diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/hbp/mip/model/Experiment.java b/src/main/java/eu/hbp/mip/model/Experiment.java
index be92bb2fc4291168b27693f9a08a8df10b1ea137..949d359d8650f139e00cda18a7d039c1c7b6b8f2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/hbp/mip/model/Experiment.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/hbp/mip/model/Experiment.java
@@ -99,6 +99,9 @@ public class Experiment {
         List<eu.hbp.mip.messages.external.Algorithm> algorithms = new LinkedList<>();
         List<Validation> validations = new LinkedList<>();
 
+        if (model == null || model.getQuery() == null)
+            return new ExperimentQuery(null, null, null, null, null, null);
+
         for (Variable v: model.getQuery().getVariables()
                 ) {
             variables.add(new VariableId(v.getCode()));
diff --git a/src/main/resources/akka/application.conf b/src/main/resources/akka/application.conf
index c8a99af1b854138fa91e06d5e1e4ac7e5c9d5caa..ef1245468858e836c6a0ff1f8729a7caa2635141 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/akka/application.conf
+++ b/src/main/resources/akka/application.conf
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 akka {
   loglevel = INFO
-
   actor {
     provider = "akka.remote.RemoteActorRefProvider"
   }
@@ -8,10 +7,10 @@ akka {
     enabled-transports = ["akka.remote.netty.tcp"]
     netty.tcp {
       hostname = 127.0.0.1           # external (logical) hostname
-      port = 8097                    # external (logical) port
+      port = 8088                    # external (logical) port
 
-      #bind-hostname = 127.0.0.1     # internal (bind) hostname
-      #bind-port = 8084              # internal (bind) port
+      bind-hostname = 127.0.0.1     # internal (bind) hostname
+      bind-port = 8088              # internal (bind) port
     }
   }
 }
\ No newline at end of file