Planet Replay

Hairston

Ok, I spent literally 6 hours today trying like 12 different types and brands of home routers. What a nitemare. My buddy brought over a whole box and helped me test each one. Linksys to NetGear, Cnet to Belkin, Cisco to HP, we tested them all.

Well, I'm sorry to say, I'm highly disappointed at the clowns who write the firmware for this junk. Only one router truly worked forwarding multiple public ports to the same private port. Ho-hum.

Ok, fine, next test. We re-tried all of them again but this time just simply forwarding a single public port to a single (but different numeric) private port, half of them failed. Like I said, junk.

The only thing that truly worked 100% on all routers was forwarding multiple (and single) public ports to the SAME numeric ports on the private network.

SO...

As of this now, I am pulling support for non-matching numeric public to private ports for IVSm. The tests today were totally ridiculous. I still can't believe the pathetic lack of support for these features.

As you know (or didn't), the latest version of IVSm has support for multiple proxy ports, but it is currently a manual process. I will try to illustrate all the scenarios below.

Exhibit A: One Replay. The software will automatically configure the proxy port upon setup, but it MUST match the port of your Replay.

PLEASE NOTE: The IP addresses and port numbers are all listed as examples. You NEED to use the values that match your LAN!

Here is a diagram on how it could be setup:

Replay 192.168.1.100 port 2112
PC 192.168.1.200

Upon installation of IVSmagic set the bind address of IVSm to 192.168.1.200 and bind the "proxy port" to 2112. You can set the "web port" to be anything you like as long as it's not currently bound to any other app. "8080" is a good one to try.

The port-forwarding entries on the router should be setup in this way:

Router IP Port IVm IP Port
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 2112 -> 192.168.1.200 2112

From here, start up IVSm, register your local Replay in "Replays" and go! You are done (unless you have to re-configure WiRNS for directed Loopback Sends, but that is beyond the scope of this HOWTO).

Exhibit B: Two or more Replays. Forwarding two or more Replays in IVSm is completely optional. The only function you will lose if you do not set the router to forward your subsequent Replays is the ability to track the send progress on shows transferred from that Replay. If you would like to only forward one Replay and have the others bypass IVSm, use the example in exhibit A.

Here is a diagram on how it could be setup (again, please note that all these values are examples!):

Replay #1 192.168.1.100 port 2112
Replay #2 192.168.1.110 port 6969
Replay #3 192.168.1.130 port 7777

PC 192.168.1.200

Upon installation of IVSm set the bind address of IVSm to 192.168.1.200 and bind the "proxy port" to either 2112, 6969, OR 7777. Just pick one for now. You can set the "web port" to be anything you like as long it's not currently bound to any other app. Again, "8080" is a good port to try.

The router would be setup this way:

Router IP Port IVm IP Port
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 2112 -> 192.168.1.200 2112
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 6969 -> 192.168.1.200 6969
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 7777 -> 192.168.1.200 7777

Now if we picked 2112 as the proxy port during installation, we still need to manually bind ports 6969 and 7777 to IVSm.

Here's how to do it:

Look in the installation folder where you installed IVSmagic. By default the installation places it in "C:\Program Files\IVSmagic". There are two files we need to look for:

IVSm.ini
IVSm-httpd.conf

Let's start with IVSm.ini. Open up IVSm.ini with notepad. Find the entry for "proxy_port". As an example, if you entered "2112" as the proxy port during setup it would be listed as:

proxy_port=2112

Now to tell IVSm we also want to use 6969 and 7777, we place them on the same line seperated by commas like this:

proxy_port=2112,6969,7777

Save the file and open up IVSm-httpd.conf (located in the same folder). Scroll down a bit and look for these entries (again, as examples):

Listen 192.168.1.200:8080
Listen 192.168.1.200:2112

You will need to add two more Listen directives for 6969 and 7777. As an example the entire block would look like:

Listen 192.168.1.200:8080
Listen 192.168.1.200:2112
Listen 192.168.1.200:6969
Listen 192.168.1.200:7777

Save the file and close out notepad. You are done. Now, stop and restart the IVSmagic service (or close it out and re-launch it of you are using it as an app), then double-click the "IVSmagic" shortcut icon.

You should now see that three proxy ports are listed on the status page similar to this:

web port browser interface is bound to 192.168.1.200 port 8080
show send proxy server is bound to 192.168.1.200 ports 2112, 6969, 7777

If you see all three ports, you are good to go!

- Bob
_________________
IVSmagic
DVArchive
WiRNS
L8er's ReplayTV Upgrade

hdonzis · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:32 pm Post subject:

Quite honestly, Bob, I think it is going to be much simpler this way and easier for people to understand and configure. In the long run, I'm sure you will add configuring multiple Replays setting up the listen ports as well. But, it makes it very straight forward that the way you configure IVSmagic is to enter the Replay IP address and Replay's IVS port number. IVSmagic should automatically configure itself to listen on that port number.

And, by making this requirement, I know that you already got the host name field fixing your proxy problem, but if it is even easier, you can simply use the listen port number to compute the Replay IP. Since you will have to create a listen bound to each port number, you would already know which Replay IP that session is associated with. So, you wouldn't need to parse the host name field any longer.

I know it's not as cool, but I think it will make the IVSmagic setup and configuration much simpler. It seemed inevitable when all the Beta testers started complaining about configuring their routers and all the different firmwares they were fooling around with just to try to make things work...

Henry
_________________
Here's my Poop

naughticl · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:27 pm Post subject:

I like it. Looks much cleaner and should be easier to manage.

In your router testing, you must have also noticed that every router labels the lays out the port forwarding process in a unique way.

On my SMC, for instance, the "Virtual Server" page lists:
________________________________________________

Private IP, Private Port, Type (TCP or UDP), and Public Port
________________________________________________

So for my RTV to run Wirns, I set

WirnsIP, Port 29000, TCP, 29000

When I try to add an entry for IVSM, however, as:

IVSM IP, Port 29000, TCP, 29000

I get "Entry Error".

When I set the same info as "UDP", it gets accepted.

Is that alright?

Hairston · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:26 am Post subject:

MaxH · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:48 am Post subject:

So if you're pulling support for it, does that mean I'll have to change my setup the next time I update? I have a Buffalo WBR-G54, and I have no problem assigning public ports 50801 and 50802 to 192.168.11.100:60000. If you would, Bob, please note when you post the next beta that it now requires 1:1 port forwarding, so those of us who have had it working properly can remember to change the setup.

But this really should make it easier to set up; I know most of my time explaining IVSm setup to people was spent explaining the port forwarding for the IVS proxy. That confused a lot of people who were looking at it for the first time.

hdonzis · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:09 am Post subject:

MaxH · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:26 am Post subject:

Good point Henry, although I'm also concerned about those out there who already have it set up with multiple ports, which is the main reason I mentioned including a reminder in the next release post. But I'll probably change the ports the next time I have no sends going.
_________________
Psst, Got Poopli? Drink from the 2Mbps firehose!

One person's trash really can be another person's treasure. The Freecycle Network(tm).

hdonzis · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:34 am Post subject:

Hairston · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:15 am Post subject:

na9d · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:48 am Post subject:

Anyone using an enterprise grade router can certainly forward a public port to a different private port...

Jon
_________________
See my Poop! (5XXX)
See my IVS activity LIVE
Do you Vudu? I do!

scoot13 · Replay junkie Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 230

Thanks man! This thread got me on the right track. I only have one RePlay on port 29000. In effect, all I had to do was change the port forwarding entry in my router setup that I had labled "RTV" from the IP of the Replay to the IP of the IVSm computer to get IVSm to work correctly. I just didn't grasp that from the instructions and tried to make things harder than they were, which I think is a common problem among us.

I wasted a couple of days by ADDING another line with that information on it instead of changing the existing one (or disabling it) in my router config. So I was assigning 29000 twice and I guess that was the root problem...

Everything, including loopback, is working normally now. I am able to send a show back to my computer and to track the progress of my sends. The only abby normal thing is that it won't track progress of loopback sends, they always stay at 0%. That's no big deal to me and I'm very happy to be able to track my sends.

Way to go Hairston, thanks for this awesome program!!!

Scoot

hdonzis · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:03 pm Post subject:

Hairston · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:48 pm Post subject:

drahholf · Just looking around Joined: 27 Sep 2005 Posts: 1

I'm still confused on one thing. With just 1 replay setup this way does my PC need to be on to send or receive shows for the entire transfer?

eclectic · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:09 pm Post subject:

Your PC is proxying your IVS port. It needs to be on any time you're sending or receiving anything.

scoot13 · Replay junkie Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 230

Hairston · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject:

l8er · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:00 pm Post subject:

Followed the instructions for adding/changing the ReplayTV IVS ports to the IVSMagic PC IP and for the first time I've got status info on a transfer:

hdonzis · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject:

MaxH · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 3:50 pm Post subject:

Bob, when we unzip the upgrades, do we need to stop and restart the service? First I was stopping the service, unzipping the files, then starting it. Usually if you try and upgrade an app without stopping a service, the files are in use and you can't overwrite them, but that wasn't the case with the include directory, so I unzipped the files to that directory and then stopped and restarted the service. However, I can't tell if even that is necessary. Once I unzip the files and click "status", the new version number shows up on the status page, so I wonder if it matters.

What's the word?
_________________
Psst, Got Poopli? Drink from the 2Mbps firehose!

One person's trash really can be another person's treasure. The Freecycle Network(tm).

Hairston · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:27 am Post subject:

l8er · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:55 am Post subject:

Just to clarify, to monitor the send progress of all our ReplayTVs, do we need to still manually add the info in the Everyone! Please read this first! Important setup info! thread in the latest version of IVSmagic (v0.9.1.0)? Thanks.
_________________
-Gary

Hairston · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 6:00 am Post subject:

Yes, in order to track the send progress of all shows being sent from all your local replays, they must be all registered in IVSm and the router setup exactly as described in that doc.

BUT...

For testing purposes though, since it is just a beta, I would only configure one Replay to forward through IVSm on the router for the time being. It's your choice however.

You will still be able to do "Send Show Notifications" and Loopback Sends and all that other good stuff with the rest of your Replays, except the send progress won't be tracked.

- Bob
_________________
IVSmagic
DVArchive
WiRNS
L8er's ReplayTV Upgrade

rds · Replay fan Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 54

If you try to receive files, the the router is pointed to your PC & then the sender cannot find your unit.

What am I missing?

jorgejun · Replay user Joined: 28 Sep 2005 Posts: 66

dvasco · Replay newbie Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 20

I had to change the the proxy to the RTV port and also change the forwarding to the IVm IP for the loopback to work. I am happy I finally got this to work. I am also happy I wasn't the only person that didn't completely understand the setup.

TakeTheActive · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:44 pm Post subject:

TakeTheActive · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:49 pm Post subject:

rds · Replay fan Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 54

Well it is working. I had someone tell me that they couldn't connect to one of my unites, & I posted too early as others have had no problem.

You are so right about read, re-read & re-re-read the posts & instructions.

Mannyman · Replay newbie Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 12

Thanks for the program works like a charm.

Setting up after midnight posed problems for me, too tired to follow directions. I correctly modified .ini file and .conf file.
Somehow I thought I had changed router settings to pt. ports from Replays to PC.
When I woke up I found that I in fact did not. Everything's cool now.

Advice to others: Set-up IVSmagic while awake.