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[f1bred]

I am running Media Server 9.0 at home, and trying to connect to it from work but cannot. The server seems to be working fine. When I try to connect, the client library manager tries, then responds with "Cannot establish connection to the server. Error:".

Relevant info:

Both computers:
XP SP1
MC 9.0

Server:
Sharing "Default" library
Dynamic IP, but using a service that provides static IP, and it is updated via router config.
Media Server setup to share on port 5555 (port 80 is being successfully used for a web server on the same machine)
Computer is behind a Linsys WRT54G router with port 5555 being forwarded to the server computer
Authentication turned off
Server messeges:
09/04/03 07:11:30 - Server initialized
09/04/03 07:11:30 - sharer ready to accept connections
09/04/03 07:11:30 - Started auto response thread on port 5556.

Any ideas on why I cannot connect?

What does the check box for "Do not respond to autodetect requests." Do? It is currently unchecked.

What is the "auto response thread" and why is it on port 5556?

[loraan]

Most likely cause is that your work is blocking all except for a few authorized outgoing ports. Try it on port 80.

[John Gateley]

You don't have to worry about autodetect requests. These only happen on the local segment of the network (they don't make it past routers). They are used so that when you click "search for media servers", the media server will respond.

Try typing

http://<ip>:<port>/

into a browser where <ip> is your ip, <port> is your port.
This should give you a decent error message.

j

[f1bred]

I checked with our IS dept and no outgoing ports are blocked. But, if my server at home is set to port 5555, it doesn't mean that I am going out of the work net on 5555 does it? It's just that the incoming port is 5555. Shouldn't all outgoing internet traffic at work be on 80 (the same as web browser traffic)? What port does the incoming stream come in on?

[Shadowen]

If your server is behind a NAT router at home, then you will need to make sure you configure your router to forward traffic to the Media Server machine for the specific port that Media Server is using (80 by default).

If your work is blocking port 80 going outbound, then you could try to setup a SSH tunnel (which uses port 22) to connect over the internet to your home network.

[John Gateley]

Each network connection has two ports (and two IP addresses). Rather than use the term inbound or outbound, I'll use client and server. Example: The client has IP address 10.0.0.1 and the server has IP address 10.0.0.2. The server is running media server on port 1234. The client connects to the server. This creates a single network connection from 10.0.0.1 port 54321 to 10.0.0.2 port 1234.

The 54321 is a random port chosen by the client.

Many places firewall outbound connections to ports other than 80. This means that if you are connecting to a server and your server port is not 80, it may be filtered by your company firewall.

Firewalls do not usually care about client ports, and in fact nobody really cares about client ports, except that they make it easier to understand what is really happening when the terms "inbound" and "outbound" start flying around (oh yeah, and server a minor purpose to allow multiple connections between the same client and server on the same server port, otherwise how would you keep the connections separate?).


j

[f1bred]

I have numerous other services running on different ports on that server (router config, XP Remote Desktop, Snapstream video server, etc.) and I can connect to those from work. Doesn't that mean that the work firewall isn't blocking at least those ports?

Sorry if this is off topic, I'm new to the internet port/router/IP thing and I'd really like to get stuff like this working.

[JimH]

Are the versions of MC the same on both sides?

What do you do when you try to connect?

[f1bred]

If your server is behind a NAT router at home, then you will need to make sure you configure your router to forward traffic to the Media Server machine for the specific port that Media Server is using (80 by default).

Yes, the router is configured to forward the appropriate port to the server machine.

[f1bred]

Are the versions of MC the same on both sides?

Yes. Both are version 9.0 (9.0.180 I believe)

What do you do when you try to connect?

On the client I went into the Media Library Manager and set up a new library with it's location being:
myhomestaticip:5555

When I tell the client to Load the library, I get the above error message. The server log doesn't show that any connection was ever tried.

[f1bred]

Try typing

http://<ip>:<port>/

into a browser where <ip> is your ip, <port> is your port.
This should give you a decent error message.

j

I get a "Server not found" error. If I try other ports it works fine. It seems to be just this port. The router has both UDP and TCP protocols are checked-- is this correct?

[John Gateley]

It only needs TCP.

Open a DOS windows (command prompt window) and type:

telnet <ip> 5555

then let me know what error message you get back.

j

[f1bred]

"Could not open connection to the host on port 5555. Connect failed."

[John Gateley]

Your configuration is wrong or Media Server is not listening on that port.

On the machine Media Server is running on, do a netstat -a and make sure that port 5555 is listening.

If it is, then your NAT configuration is messed up somehow.

j

[f1bred]

Darndest thing-- it started working with no obvious changes to any hardware or software. The machines/routers were rebooted , but no active config changes were made. Go figure.  

Anyway, so I am now able to stream over the internet to my work computer, but I have the problem that the stream will be interrupted, and it will start buffering again. I suspect my upload bandwidth of my ISP at home is not high enough-- 128kbps. Should I assume that to successfully stream an MP3 that's recorded at say 192kbps bit rate, I would need an upstream connection that is at least that wide?

[John Gateley]

Hi f1bred,

sounds like your configuration was saved to a boot configuration but not to the currently running configuration. Glad it's working now.

Yes, you need at least 192Kbps upstream to stream the equivalent mp3s.

j

[f1bred]

Do I need to account for any overhead as well-- that is, do I need a faster speed than say 128 to stream a 128kbps file?

Also, can you get Media Server to change the bit rate on existing files its streaming on the fly ?

[JimH]

Do I need to account for any overhead as well-- that is, do I need a faster speed than say 128 to stream a 128kbps file?

Yes.  Depending on bandwidth limitations on both ends, it could need to be a lot faster, but a 128Kbps connection will probably handle 64K media and maybe 92K.

Also, can you get Media Server to change the bit rate on existing files its streaming on the fly ?

Not at this time.  The best way to do this is to set up two libraries.  Check the Help file on this.

Be careful, if you do this, to convert a few files before you do a lot or you may convert everything by mistake and end up with no 128K content.

[f1bred]

Thanks for all your help!