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[zybex]

IPv4 is OK.

In the NAT/Gaming page, click the "custom services" button. The settings for "Media Center 32" must be there.

[zybex]

Update - I can now access your MC Panel, this works:
http://your-public-ip:52199

You have it open as guest, without user/password. Next step is to add a user/pass in MC settings so that strangers from the internet are not seeing and consuming your collection. This is urgent as these links now work for everyone in this forum.

[Mr Swordfish]

Update - I can now access your MC Panel, this works:
http://your-public-ip:52199

You have it open as guest, without user/password. Next step is to add a user/pass in MC settings so that strangers from the internet are not seeing and consuming your collection. This is urgent as these links now work for everyone in this forum.

Thanks.  I've put a password on the guest access - don't remember if I might have opened that up at some point to try to get it to work, or what the default behavior is.

I can now connect using the wifi hotspot / WAN and am prompted for the name and password prior to it loading.

Any idea what changed to make it work suddenly?  I don't recall anything I did earlier today made a difference.

[zybex]

I can still access without user/pass. You need to set both the Authentication and Read-Only Authentication in MC settings to protect it.

Maybe your ISP changed something on their side.

[Mr Swordfish]

I think I have them both set now.  Can you give it another try?

So, it just started working without us understanding why it wasn't earlier.  Hate it when that happens because you never know when it will stop working for the same reason it wasn't working before.  But I don't know that there's anything we can do to figure out what was the problem at this point.

[JimH]

I see MC's  login page for Library Server.

[zybex]

Now it asks for user/pass.

[Mr Swordfish]

Thanks for all the help. Sorry it was such a slog, but it's working now.  I listened via WAN for several hours and have it going now.

I'll give it another test when I travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, and will upgrade to MC 33 when I get back.

PRO TIP for anyone trying to use this method to test (i.e. wifi hotspot on their phone) - Purchase a temporary upgrade to unlimited data - my cel plan only includes 5G per month which is almost always enough, but I left the hotspot active overnight and something gobbled up all the remaining data - probably a Windows update for the laptop - but having unlimited data is one less thing to worry about when trying to get this to work.

[Mr Swordfish]

It worked for about a week and then broke.

On the client PC, I can connect to the JRiver Panel at http://my-ip:52199/Panel/
it prompts me for a name and password, and if I enter it correctly I get in and can browse the files etc.

But, when I try to use MC to connect, it fails.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling MC, and after entering the access code it prompts me for a name and password. 

If I deliberately put in the wrong password, it comes back with the name/password screen so I can put in the correct one.  But after putting in the correct name and password, the connection fails, and nothing I can do will make it connect.  It never prompts for a new name/password.

Since I can connect to the JRiver Panel on the server, all the networking stuff seems to be correct, as is the name and password.

I've tried two different laptops, so it doesn't appear to be hardware related. 

So, what is going on here? Seems like a bug.  Please take a look.

Logfile is attached.

[JimH]

It's not a bug.  This is pretty heavily used and generally works.

Uninstalling/reinstalling won't help.

If Panel works on 52199, you should be able to use 52199 for connecting from MC.

[Mr Swordfish]

It's not a bug.  This is pretty heavily used and generally works.

Uninstalling/reinstalling won't help.

If Panel works on 52199, you should be able to use 52199 for connecting from MC.

I tried using the ip address and port 52199.  It is still non functional, and even if it worked, without a static ip that's a recipe for failure before long.

Call it what you want, a bug or whatever, but the software isn't working. 

zybex was quite helpful. Is he still around?

[stevemac]

please confirm
 - when you cannot connect - it is from outside your network (i.e. from WAN)?
 - has your public IP address changed?
 - is the IP address for the media server a fixed address or DHCP? (and if DHCP is it reserved?)

FYI - I have not accessed Media Server from outside my LAN for a long time.  I used to have issues if the media server's IP address was no longer in the router's ARP table.

[Awesome Donkey]

Outside the network using the Access Key is the way to go usually unless you have a static IP address. Within the network either manually setting an IP address for device functioning as the MC server or using the DHCP address reservation feature on your router to make sure the local IP address never changes is highly recommended (same for anything like a NAS too). On the device running MC make sure a MAC address randomization feature of the OS isn't enabled (and if possible it's set to use the hardware's MAC address). Having MAC address randomization enabled can be problematic, especially if you're trying to use DHCP address reservation on the router and it's set to a specific MAC address that'd randomly change.

If you're using a remote (e.g. JRemote, Gizmo, MO 4Media, etc.) try using the Access Key instead of the local IP address.

[Mr Swordfish]

please confirm
 - when you cannot connect - it is from outside your network (i.e. from WAN)?
 - has your public IP address changed?
 - is the IP address for the media server a fixed address or DHCP? (and if DHCP is it reserved?)

FYI - I have not accessed Media Server from outside my LAN for a long time.  I used to have issues if the media server's IP address was no longer in the router's ARP table.

Outside the LAN.
Ip address is unchanged since I can assess the JRiver panel.
Not a fixed ip.

thanks.

[zybex]

Is your public IP still xx.xx.87.177 ? If so, then your firewall or router is again blocking port 52199. It's not accessible from the world.

Accessing Panel using your local IP address is not the same as accessing it from outside. A firewall knows where the connection is coming from and needs to be configured appropriately. The Router also blocks incoming outside connections unless you tell it to forward that port to your MC machine.

[Awesome Donkey]

Yeah, once you go outside of your local network things can get pretty wonky as you'd be at the mercy of your ISP. My ISP blocks port forwarding completely, so I can't access my MC library outside of my network. To workaround it I would have to use a VPN that allows port forwarding (ProtonVPN is what I use) and then I bind the VPN on MC only then set MC's Media Network to use the forwarded port the VPN provides, then I can access my MC library outside of my network using the Access Key method.

You shouldn't use the IP address method unless you have a static IP from your ISP and the IP address never changes, otherwise each time it changes you have to change the IP address in whatever app/method you use for MC. Using the Access Key method allows it to connect if you have a dynamic IP address and the IP address changes, so that would be my recommendation for things like JRemote, Panel, Gizmo, MO 4Media, etc. If you're using DLNA or UPnP outside of the network (using an app like BubbleUPnP, USB Audio Player Pro, etc.) you'd have to change it to whatever your IP changes to manually (hence why static IPs are desirable in such setups).

Local IP addresses (e.g. ones that start with 192.168.xx.xx) won't work outside of your local network and are different to the IP address your ISP has assigned you (e.g. the xx.xx.87.177 mentioned). Try using your ISP-assigned IP address instead of the local IP address in Panel and it likely won't work either.

[dtc]

Some fundamentals

From within MC the Media Network setup has an option to check access to your server via the access key. Try that. : Tools - Options - Media Network - Access Key.

From outside your lan, use the access code to connect using Panel

https://jriver.com/panel.html

Those two things will confirm whether you have access to your server from outside your lan. If not, the most obvious places to look are your port forwarding setup and your firewall. And, of course, make sure you are using the latest access key.

[Mr Swordfish]

Some fundamentals

From within MC the Media Network setup has an option to check access to your server via the access key. Try that. : Tools - Options - Media Network - Access Key.

From outside your lan, use the access code to connect using Panel

https://jriver.com/panel.html

Those two things will confirm whether you have access to your server from outside your lan. If not, the most obvious places to look are your port forwarding setup and your firewall. And, of course, make sure you are using the latest access key.

Unfortunately, the server instance of MC is a four hour drive away.  But everything was working and nothing has changed on the server instance.


As explained above, I can use use the access code to connect using Panel. I cannot use the access code to connect using MC. I have tried this on two different laptops with the same results.  Since I can connect using Panel, the port forwarding and firewall settings would seem to be correct.  Seems to be something internal to MC.

I uploaded the log file earlier - has anyone taken a look at it to see where the problem might be?  The error message is not very informative.

[Mr Swordfish]

I'm not familiar with the internals of the logfile, but it appears that this is the part where the connection to the MC server fails:

0110956: 26896: Reader: CWinINetReader::Open: Opening http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Get
0110957: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::Thread: Start
0110957: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::Thread: url: http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Get
0110957: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::Connect: Start
0110957: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::Connect: Finish (0 ms)
0110957: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::DownloadFromHTTPURL: Start
0110957: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::DownloadFromHTTPURL: HttpOpenRequest successful
0111082: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::DownloadFromHTTPURL: HttpSendRequest successful
0111082: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::DownloadFromHTTPURL: Failed (header status code: 404)
0111082: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::DownloadFromHTTPURL: Finish (125 ms)
0111082: 17136: Reader: CWinINetReader::Thread: Finish (125 ms)
0111082: 26896: Reader: CWinINetReader::Open: ConnectToURL failed, m_bConnectError=true, URL=http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Get
0111083: 26896: Reader: CWinINetReader::Close: Start


The client seems to be using an HTTP request to the server and getting a 404 not found response.  Yet Panel access is working.  I'd need to look at the MC and Panel code to see why one is working and not the other.

[Awesome Donkey]

Port 52199 is used for HTTP connections, so that's to be expected as that's the default MC uses. If you want to use SSL you need to enable SSL on the MC server in MC's Options > Media Network and generate a self-signed certificate then use port 52200 to connect via SSL and accept the certificate when it asks.

Part of the reason why I think this happens on iOS devices is the use of Private Relay and/or Safari enforcing HTTPS connections, which by default won't work with MC unless you enable and use SSL, as I mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Mr Swordfish]

Is your public IP still xx.xx.87.177 ? If so, then your firewall or router is again blocking port 52199. It's not accessible from the world.

Accessing Panel using your local IP address is not the same as accessing it from outside. A firewall knows where the connection is coming from and needs to be configured appropriately. The Router also blocks incoming outside connections unless you tell it to forward that port to your MC machine.

Yes, that is still the address.

If I use a web browser to go to

http://99.8.87.177:52199/Panel/#/browse

I see a name and password screen.  If I put in the correct name and password I can browse the files.  I've tried this on two different laptops and several different web browsers.

So, it does not appear that anything is blocking traffic to port 52199. It's just that MC itself won't connect.  Not sure why it gets a 404 response (see logfile excerpt above), but that implies to me that whatever web server it is connecting to is receiving the request and returning a 404 not found response.  I would expect a different result if the connection to the webserver was being blocked.

[Mr Swordfish]

Port 52199 is used for HTTP connections, so that's to be expected as that's the default MC uses. If you want to use SSL you need to enable SSL on the MC server in MC's Options > Media Network and generate a self-signed certificate then use port 52200 to connect via SSL and accept the certificate when it asks.

Part of the reason why I think this happens on iOS devices is the use of Private Relay and/or Safari enforcing HTTPS connections, which by default won't work with MC unless you enable and use SSL, as I mentioned earlier in this thread.

There's a checkbox that says "Use secure HTTPS connection, if available", but checking or unchecking it makes no difference.  The entries in the logfile indicate that the MC client is using http not https to connect to the MC server, so I don't think it's an SSL certificate issue.

There are no iOS devices in play here. 

[Awesome Donkey]

Just checked with the link you posted, it's accessible here too (though you might want to remove the link) so it's indeed accessible outside the network.

At the client side, other than the Panel link what are you using to try to access the MC server? Media Center itself (aka Tremote), JRemote, Gizmo, MO 4Media or something else? I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work with any of those since it's accessible via Panel, other than you're trying to use an app like BubbleUPnP/USB Audio Player Pro/etc. as a DLNA/UPnP connection sort of deal, which likely won't work.

[Mr Swordfish]

Just checked with the link you posted, it's accessible here too (though you might want to remove the link) so it's indeed accessible outside the network.

At the client side, other than the Panel link what are you using to try to access the MC server? Media Center itself (aka Tremote), JRemote, Gizmo, MO 4Media or something else? I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work with any of those since it's accessible via Panel, other than you're trying to use an app like BubbleUPnP/USB Audio Player Pro/etc. as a DLNA/UPnP connection sort of deal, which likely won't work.

Connecting via MC itself.  I open up Media Center v22, go to Playing Now -> Playing from Main Library -> Add New Library

The dialog box asks me for an access key or url, I put in either my access code or the ip followed by the port, it prompts me for a name and password, and I get the message that the connection has failed.

Note that if I put in an incorrect name/password I am re-prompted to put in the correct name/password.

That says to me that the connection is getting as far as the authentications process, successfully authenticating, and then failing somewhere afterwards.  i.e. it's not a port forwarding, firewall, or other network configuration issue.  And the fact that connections via the Panel work says that whatever is going wrong is internal to MC.

[zybex]

Indeed the connection to Panel now works, and it didn't a few hours ago when I tested. Weird.

The 404 is also strange... you say you're connecting with MC 22 or is that a typo? What's the server version? Not sure if MC22 Client can talk to MC33 Server, a 404 would mean that MC22 is trying to use an API that no longer exists in 33.

EDIT: Well, /MCWS/v1/Library/Get definitely exists in v33 and all previous versions, so it's something else... :-/

[zybex]

Your server v32 is definitely responding:
http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Alive

Code: [Select]

<Response Status="OK">
<Item Name="RuntimeGUID">{42A6B5D9-0F99-4181-A79A-517056972EA2}</Item>
<Item Name="LibraryVersion">24</Item>
<Item Name="ProgramName">JRiver Media Center</Item>
<Item Name="ProgramVersion">32.0.58</Item>
<Item Name="FriendlyName">Studypc2</Item>
<Item Name="AccessKey">SVOHmO</Item>
<Item Name="ProductVersion">32 Windows</Item>
<Item Name="Platform">Windows</Item>
</Response>
Do you get a response to this one after authenticating?
http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/List

[JimH]

I also see that.

[Mr Swordfish]

Your server v32 is definitely responding:
Do you get a response to this one after authenticating?
http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/List

Yeah, it's version 32, not 22. Waiting to upgrade until this problem is stable. 

When I go to that url, it prompts for a name and password, and if I enter the correct credentials I get

<Response Status="OK">
<Item Name="NumberOfLibraries">1</Item>
<Item Name="DefaultLibrary">0</Item>
<Item Name="Library0">
'Main Library' is a local library located at C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 32\Library\
</Item>
<Item Name="Library0Name">Main Library</Item>
<Item Name="Library0Loaded">1</Item>
</Response>

So, it seems that I can connect to the server as long as I don't try to use MC to do it.

[dtc]

Any possibility this is a 32 bit versus 64 bit issue?

[Mr Swordfish]

Any possibility this is a 32 bit versus 64 bit issue?

Doubtful.  Windows 11 client, Windows 10 server, both 64 bit OS.  I'm fairly sure I have the 64bit version of MC installed, v32 for both. Definitely 64 for the client instance; don't know an easy way to check the server, but I can't imagine I would have deliberately installed the 32 bit version. 

This all worked for about a week or so, then stopped. 

[zybex]

What do you get when you click on this link and enter your password? You should get a ZIP file download:
http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Get

The server seems to be working, so... did anything change on your client side? Did you move to a different hotel? Any extra software installed? What's your antivirus/antimalware/security software? (perhaps it's blocking .zip downloads from non-static domains as that is what some viruses also do). Make sure you exclude the MC installation folder in your antivirus settings.

It's always a good idea to set up some remote access to the server so you can manage it remotely - Teamviewer, VNC, Remote Desktop...

[Mr Swordfish]

What do you get when you click on this link and enter your password? You should get a ZIP file download:
http://99-8-87-177.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net:52199/MCWS/v1/Library/Get

The server seems to be working, so... did anything change on your client side? Did you move to a different hotel? Any extra software installed? What's your antivirus/antimalware/security software? (perhaps it's blocking .zip downloads from non-static domains as that is what some viruses also do). Make sure you exclude the MC installation folder in your antivirus settings.

It's always a good idea to set up some remote access to the server so you can manage it remotely - Teamviewer, VNC, Remote Desktop...

When I click on that link, it prompts me for a name/password. If I enter the correct credentials, I get nothing - that is, I get a blank page and if I view the source there is no content, just a blank page.

Nothing has changed on the client side, other than trying to get it to work on a second laptop.  The clientlaptop is in the same location with the same internet connection as when it worked. No additional software or virus protection has been added or enabled.

Security software is Windows Defender. I've added C:\Program Files\JRiver to the list of exclusions for Windows Defender.   It is still not working - I don't get a zip file from the url above and MC won't connect to the server.

I will enable Remote Desktop this weekend when I am back at the server.

Any other ideas on how to get this to work?

[Mr Swordfish]

BTW, I just noticed that one of the client laptops is running v33 instead of v32. I don't think this is the issue since the other laptop is running v32 as is the server.

Probably not necessary, but is it worth running v32 on the second laptop?  I don't see a way to download v32, but I probably still have the install file on the laptop with v32.

[Awesome Donkey]

There would likely be no differences there that would cause issues between a v32 server and a v33 client. I don't think anything related to MCWS and Media Network has changed between v32 and v33 that could potentially cause an issue like that. I mean, I could be wrong, but I doubt that'd be an issue.

[zybex]

Just to try a different ISP, can you check what happens when you click the same /Library/Get link on your phone with the WIFi off ? Or when you're connected to some other Wifi than your usual one.

[Mr Swordfish]

If I use my celphone to access that link I get a 404 not found error.

If I turn on the wifi hotspot and use that for the laptop's ISP the behavior is unchanged when I access the link that way - no 404 error, but no zipfile either.

[zybex]

From what I can see, the call triggers MC Server to create a "Library Backup.zip" in this folder, which is then served to the HTTP caller:
%AppData%\J River\Media Center 33\Temp

So perhaps that is failing... could the C: drive be full?

@Matt: any other possible cause of a 404 on this call?

[Mr Swordfish]

886 gig free on one laptop, 86 gig free on the other.  There's basically nothing on either of these two laptops so there's plenty of room on the c drive on both machines.

On the server, I recently deleted the local sync folder for the handheld with it's ~320 gig of music data, so that c drive should have plenty of space. I'll double-check that.

[zybex]

Yes, I meant on the server.

[Mr Swordfish]

I just had my partner check on the server and, yes, something had filled up the C drive.

After freeing up some space, things seem to be working.

Now,  I have to figure out what is filling up the C drive.  There was several hundred gigs of space when I left ten days ago, and nothing that should have eaten up the space.

I'll have to look further when I'm back home. Thanks for all the help.  Hopefully, whatever is filling up the space is unrelated to opening up the port to MC.

[zybex]

Great

WizTree: https://diskanalyzer.com/
Scanner: http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/ (slower, simpler visualization)

[JimH]

It could be a drive other than C:, depending on how you have set up MC.  Look at your settings for File Locations.

[thecrow]

I just had my partner check on the server and, yes, something had filled up the C drive.

After freeing up some space, things seem to be working.

Now,  I have to figure out what is filling up the C drive.  There was several hundred gigs of space when I left ten days ago, and nothing that should have eaten up the space.

I'll have to look further when I'm back home. Thanks for all the help.  Hopefully, whatever is filling up the space is unrelated to opening up the port to MC.

It would be worth checking MC logging on your server.
If it has been enabled and left on "Do not reset" this file can grow to be huge.
Help>Logging

[Mr Swordfish]

Thanks. It was set to do not reset, but only ate up about a gig of space, so it's not the problem, although it would have been if I let it go for too long. Thanks for the tip.

[Mr Swordfish]

And the culprit was Dell Support Assist, which ate up 187 gigs of space in C\AppData\Dell\DTP\DB

Dell is aware of this problem, and is supposed to push out a fix on Dec 24th.

See https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/supportassist-for-pcs/any-way-to-reduce-the-size-of-the-dtpdbdb-file/670e40ec5e3929656cb71309?msockid=07931f1fbaf1696225970a11bb75687f

Anyone with a Dell should probably look into this...

There was also an Apple log folder that ate up 50 gigs, which I deleted since I don't use Apple products anymore, but I don't think it was growing.