

Q4. Have you looked at Mouse Without Borders Setup/User Guide, Tips, Tricks and FAQs at Community Support in case of similar posts?

Hope this helps…

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