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[rickscogland]

I previously had the abilty to listen to music stored on my home PC while I was at work on my work PC using MC 9.1 media server.  When I got a new home PC, it stopped working.  Now I get this error message:

JRREADER
Failed to connect to a server
Reason: Unknown
URL:http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8931/GetLibrary

(there are actually eight numbers where I put the x's in the above address ... I only put the x's there because I don't know if posting those numbers gives people access to my home PC.  I already DID change those 8 numbers from what they were when I had my old home PC.)

My home PC has a LinkSys wireless-b router, but the PC is hard wired to it.  I do not have a firewall on either PC as far as I know.

I did notice that when I run the media server on my home PC, it always says it is sharing on port 5556 ... should I be using 5556 instead of 8931?)

Does anyone have any things for me to try to get this working again?

Thanks,  -Rick
My HOME PC has Windows XP, but here's the info on my WORK PC:

Media Center Registered 9.1.316 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows 98 SE
Intel Pentium III 600 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 130 MB, Free - 14 MB
Resource Info: System - 55 %, GDI - 60 %, User - 55 %

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 4.72.3612.1700 / wnaspi32.dll: 2, 0, 0, 0 , ASPI for WIN32 DLL, Copyright © Adaptec 1995 / Aspi32.sys: N/A

Ripping /   Drive D:   Copy mode:Normal   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Drive E:   Copy mode:Normal   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: No /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive E: SONY     CD-RW  CRX140E     Addr: 0:1:0  Speed:8  MaxSpeed:8  BurnProof:No
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: No /  Direct decoding: No /  Write CD-Text: No
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[JimH]

You need to run the same build of MC on both machines and you need to use the same port.

If you're sharing on port 5556 you need to connect to that port, and not to 8931.

[rickscogland]

Thanks ... I do have MC 9.1 on both PC's.  I set up my router for port 8931-8931 at home and I set up my work PC for with :8931 but for some reason the MC media server only chooses to share on 5556 on it's own.  I guess I could try adding 5556-5556 to my router if that's what it wants.  Thanks again for the input.  -Rick

[JimH]

Media Server has a setting for the port you want to share.  You can change either side.

The full version must be the same.  9.1.316, for example.

[rickscogland]

I will confirm that both are 9.1.316 (I think they are).

I assume, that to select the port, I go to:

Media Server - Options - Network - Port - Manual Port Selection -

and type in 8931.

I thought I tried this before, but no matter how many times I tried to change it to 8931, it kept reverting to 5556.  I may be wrong on that, so I will try it again tonight, and if it doesn't work, I can then try changing it on the router end.  Thanks,  -Rick

[rickscogland]

Hmmm ... I get the same error message using either port number.  (This would be much faster/easier to troubeshoot if I could be in two places at once.)  I suppose it's possible I took down my IP address from the wrong place ... there's so many long numbers to choose from.  However, if this is NOT the problem, I'm out of things to try.

[JimH]

Try a search on similar problems here.  Set the date range to 400 days.

A common problem is a firewall in between.  You can learn more about this by doing a google search.

Another common problem is that the address of the server on your home network is a fake address not visible to the outside world.  These are usually 192.168.1.something.  In this case, your router or cable modem or whatever is most closely connected to the Internet will have a real address and must be set to translate incoming requests on a certain port to go to your server's internal (fake) address.

You can find more on this by searching.

[rickscogland]

I had given up on this for a while, but now I am determined to get the media server working.  At home, the server works fine ... I can access my media library (stored on my desktop PC) from my wireless laptop and my other wireless desktop.  I can NOT access it from my work desktop.  All machines have the exact same current Media Center version.  I have set all software firewalls to allow ports 5556 and 8931 and to allow Media Center and Media Server.  I did NOT use the http://192.168.1.100:8931 number ... I used the http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8931 number (and also tried 5556).  What else is left for me to try?  BTW, I did a search for the word "server" and found nothing helpful going back 500 days.  Any ideas?  Thanks,  -Rick


Media Center Registered 10.0.155 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2629 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 522 MB, Free - 255 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)

Ripping /   Drive D:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: Yes  Soundfile:   chord.wav

Burning /  Drive D: SAMSUNG  CD-R/RW SW-252S    Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:48  MaxSpeed:48  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: No /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
  Use playback settings: Yes /  Normalization: None

[JimH]

If you can't access it from work these are some of the possibilities.

1.  There are no more connections available.  3 is the limit.

2.  The server is not on the same port you are trying from work.  Client and server must be on the same port.

3.  The version of the software is different.  The full version must be the same.

4.  The work network won't allow packets on the port you're using.  Try port 80.  It's usually open.

[rickscogland]

Thanks for the reply, Jim ...

1. I know there is only one connection.

2. I tried ports 8931 and 5556 on both PC's.

3. I run the "check for updates" on both PC's daily, so I assume both PC's are running the same version.

4. I will try port # 80 ... something about port # 80 sounds familiar ... I thought there was a reason to NOT use # 80, but I will try it out.

[John Gateley]

A couple of additional tests to try. From work, open a DOS window and type:

telnet x.x.x.x 8931

If it connects, type

GET / HTTP1/1

See what you get back.

Try a browser:
http://x.x.x.x:8931/

See if you get something back (this test is less reliable due to many browsers "interpreting" error messages for you)

j

[JimH]

Port 80 is what a web server uses, so it's usually, though not always, open through firewalls.  If you run a web server at home on port 80, you can turn it off for testing.

Double check the versions in MC Help.

[rickscogland]

When I typed it into Internet Explorer, I got error messages on the three ports I tried (80, 5556, 8931).

At the C:\> prompt, I got the following message on all three ports (80, 5556, 8931) ...

"Could not open connection to the host, on port 23: Connect failed"

I don't know where port 23 came from, because I didn't choose port # 23 for anything ... but maybe I should?

I guess I will try port numbers 80 and 23 to see if either of them work.  (I do not run a web server at home).

[JimH]

23 is the standard port for telnet.  Check John's instruction above.  You need to add a port after the telnet command.

[rickscogland]

I actually did type a "space" and then 8931 (then I tried 5556, then 80) and in each case, it still referenced port 23.  If that isn't what you mean, then I don't understand.

It's strange to me that I keep specifying a port number, and programs keep changing the port number, as if I didn't specify one.  Telnet changes everything (80, 5556, & 8931) to port 23 and Media Center/Server keeps changing port 8931 to port 5556.

I guess there is no need for me to try port 23 if that is just for Telnet, but I will try port # 80 when I get home.

[JimH]

Media Server doesn't change ports.  It will do what you tell it to.

[John Gateley]

Very strange behavior from your telnet program. I don't know if it's related or not, but something at work may be interfering with your communication. Try the telnet test at home to see what happens.

What was the error message from the browser?

j

[rickscogland]

The Internet Explorer message was the standard, "The page cannot be displayed" page (with tons of additional text).

FYI - When I am on my home PC (the intended Server) I specify that Media Server is to use port 8931 and hit enter.  It ALWAYS says, "Started auto response thread on port 5556" ... regardless of which port I specify.

[John Gateley]

That's the beacon - it's UDP not TCP and has nothing to do with the 8321 or whatever port you choose.

If you don't want to use it, just turn off "respond to auto detect requests".

It has nothing to do with the communication problem (and the auto detect  won't work for work to home anyway).

j

[rickscogland]

OK, thanks.  I do want to continue responding to auto detects, for when I use my laptop, so I will leave it on.

I guess that confirms that I have no need to keep trying port 5556 at work.

So as of now, I've tried everything for port 8931 without success, but I will try port 80 in hopes that it works.

One thing to confirm ... when I enter the information on my client PC, I entered the following ...

Name = 192.168.1.102:8931
Location = xx.xx.xx.xx:8931

The x's are actually the numbers from the home (server) PC.  Aside from that, I entered everything EXACTLY as above.  I assume whatever I enter for the name doesn't matter as long as the location is correct?  And, I didn't need to type anything before the location numbers, such as http:// or my computer name, right?

[rickscogland]

Are there any known functioning Media Center media servers (using version # 10.0.155) that I can try to log onto to test my work (client) PC to see if THAT is the problem?

[rickscogland]

I'm up and running!!!  Thanks to all who helped.  Port 8931 did end up working.  All that was missing was a few tweaks in the port forwarding of each of my Linksys routers.  The ports were open, but the checkmarks must have made the difference.