In some cases, Windows Firewall may be blocking communication between the render nodes and the workstation. Below are suggested steps that may resolve this issue:
1. In Windows, go to Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security.
Note: you can easily get there by:
1) Clicking on the start menu icon and typing "firewall", and then selecting the item in the menu
or
2) You can press Win+R, type wf.msc and press Enter.
2. Go to "Inbound Rules".
3. Find all "drserver" and "drserver.exe" entries, select all of them, right click, and select "Delete".
4. Click on "New Rule...".
5. Select "Program" and press "Next".
6. Select "This program path", click "Browse...", and point to the location of your DrServer.exe application. Select the DrServer.exe application and open it, so that the path appears in the text field as shown below.
Note:
- In Corona Renderer 2 and older, the DrServer application is by default installed into C:\Program Files\Corona\DrServer.exe
- In Corona Renderer 3 and newer, the DrServer application is by default installed into C:\Program Files\Corona\DR Server\DrServer.exe
- Make sure you select the correct DrServer application!!
7. Select "Allow the connection" and press "Next".
8. Tick all checkboxes and press "Next".
9. Give your newly created rule a descriptive name: for example "My DR Server - in - TCP". It is important to make it clear that this is an inbound rule (hence the word "in"), and that this is about a TCP protocol (hence the name TCP). Once done, press "Finish".
10. Select your newly created "My DR Server - in - TCP" rule, click on "Copy" and then "Paste". This will create a duplicate for you. Select the newly created duplicate. Right-click on it, and select "Properties". In the "General" tab, rename it to "My DR Server - in - UDP".
11. In the properties of the "My DR Server - in - UDP" rule, go to "Protocols and Ports", and then change:
- "Protocol type" to "UDP"
- "Local port" to "All Ports"
- "Remote port" to "All Ports"
Save the changes by clicking "OK".
12. Do exactly the same steps for the previously created "My DR Server - in - TCP" rule, but this time set:
- "Protocol type" to "TCP"
- "Local port" to "All Ports"
- "Remote port" to "All Ports"
13. Go to "Outbound Rules" and add exactly the same rules as before, with exactly the same settings. The only difference should be the naming, because we are adding outbound rules now. Name one of them "My DR Server - out - TCP" and the other one "My DR Server - out - UDP".
14. Make sure you have two rules added in the Outbound Rules list: "My DR Server - out - TCP" and "My DR Server - out - UDP".
15. Set up their properties exactly the same as in the "Inbound Rules" list: the "TCP" rules must use "TCP" protocol. The "UDP" rule must use "UDP" protocol.
16. Be sure to save all changes by clicking "OK".
As a result, you should end up with the following items:
Inbound Rules:
- My DR Server - in - TCP
- My DR Server - in - UDP
Outbound Rules:
- My DR Server - out - TCP
- My DR Server - out - UDP
The "TCP" rules must have "Protocol type" set to "TCP".
The "UDP" rules must have "Protocol type" set to "UDP".
Once all of this is done, please try using distributed rendering again. If some issues still appear, restart your computer and try again.
In case there is no improvement, please let us know about it.