Arena 3.5.1 - Autoplayer

[hgm]

ENGINECOMMAND will be something like Stockfish-6-sse42.exe or Pos --io-mode xboard. You should write the quotes around them as a habit, but they are really only essential when the ENGINECOMMAND itself contain spaces. That also applies to ENGINEFOLDER (which could be something like C:\Program Files\Chess Engines\Stockfish).

You should indeed start the engine in the GUI only after you started connect2.exe on the other machine. (You could start the GUI earlier with another engine,though. Only when you start connect2.exe as an engine in that GUI it will try to contact the remote machine, and when it doesn't get a reply at that time it terminates.) The connect2.exe on the remote machine will remain active for multiple games or sessions. (I.e. you could close the GUI, and even power down the computer where it was running, and when you boot it again and restart the GUI it will just make a new connection to the remote engine, which would still be waiting for it.) The machine where you started connect2.exe from the command prompt will remain available as engine server until you explicitly terminate connect.exe (by typing Ctrl-C in the window where you started it), or close the command-prompt window where it runs. (Better not do either of those when the GUI on the other machine was still using the engine.)

[Nordlandia]

Like i said it's not not easy doing it for the first time without visual assistance.

'connect64.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

connect64.exe -ec "komodo-9.3-64bit.exe" -ed "F:\Chess Engines\Komodo"

Error messages.

In addition AVG seems to detect connect64.exe as suspicious file, and removed on file directory.

[hgm]

You should first change to the directory where you saved connect2.exe. E.g. if that is in C:\ChessEngines

you would first type in the command prompt

cd C:\ChessEngines

Then you should be able to run it through the command

connect2 whatever

without getting an error message. The alternative is to run it using the full path name when starting it, like

C:\ChessEngines\connect2 whatever

Windows must somehow be told where to find it, or you cannot expect it to work...

As to AVG: yes, that might dislike computers making connections to each other, or even the mere fact that you run a .exe that you downloaded. Normally a firewall would pop up a dialog alerting you that a program wants to do something that might be dangerous, and ask you whether you want to allow it or not. (And in this case you should then of course allow it.) If AVG does not behave this way, just switch it off. Although it would probably be good enough to add connect2.exe as an 'exception' in the Options->Advanced dialog of AVG (under 'Update').

[Nordlandia]

I did as you metioned in AVG!

C:\WINDOWS\system32>I:\connect64
# waiting to connect
# set up server
# listening on port 27015

Reply from CMD.

connect64.exe is inside that "I:\connect64" folder.

Now what is the next correct order to proceed?

[hgm]

Well, you should have typed something like

I:\connect64\connext64.exe -ec "Stockfish-6-sse42.exe" -ed "wherever\you\have\stockfish"

or connect64.exe would not know what engine to start once a connection is made.

After you did that, a good first test is to try to run that engine from the command line on the other machine. I.e. also install it there, open a command-prompt window, cd to the place where you put it, and type

connect64 IP_OF_THE_OTHER_MACHINE
uci

If you typed the correct I.P. address, it should then answer with all Stockfish' UCI options. If it does, you know the connection works, and can terminate the test by typing

quit

That will close Stockfish on the other machine (but not the connect64 there, which will remain waiting for another connection), and the connect64 on the machine where you typed. Note that when you first make the connection, Windows itself (even without AVG) might still prompt you on the machine with the engine for permission to allow that connection, but if you have done that once it will not bother you again on future connections.

If you don't know the I.P. address, you should type ipconfig at the command prompt of the machine with the engine, and post the response to it here. It should be something like 192.168.0.100 .

If you managed to make the connection from the command line, you would have to install the connect64.exe as an engine in the GUI you want to use, with the startup command that worked when you typed it. How you have to do that obviously depends on what GUI you are using.

[Nordlandia]

C:\WINDOWS\system32>I:\connect64\connect64.exe -ec "stockfish 7 x64 bmi2.exe" -ed "F:\Chess Engines\New Stockfish\Stockfish 7\Stockfish 7\stockfish 7 x64 bmi2.exe
# waiting to connect
# set up server
# listening on port 27015

So do i have to repeat this step on the other computer or shall i connect by ip address immediately?

This is just confusion and annoyance sorry -.-

[Nordlandia]

The system cannot find the path specified - reply from cmd.

Also once this message appears the cmd window freezes and i can't type more text into it.

# waiting to connect
# set up server
# listening on port 27015

[hgm]

C:\WINDOWS\system32>I:\connect64\connect64.exe -ec "stockfish 7 x64 bmi2.exe" -ed "F:\Chess Engines\New Stockfish\Stockfish 7\Stockfish 7\stockfish 7 x64 bmi2.exe
# waiting to connect
# set up server
# listening on port 27015

The red bolded part is NOT part of the folder name, but is the name of the (executable) file in the folder. You should omit that.

So do i have to repeat this step on the other computer or shall i connect by ip address immediately?

No, you don't have to repeat that. The purpose of that step is to set up the computer as an engine server, which will be waiting for an outside client to make a connection to it. So you can directly start connect64.exe on another machine as such a client (specifying an I.P. address in its command to tell it it should be client, and to which server it should connect).

[Nordlandia]

Now i have cmd on both with the following message.
# waiting to connect
# set up server
# listening on port 27015

Don't know how to proceed.

This is just confusion and messy.

[hgm]

You should not get that text on the other machine (where your GUI is), when you typed

connect.exe 192.168.0.100

So what exactly did you type?