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[Endless River]

I like JRiver. I like JRiver very much indeed. It's a well-thought-out piece of software with an exciting range of customisations and top-notch performance.

I would really, really like to be able to control and access JRiver through Gizmo but I am plagued by "server connection" issues.  I have researched the problem, configured my firewall etc., and sometimes I can connect and all is well. But only for a while until Gizmo "fails to connect to the server". What is going on? Why does Gizmo keep needing to access a server external to my network? If you need to authenticate, fine, but once a session should be enough. Why do this every five minutes, or whatever the time interval is?

[mwillems]

The "server" that Gizmo is referring to when it says it cannot reach the server is typically your computer, not JRiver's servers. The PC that Gizmo is controlling/playing music from is a library server serving content to Gizmo.  When gizmo says "cannot connect to server," what it means the vast majority of the time is that it cannot establish a connection with your computer within your LAN. 

That could be happening for lots of reasons (lack of fixed IP addresses, firewall issues, wifi connectivity, you name it). 

The only time Gizmo pings JRiver's servers is when it starts up (or changes servers) to resolve the access code, and you can sidestep that entirely by entering your computer's ip address (+ ":52199") into Gizmo instead of an access code.  It's less convenient for you if you use Gizmo outside of your home network, but if your uses are LAN only you should get the same functionality (and likely the same connectivity issues you're currently experiencing).

[Endless River]

Thanks for that. Firewall and wireless are OK, but I hadn't considered IP addressing. Would a fixed IP for the PC media  server help? Presumably yes.

Thinking about the "server error" - I haven't had the chance to check yet but the IP address quoted might have been my WAN address. Does Gizmo try to connect by routing outside the intranet? If so, why?

[mwillems]

Thanks for that. Firewall and wireless are OK, but I hadn't considered IP addressing. Would a fixed IP for the PC media  server help? Presumably yes.

Thinking about the "server error" - I haven't had the chance to check yet but the IP address quoted might have been my WAN address. Does Gizmo try to connect by routing outside the intranet? If so, why?

Gizmo first tries the last known LAN IP address (a within the LAN address like 192.168.1.4).  If the attempt to reach the LAN address fails, Gizmo tries the WAN address in case you're trying to connect from outside your LAN (but this won't work unless you've setup port-forwarding, etc.).  So if you see Gizmo trying to connect to your WAN address, it's because it already tried and failed to connect to the last known LAN address.  That could be a connectivity issue, or it could be that the server changed IP addresses, etc.  

It will make your life easier if you setup a static IP for your media server PC (and if possible the media server should be a wired connection instead of a wifi connection).  If that doesn't fix the issue, try entering the IP address directly into Gizmo in place of the access code as a troubleshooting step. It should look like this: your.LAN.ip.address:52199

[dean70]

I noticed this is a common issue with both Gizmo and eos on Android (tried with 2 tablets - N7 and N10), it regularly drops the connection and retries several times before reconnecting to JRiver. I can successfully browse the web on the tablet at the same time whilst this is occurring, so it is not the WiFi connection.

Maybe there is something on the MC end where it is not responding to requests in a timely fashion?


 

[mwillems]

I noticed this is a common issue with both Gizmo and eos on Android (tried with 2 tablets - N7 and N10), it regularly drops the connection and retries several times before reconnecting to JRiver. I can successfully browse the web on the tablet at the same time whilst this is occurring, so it is not the WiFi connection.

It may not the Wi-Fi connection on your tablets, but could easily be the network connection on your server.  If your server is on wi-fi it may be experiencing a dropout or the interface may have gone into power-saving mode.  Even if your server is wired, some computers shutdown ethernet interfaces periodically as a power management technique and they don't restart instantly.  That is made worse if your server PC is allowed to sleep or hibernate, which will also cause brief connection issues while it wakes up. To be clear, ethernet or wi-fi interfaces sometimes get shutdown by power-saving features even when the PC is still awake, disabling sleep is not enough if you want to get an instant connection every time.

Try checking out the power/internet settings on your server (both in the BIOS and in windows).  I get a reliable instant connection with Gizmo or Eos to every machine in my house including a Raspberry Pi running JRiver, but I had to tinker with power management settings on every machine from my Haswell Refresh i7 on down to the lowly Pi.

[Endless River]

Thanks again for the prompt and helpful advice. I've tried a fixed IP address and still no luck (Samsung S4 and Nexus 7 used as alternative Gizmo hosts). I can't run a wired feed to the media PC (unless I spool out some CAT 5 through the house as an experiment  ) and like the poster above I can carry out transactions on the Internet and Intranet while Gizmo is failing to connect.

I've also looked at the power saving options and have them all (as far as I can find) disabled. Still no luck, with several retries for an initial connection and regular dropping of that connection.  Since all is well with other comms I'm forced to conclude that something isn't happening in a timely way in MC and/or Gizmo.

Any further thoughts?

Thanks

[glynor]

When it happens, ping the server from the device.

If the pings fail, the problem is network, power settings, or firewall.

If you're running Windows 8.1 on the server, it is very aggressive about saving power, and is very likely shutting down WiFi at idle.

[Endless River]

OK. I'll try pinging the server. Power saving on the adapter is turned off.

Thanks

[Endless River]

Fixed! Originally I had set the Windows firewall to allow inbound communications on all ports on the intranet but without success as far as Gizmo was concerned. Adding a rule specifically for Gizmo's default port did the trick.  Thanks for your advice and patience.

[skeggordon]

I'm having the same problem.  Gizmo can't connect to the server. Running Win7.   Went in to Windows Firewall and created a new Gizmo rule for incoming with the specific port 52199.  Didn't help.  Tried entering my IPv4 Address plus the :52199.   No luck there.   The rest of the network is working.  Do I need a specific protocol?  TCP?  I don't want to hose my machine trying things out. 

[JimH]

I'm having the same problem.  Gizmo can't connect to the server. Running Win7.   Went in to Windows Firewall and created a new Gizmo rule for incoming with the specific port 52199.  Didn't help.  Tried entering my IPv4 Address plus the :52199.   No luck there.   The rest of the network is working.  Do I need a specific protocol?  TCP?  I don't want to hose my machine trying things out. 

It could be blocked somewhere else on your network.  Everything has to be open on port 52199.  Client, server, access point, router. 

Once in a while, I forget to turn on wireless networking on my phone, and then the phone tries to connect via the cell phone network, from the outside, and that fails.