Thanks, Mikhail.  Your solution fixed it for me and I have an old version of sitefinity that we just moved to newer OS 2012.  It seems to be a windows new enhanced feature to have that set now.

thanks,
Will

How to fix it:
Step 1: Go to Web Site Application Pool Advanced Settings -> Under Process Model Section make sure that you are using Custom Account width domain\networkid and set Load User Profile = True
Step 2: Add this user as a Local User, remove as a Member Of Users Group and add as a Member Of Administrators Group.
P.S: We are using Sitefinity 6.2.4910.0

Best Regards, Mikhail Ruf

I am also experiencing this problem and found a work around.

If I changed my App Pool identity from "ApplicationPoolIdentity" to a local admin account I did not experience the error.

Thanks Jon W

Hello All,

I can confirm! 

The reason is, Benjamin, that when you use a social button of SendMail, a dialog is created with a radcaptcha on it! Never thought of that... When I leave out the SendMail social button, no error is thrown. 

So, if you have catched all errors -and- we have a workaround, where done I would say! :-)


Thanks Benjamin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<telerik:RadSocialShare ID="RadSocialShare1" runat="server">
    <MainButtons>
        <telerik:RadSocialButton SocialNetType="SendEmail" />
    </MainButtons>
</telerik:RadSocialShare>

Hi Erik

I have isolated the problem. It is the RadSocialShare control, and more specifically, when adding a SendMail button.

I am not entirely sure why it throws the same error, but for now i have just removed that one button.

Hi all,

I did add a support ticket, and we still do not know why I recieve the errors like Benjamin descibed. The only way for me is now: set "User Profile" = true on the app pool (Advanced)

I spend many hours and stopped last month after the quick fix user profile. But, in my case also, with no Captcha anywhere, I recieved the server exception. It is espacially weird because of the base dll's used in 2 programs, while 1 gives the error and the other does not. 

In this case it could have something to do with routing (I used page routing in my asp.net application, so not a MVC)

So, Benjamin, Set user profile to true and see if your problem is gone?

@Mihail : Is there a beta of Q3 SP1? I'm willing to try it.

Erik

I am having the exact same problem explained with the null reference exception on our web server, crashing the Application Pool. However, my application does not have a RadCaptcha control anywhere, so just disabling the Audio in the control is not an option. Is there somewhere else where I can disable it? When creating the project, I did select the option to copy the .wav files, as I do need Captcha in the project before release, however, I have not implemented the control yet. I tried deleting all the .wav files from the project, but the problem still remains. After restarting the AppPool, I can have a couple (2-10) requests to the app, and then it crashes again. We have 9 pages in total in the app, sometimes it crashes on the request to the first page, other times on the 3rd or 4th.

Is there maybe a way of installing a "dud" audio device on the server? Or maybe a way of disabling Captcha altogether? I am under the impression that the code given by Dave is in the Telerik.Web.UI reference (I am running version 2013.3.1015.45), and cannot see any other place where RadCaptcha is referenced. The only two Telerik references in my project are Telerik.Web.UI and Telerik.Web.UI.Skins.

Hi, Mihail.

Please confirm that Dave Lowery's concern/issue above has been addressed (or does not exist) in the Q3 2013 release and that the issue is indeed resolved.

Are we now catching the NullReferenceException and/or Exceptions in general, and not only the three specified in Dave's code snippet?

Thank you!

you changed the method SpeakText to the following BUT YOU FORGOT THE NullReferenceException.  Why not catch ALL exceptions, CanSpeak in all cases then should be false


public void SpeakText()
		{
			this.CanSpeak = false;
			try
			{
				SpeechSynthesizer speechSynthesizer = new SpeechSynthesizer();
				speechSynthesizer.SetOutputToWaveStream(this.AudioMemoryStream);
				int length = this.TextToSpeak.Length;
				speechSynthesizer.Rate = -4;
				for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
				{
					Dictionary<string, string> strs = this.wordsToSpeak;
					char textToSpeak = this.TextToSpeak[i];
					speechSynthesizer.Speak(strs[textToSpeak.ToString().ToUpper(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)]);
				}
				this.CanSpeak = true;
			}
			catch (SecurityException securityException)
			{
				this.CanSpeak = false;
			}
			catch (ArgumentException argumentException)
			{
				this.CanSpeak = false;
			}
			catch (InvalidOperationException invalidOperationException)
			{
				this.CanSpeak = false;
			}
		}

Stack Trace

   at System.Speech.Internal.ObjectTokens.RegistryDataKey..ctor(String fullPath, RegistryDataKey copyKey)
   at System.Speech.Internal.ObjectTokens.SAPICategories.DefaultDeviceOut()
   at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis..ctor(WeakReference speechSynthesizer)
   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.get_VoiceSynthesizer()
   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SetOutputStream(Stream stream, SpeechAudioFormatInfo formatInfo, Boolean headerInfo, Boolean closeStreamOnExit)
   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SetOutputToWaveStream(Stream audioDestination)
   at Telerik.Web.UI.CaptchaAudio.SpeakText()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

I have Q3 2013, 2013.3.1015.45 and the problem still exist

Thanks Jeff!

Hi, Erik.

For me, it wasn't so much a matter of installing anything, as it was putting the website on multiple servers and discovering the difference between them.  On servers that had a default audio device installed and enabled, the RadCaptcha audio worked fine.  On servers that had no audio devices installed, it failed in the way described above.

So, in theory, you should be able to fix this issue on a server where it is failing by installing an audio device.  Otherwise, you work around it by disabling audio on the RadCaptcha control.

For us (once confirmed by Telerik), it will be a matter of communicating that, if you want audio on the RadCaptcha control, the server must have audio capability ... otherwise, we turn audio off.  This is, of course, until we install the new DLL on our websites.

Hope that helps!

Hello Jeff,

I would agree that this would be a great workaround. 

How did you do this? What did you install on your server? (Win 2008 r2 iis7.5)


Thanks in advance!

Erik

Hi, Mihail.

Thank you for the good news and for your attentiveness along the way.  I'm happy to see this has been fixed in a future release.

In the meantime, for websites we already have in production that use this control under an earlier DLL release, would you concur with my thought that we should enforce/notify that "it is a requirement for the web server to have an enabled default playback device in order for audio play to work on a RadCaptcha control"?

Thanks again!

Thanks for your fast reply Jeff!

I've been at it the whole weekend on and off. I deleted the website, copied the file again (After I deleted the Captcha's from my proj, there were 2, login an register, and did a build) The server had a reboot 2 times. The problem persists. 
Thank god this website is still in test...

I did see an similar problem with a DNN site I host. When disabling the audio in DNN, the problem went away directly...

so, probably somewhere there is still a reference... This stuff is costing me dearly... spending hours on this simple issue...

@Mihail: can you urge e fix for the 717.45 release? Because when I wait till a new version, new bugs may appear (they always do...) and I have to postpone again...

Erik

Hi, Erik.

In my experience, turning off EnableCaptchaAudio should suffice to prevent the exception being generated going forward.  However, you have to recover from the failures that have already occurred.

If it has happened enough times, you may have to manually restart the app pool on which the web site resides and/or do an IISRESET (after, of course disabling captcha audio on the web page(s) in question) ... something on that order.

I would recommend trying that (being clear that I am not a Telerik employee, so it's not "official" advice) and re-posting with the results ... unless you already have.

Hope it helps.

Hello Mihail,

I have the same problem on Windows 2008 R2. But it makes no diffenance if I enable the audio, or not. (CaptchaImage-EnableCaptchaAudio) I now even deleted the whole radcaptcha, but the problem persists... Any clue would be greatly appreciated, since this is blocking the client to use the product...

Erik

Hi, Mihail.

Thank you very much for your follow-up effort.

Here are what I believe are key factors that can help you replicate...

1) Telerik.Web.UI.dll v.2010.1.519.35 
(we can try with more recent versions, but doing a like-for-like DLL comparison first seems prudent)

2) ASP.NET code snippet for using the RadCaptcha control:
<telerik:RadCaptcha ID="RadCaptcha1" runat="server" ValidationGroup="entry" CaptchaImage-EnableCaptchaAudio="true"
	EnableRefreshImage="true" CaptchaLinkButtonText="Try A Different Image" ErrorMessage="You entered invalid characters, please try again!">
</telerik:RadCaptcha>

3) OS of server hosting website: Windows Server 2008 R2

4) Going to Control Panel ... Sound ... Playback tab should show "No audio devices are installed" (as opposed to having devices and disabling them)

5) App Pool for website is using .NET 4.0, an Integrated Pipeline, and the default ApplicationPoolIdentity

I think that the key combination is Item 4 and the CaptchaImage-EnableCaptchaAudio="true" attribute.  Item 4 is possible, I believe, because it is a VM that was never configured to have audio capability.

It might also help to have a button on the page that does a server post-back and to click this button a couple of times.  Once this is done, then check the Windows Application Event logs for w3wp.exe exceptions.

I hope this is enough to allow you to replicate the issue.  If not, please let me know, and I will do some further digging to provide more information.

Thank you!

Hi, Mihail.

The issue that you claim is a duplicate of mine is a client-side issue having to do with IE10 ("An audio tag is created by the captcha control under IE10, event if the audio tag with WAVE files is not supported on this version of the browser.").

My claim is that the issue I'm reporting is a server-side issue that can bring down the application pool of the website itself.

While I see the similarity, in that they relate to audio problems in RadCaptcha, I am having a hard time seeing how these two issues are talking about the same problem.

Please review and let me know if I can be of further help in clarifying the issue.

Thank you!