confusion about fetching or entering values

[Tad]

I just installed 1017, but have never actually had Proplab pro working before.

When I went to IRI Model Options tab, the mean SSN and SFI are obviously wrong.  But when I click on Current Values, they don't change.

Finally I decided to enter the values manually as ssn = 14.8, Sfi = 81.5.  But there isn't any button (that I can see) to Save the values, and the manual doesn't tell me either (or I could have missed it).

So I entered the values, then clicked on Current Values, and after a long period of watching the hovering hourglass and seeing the status change from "Fetching geomagnetic and xray data" to "Fetching ionospheric data" to "Fetching Solar Data" to "Updating Map", and when it is done (hourglass goes away and status shown at the bottom stops showing messages) the values I entered are now all zeroes.  I have done this several times, rebooted, etc, and nothing seems to work.

I also notice that if I click Current Kp, it seems to run through the same actions, not just trying to get Kp.  The default was 1.333.  I finally changed it manually to 1 (the current Kp) and had no problem keeping it there, unlike with SSN and SFI.  Oh, also, I did "ADJUST BOTH THE RUNNING MEAN 12-MONTH SSN AS WELL AS THE IG12 INDEX TO THE SAME VALUES" when I manually entered data.

I am usiing WinXp and have the Windows FIrewall off, and use the 3rd party firewall, Comodo.  I have it set to allow all of the .exe files in the Proplab3 directory to access the internet, and they are classed as Safe.

What next?

[admin]

The Save Configuration button under the "Other Options" tab will save the values you enter.

In order to use the internet functionality to retrieve data from the Internet, you must provide your e-mail address in the Other Options tab. If there is a proxy server that you must specify to get an outside FTP connection, you must also provide that there.

The reason it is taking so long is most likely because it is unable to make a correct connection through FTP (perhaps because you forgot to type in your e-mail address, which is required by the FTP protocol?) and it times-out trying to make the connection.

You might have to explicitly enable FTP connections within your firewall software.

[Tad]

I've entered my correct email address every time, and am able to access data via ftp otherwise.

I also tried it with the Proplab program files listed in the firewall configuration as allowed to access the net.  I also tried turning off the Comodo filrewall software, and just using the Windows firewall, with no luck.

Since this doesn't seem to be working for me, can you suggest an entry for the FTP Proxy Server field?

[Tad]

One more thing......I just noticed that there are recently written empty text files in the program folder.

One that isn't empty is proplab.log, and inside is this:

"1/22/2010 12:09:43 PM UTC: Normal : Insufficient Ap data found. Turning off storm-time feature, if enabled..."

Also are files named fluxtablerolling.txt (which I recognize from the Penticton observatory), IG12-observed.txt, and MAda.txt, all empty.

Looks like these were created when I tried to fetch data.

[Tad]

Can anyone give me any help with this?  It has been almost three years, and I still don't have it working.