Agilent 34461A & Win8x64 with Lan port

[iceisfun]

Has anyone tried their Agilent 34461A LAN port with Windows 8 x64.

It seems there is a bug with how they try to hijack DNS to register names like "a-34461a-00001" and the DMM app crashes.

To get it working I had to enter a line in /Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts as follows

192.168.3.230 a-34461a-00001

And now the DMM software seems to work, the Agilent software should just allow a connect by IP instead of trying to hijack DNS and force a false name resolution.

[ielektros]

I tried today without results. For me the host file editing didn´t helped.
The "Agilent Connection Expert" recognize that.
The "Agilent BenchVue" recognize that but nothing happening after I click "Launch Bench Application". I mean the "play" button.
The "Agilent Digital Multimeter Connectivity Utility" Works. (Installed because I wanted to test)

The Web and Java based interface does not working correctly. After I type the password just java go crashed because of "Missing required Permissions manifest attribute in main jar. http://10.2.7.152/C3446XA.jar"

The web based measurement is not too important. I´m sure that is something java magic... But the BenchVue is really important for a monitoring project now.

[ielektros]

Web interface problem solved.
Easy Java issue.
Go to Java Control Panel and add your DMM domain name or IP to exception list in the security tab.

[Bored@Work]

Do I get this right? Agilent is using Java (not JavaScript) on the web pages served by the instrument itself? I think I have to re-adjust my shopping list

[Rigby]

Do I get this right? Agilent is using Java (not JavaScript) on the web pages served by the instrument itself? I think I have to re-adjust my shopping list

Can you explain that?  The multimeter is just serving up a .jar instead of a .js file.  The meter doesn't actually run Java...

[Bored@Work]

Do I get this right? Agilent is using Java (not JavaScript) on the web pages served by the instrument itself? I think I have to re-adjust my shopping list

Can you explain that?  The multimeter is just serving up a .jar instead of a .js file.  The meter doesn't actually run Java...

It is the serving of the jar file that is worrying. Because processing the jar file by the receiving browser, either as a Java webStart application or a Java applet, requires a browser plug in. The worst Java security holes recently found were all related to this. As a consequence it is a good idea to not have that plug-in in the browser. It is not that Agilent might serve a jar file with some virus. It is that once the plug-in is enabled you might hit other web sites with the browser which might take advantage of plug-in vulnerables.

In fact, I would get in serious trouble where I work if I would try to install/enable that plug-in, because it has officially been banned by our IT security guys. And at home I also don't want to have it running.

The need to whitelist a site in the Java control panel is a stopgap introduced to prevent more hacks via the plug-in. However, there is no guarantee that that additional check can't be circumvented.

And while I do like and use Java as a programming language, I see absolutely no need to use it for a web application. Especially not one served by a multimeter, forcing people to keep a plug-in for outdated and declining deployment technologies around.

[Rigby]

I can't believe it.  Finally, a level-headed reason to dislike Java, and even then you only dislike it in the browser.  Well said.  +1.

USUALLY when people dismiss Java out of hand, it's because they're morons that don't know any better.  They're actually criticizing the author of the program they don't like, but it's somehow not geeky enough to place blame where it actually lies, but with Java.  I don't get it.  Writing programs in Java that perform well is pretty difficult, and is very rarely done correctly.  So, you better blame the language instead of the nitwit that doesn't know how to wield the tools they're using...

So, thank you.  I agree that browser Java is bad.  Agilent likely already had some tools internally written in Java that they just shoved into an applet, and that's why this web UI exists.   Given how well node.js is these days I don't understand why small devices like this even bother serving .jar files either.  There are many quicker ways to write a web UI.  Or, just leave the Web UI off entirely; that's probably what should have happened.

[Bored@Work]

Writing programs in Java that perform well is pretty difficult

It is not that difficult, but that is another topic.

Or, just leave the Web UI off entirely; that's probably what should have happened.

LXI requires that an instrument has a web page with configuration parameters. So you can't entirely skip the Web GUI. LXI even specifies part of what needs to be on the web page(s). But nowhere it requires the use of Java (or JavaScript).

[Rigby]

It is not that difficult, but that is another topic.

As a Java developer myself, I agree. 

As a user of Java applications written by others, I wholeheartedly disagree.  Java development is difficult enough that there's an immense amount of terrible Java code out there.

It comes down to, in my limited experience, procedural C developers being forced to use Java, trying to write in Java like they do in C, and not knowing how to or not caring to adjust to OO development.

[HighVoltage]

Web interface problem solved.
Easy Java issue.
Go to Java Control Panel and add your DMM domain name or IP to exception list in the security tab.

Thank you, this was helpful.
But even with the security settings correctly, I could not get it to work in the latest version of Firefox (v31).
Only Chrome finally allowed me to get it working with an Agilent 34461A
It seems Firefox really closed the possibilities to activate Java.
Hopefully Agilent will get rid of the Java requirement in a future firmware update.
It is horrible the time one has to spend to get it all running correctly.