Question
After upgrading my WWW service appears not to start and I am unable to administer the server. The WWW log shows a failure "AlertMesServerInit failed – 82"
Why is this?
Answer
This is most likely due to a port conflict with other software installed on the server. By default the Alert Server runs on port 8081.
You will either need to change the port used by the existing software to something other than 8081 then restart the server or change the port that the GMS alert service runs on.
To change the port that the GMS alert service runs on please open regedt32.exe and navigate to the hkey_local_machinesoftwareinternetshoppermailusers registry key. On the right hand side of the screen you should see an entry labelled <No Name>, double click on it to open it for editing.
Insert a new line that reads
alertport=nnnn
where nnnn is a port you are certain is not currently being used on your server, and click on the OK button. Finally stop and restart the WWW service. You should now find that it starts up correctly.
Builds later than 3180 will continue to start regardless of whether or not the Alert server is able to start.
Keywords:web server alert message port conflict AlertMesServerInit upgrade