Topic: Accessing Media Server over the Internet? (Read 4834 times)

Warlock · « **on:** May 14, 2003, 06:39:08 am »

I have been playing around with Media Server on my LAN, and I have to say I am very impressed. I've heard that it is possible to setup Media Server to allow remote access over the internet. Does anyone have experience doing this? I would like to run it from behind a home gateway/router and access my music from work. Some concerns I have:

-Is it secure? Would I be opening up my system to attack?
-Does it matter that my cable company dynamically assigns me an IP address?
-Is it stable enough that I can let it run 24/7?
-Will I have full access to my database?

Ah the possibilities!

John Gateley · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2003, 06:53:44 am »

Hi Warlock,

Media Server was designed with security in mind. However, it has not been subjected to extensive attack (as far as I know).

You need a static IP, though there are web sites that may help with this.

It is stable modulo a small bug (involving upstream network outages).

You'll have full access.

KingSparta · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2003, 07:13:38 am »

Quote

-Is it secure? Would I be opening up my system to attack?

I have not seen any problems but there was a Red Alert Attack Last Year And Some Junk Was Detected And Sent To The Media Server Log, But No Problems Resulted.

Quote

-Does it matter that my cable company dynamically assigns me an IP address?

Yes

Quote

-Is it stable enough that I can let it run 24/7?

Yes

Quote

-Will I have full access to my database?

You can if you want or create another Library for sharing only.

you can also put in a password so others can not connect (security)

Warlock · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2003, 08:52:16 am »

Quote

You need a static IP, though there are web sites that may help with this.

This could be a problem. Is it because I will need to know my IP address so that I can access my home server? I think my ISP dynamically assigns an IP address when I turn on the router and then doesn't change it until I do a reset or turn the router off. If so, I could just leave the router on and write down the IP address assigned to it.

I'll give it a try tonight. Does the help file explain the steps necessary to setup Media Server behind a home firewall? Are there any major issues or bugs I should be aware off?

The thought of being able to access my library from work is very exciting. What an incredible piece of software MC9 is.

eruji · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:23:10 am »

I just got dsl yesterday! we just moved last week. ive been on 56k for about a year and a half

, had cable prior to that.

but im streaming music from home at work right now and so far its working great!

my setup is DSL into a wireless linksys "G" router. then media server running on one of my pc. I configed the media server to run on a specific port and then i editited my router to forward that port number to the machine running it.

so at work in media center i create a library that connects to the ip address:portnumber and it works!

i have a dynamic ip, but i dont think it will change that frequently, i had a dynamic ip with my cable provider for 2.5 years and i think it changed once or twice. even better, if you have a domain name you could use a domain hosting service like www.zoneedit.com and have it pointed to your computer so mp3.yourdomainname.com:portnumber would be how you connect to your server. then if you ip changes just change it at the domain hosting service.

eruji · « **Reply #5 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:27:21 am »

just thought that i would add that i have 1.5mb down and 128 up so, when i play songs that are higher than 128kbs encoding it hiccups. Media server doesnt stream the music at a lower bitrate like a winamp (shoutcast)streaming server. So its more like a direct network connection to your library, but if you internet connection is fast enough it should work fine.

John Gateley · « **Reply #6 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:28:46 am »

Quote

This could be a problem. Is it because I will need to know my IP address so that I can access my home server? I think my ISP dynamically assigns an IP address when I turn on the router and then doesn't change it until I do a reset or turn the router off. If so, I could just leave the router on and write down the IP address assigned to it.

I'll give it a try tonight. Does the help file explain the steps necessary to setup Media Server behind a home firewall? Are there any major issues or bugs I should be aware off?

Yes, you have to enter the IP address or host name of the server to connect (it won't discover it automatically).

Some sites provide "dynamic DNS" or something like that. I don't know the details, but that may help if your IP changes too often.

Some ISP filter all incoming connections (so it won't work no matter what you do), some filter incoming connection to port 80 (the web port) so you'll need to choose a different port than that.

If you are using NAT or a frewall, these must be configured (beyond the scope of this forum).

Or you may just hook it up and have it work right from the beginning.

j

jredders2 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 14, 2003, 10:15:29 am »

I remeber talk about having Media Server automatically re-encode to a lower bitrate for Media Center connections like it does now for TiVO. Any idea when this could be available? My Cable just isn't fast enough to serve my .mpcs and I really don't want to encode a second version of all my songs so I can stream it...

-John

Warlock · « **Reply #8 on:** May 14, 2003, 11:12:34 am »

Eruji: Thanks for explaining your setup. I should be able to duplicate what you have done without too much trouble. I just hope I can get a better upload speed than 128k.

jredders2: I saw that mentioned somewhere as well. I know the MC Ipod plugin automatically converts high bit rate files to a lower bitrate before it transfers the files. Maybe that functionality could be adapted to streaming files. I am sure that is an issue for a lot of people, especially those like me who store most of their music in lossless format (APE).

--Lest I forget, thanks King and John for your comments as well.

kcorbett · « **Reply #9 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:29:27 pm »

Quote

You'll have full access.

? I seem to have read-only access from work to my MS running at home. I can play files, but tagging changes don't have any effect on the remote database. (I haven't bothered to see if they're being cached locally.) Am I missing something?

/kmc

John Gateley · « **Reply #10 on:** May 14, 2003, 08:05:38 pm »

Sorry - either I or someone else misunderstood. While you can modify the database, the changes are not saved back.

Sorry for the confusion.

j

Wanmor · « **Reply #11 on:** May 15, 2003, 07:20:39 am »

For dynamic DNS service, try http://www.zoneedit.com... it's free for most users. The say in their FAQ: "If a domain is getting a lot of traffic (like a million hits/year) then that zone will stop being free."

You'd need to register a domain name (any cheap registrar will do as long as they'll let you control your primary DNS. It is NOT necessary to transfer the domain name to Zoneedit, which would usually incur an additional fee.)

You then can run a program on your PC which will update your IP address for you whenever it changes, and you can access your home PC using the domain name and never worry about it again.

Warlock · « **Reply #12 on:** May 15, 2003, 09:41:26 am »

Quote

Sorry - either I or someone else misunderstood. While you can modify the database, the changes are not saved back.

John, is this something that you guys are looking at changing someday?

John Gateley · « **Reply #13 on:** May 15, 2003, 09:46:05 am »

someday...

j

Dave T · « **Reply #14 on:** May 15, 2003, 11:43:14 am »

Regarding dynamic DNS:

My router/firewall ($150 or so, from NexLand) does that for me. Every time my IP address changes, my router sends the new IP address to dyndns.org. Dyndns.org gives you a domain name for free - like "joesdomain.dyndns.org". Every time you connect to joesdomain.dyndns.org, you'll be routed to your computer, even if the ip address changes.

I've been on this for a couple of years, and it seems to work very well.

- Dave

Warlock · « **Reply #15 on:** May 19, 2003, 07:32:35 am »

Quote

Some ISP filter all incoming connections (so it won't work no matter what you do), some filter incoming connection to port 80 (the web port) so you'll need to choose a different port than that.

I have been playing around with forwarding a port from my router to my server, and it appears that I will need to pick a specific port in Media Server, rather than let it select one automatically. Otherwise, I don't see how I can let my router know which port to forward. My question is, what port will Media Server choose by default when left on automatic?

If I need to pick a port, I'd rather choose something obscure, rather than port 80. Since I know very little about ports and firewalls, I don't know what other ports to choose. Does anyone have a suggestion?

John Gateley · « **Reply #16 on:** May 19, 2003, 07:39:40 am »

Hi Warlock,

I think Media Server chooses the first available port in the range 80 to 85 (but I'm not sure). In any case, you don't want to use this, you want to pick your own.

The main consideration is not to choose a port that will conflict with something else. Do a netstat -an in a DOS window and look for "listen", this will tell what ports you have open. Choose something not there.

j

JimH · « **Reply #17 on:** May 19, 2003, 07:40:40 am »

The port can be set to anything in Media Server. Just explore the settings.

loraan · « **Reply #18 on:** May 19, 2003, 09:47:11 am »

I'm running this setup and it works very well, although you need a fast Internet connection and you're better off using FTP for very large files like 80 MB video files.

Some notes on my setup, just in case it helps:

Linksys 802.11b home gateway. Must port forward through the Linksys (Advanced/Forwarding). This means that Media Server must be on a fixed port, so don't use auto-select. Also, don't use a "well known" port such as 80 (HTTP), 23 (TELNET), etc... because 1) this might conflict with a service that's already running on your network, and 2) it might make you slightly more vulnerable to attack or exploit. I picked a high numbered port (in the tens of thousands) because there's not much up there.
Since my ISP assigns a dynamic IP address, I use dyndns (http://www.dyndns.org) to contact my server. I registered a domain name (blah.dyndns.org) and then use that domain name to contact my server. Since my Linksys doesn't automatically update dyndns, I have to run a client on my server to perform the updates. I use DirectUpdate (do a google search) because it's free and it runs as a Windows service.
Finally, Media Server itself has a few quirks. The most notable is that the client (Media Center) and server (Media Server) must be the exact same version or, in my experience, they won't work. They just won't talk to each other. This means that you've got to upgrade your server and your remote machine in lockstep. Not such a big deal, but worth knowing...

georgerillo · « **Reply #19 on:** May 20, 2003, 07:32:59 am »

I'm trying to access my Media Server (located at home) from work. I have Media Server installed at home and Media Center installed at work.

I used Library Manager to setup my fixed IP number then I selected the new GRRHOME library. I can see the new library loading but when it's complete, the Library selected is still Default and there are no files in my Media folder.

Screen Shots:

http://devmp.fisbonds.com/mc/mchelp.html

Thanks for your help.... geo

JimH · « **Reply #20 on:** May 20, 2003, 07:57:20 am »

It looks like you connected successfully. Did you try playing?

georgerillo · « **Reply #21 on:** May 20, 2003, 08:36:11 am »

It seems to download media files (I think) but there are no files listed under Media Library. Everything is empty so there are no files to play.

I did have this working once but one day when I came in, my home computer was off line and there was an error that it could not connect to the media server. Since then, I can reconnect and see files.

thanks... Geo

John Gateley · « **Reply #22 on:** May 20, 2003, 10:47:18 am »

On your Media Server, what library have you chosen to share? Load that library (on the server machine with Media Center, not via Media Server) and make sure it has content.

j

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Author Topic: Accessing Media Server over the Internet? (Read 4834 times)

jredders2