Changing subnet cause MVP to not connect?

[phornung]

Hi,

I have a sage v6 setup with the following specs:
Dedicated Server:
Dell Optiplex GX110
PIII 866
512MB Ram
Windows 2000
3-PVR150
1-PVR250

Client:
MediaMVP

Everything was working fine for months, until yesterday I changed my home network subnet from 192.168.1.x to 172.24.2.x. Sage runs fine on the dedicated server, my videos and settings are all there, etc...

The MediaMVP isn't able to connect to Sage. It boots, gets a DHCP address in the 172.24.2.x subnet, it detects the sage server, and I select it. It saves settings, then goes to the screen that says Contacting Servers and stays there. It never makes it to Loading Application or beyond.

I'm a networking guy, so I ran a packet sniffer to make sure the server was responding to the client. It is, but the client doesn't seem to be accepting it as the host, or at least that's my best guess. All relevant ports are live on the server, but it still won't boot into the sage application.

As a test, I temporarily shut down sage, loaded Hauppauge's software, and the MVP connected to that. Uninstalled the Hauppauge, turned sage back on, but the MVP still wouldn't connect in.

Anything jumping out at anyone as to why things would stop working?

[phornung]

Just searching through the forums, and here's another thread that seems quite similar. The difference is that I was running v5 just fine, upgraded to v6, it was fine, then changed IPs and now it's not fine.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=215651

[sakker]

Sounds like there is something that was saved from the last settings that is conflicting with the new. I can't offer much advice, but look in sageclient.properties, or sage.properties.

So far it seems to me that Sage has a real rough time when you overwrite existing versions when upgrading. Be it the core files or plugins. It seems like everytime I make a major change I end up having to physically delete all of the setting files and start from scratch.

Luckily for me that I am still new, so I don't have a bunch of things that I can't just wipe and start over, wiz.bin comes to mind, but everytime I have wiped and started over then reinstalled my plugins things work perfectly.

[phornung]

It seems like such a shame to have to start over, just because I decided to tinker with my network.

I've done a little more testing since my post, and I've tried several different routers just in case it was something with the dhcp that was being handed out.

My home network is rather complicated, but not even the server and client on a simple default subnet are able to get it working.

I'm going to look around for what the MVP wants on port 16891, because that's the only request it's sent out that the server hasn't responded to...

[phornung]

Well, I updated to the latest beta this morning (6.1.6rc5), but it still has the same problem. Contacting servers.... then finally Cannot locate a GUI server.

Looks like I might have to blow the whole thing up, which is really a shame. Any way to save favorites? Also, I'd like to import the shows back into the main Sage recordings directory, not using the media center. Is this possible?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by phornung

Well, I updated to the latest beta this morning (6.1.6rc5), but it still has the same problem. Contacting servers.... then finally Cannot locate a GUI server.

Have you reported this to SageTV to see what they say about it?

Looks like I might have to blow the whole thing up, which is really a shame. Any way to save favorites? Also, I'd like to import the shows back into the main Sage recordings directory, not using the media center. Is this possible?

Favorites and recording info are in wiz.bin, so if you plan to try a fresh setup, save that file. If you think there is some config setting causing a problem, you can get rid of sage.properties and its .autobackup copy to start w/fresh settings. For the MVP, there are also properties files in the clients subdirectory you may need to try removing.

See this FAQ about trying a reset of all your config settings.

- Andy

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by phornung

Everything was working fine for months, until yesterday I changed my home network subnet from 192.168.1.x to 172.24.2.x.

Why would you change from a class C network to class B? I believe the MVP only works properly with class C addresses.

[phornung]

@Opus4

I haven't reported it to sage because I didn't think I had exhausted my troubleshooting until I wipe clean and start from scratch. I do tend to tinker a bit, so I tend not to call tech support until I can reproduce the error from a clean install. Plus, I get to really dig my hands in. Sure, having sage down bothers my girlfriend and drives me crazy, but I still love to troubleshoot it.

Thanks for the wiz.bin tip, I'll make sure to save everything out before I wipe it clean.

@carlgar

It's actually 172.24.2.x/24, so it's acting like a class c. My router is DD-wrt using an OpenVPN client to my work, and I designed the vpn to use 172.24.x.x addresses. If you're really interested, I'll explain it all if you want. I'm kinda proud of the design, to be honest...

Now, if the restriction means it has to be 192.168.x.x/24, then we might be on to something. I did have it in that config before, and during testing I was able to get it to connect briefly on a segregated 192.168.11.x/24 network. I'll do more testing with that theory to see if it holds water. In the meantime, do you have any links to prove this limitation?

[NEOSG]

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/701/8.html#cassa

The following are the classes of IP addresses.

*

Class A—The first octet denotes the network address, and the last three octets are the host portion. Any IP address whose first octet is between 1 and 126 is a Class A address. Note that 0 is reserved as a part of the default address, and 127 is reserved for internal loopback testing.
*

Class B—The first two octets denote the network address, and the last two octets are the host portion. Any address whose first octet is in the range 128 to 191 is a Class B address.
*

Class C—The first three octets denote the network address, and the last octet is the host portion. The first octet range of 192 to 223 is a Class C address.
*

Class D—Used for multicast. Multicast IP addresses have their first octets in the range 224 to 239.
*

Class E—Reserved for experimental usage and includes the range of addresses with a first octet from 240 to 255.

[phornung]

I agree, by cisco definition it fits within the class b category because it starts with 172. However, I borrowed 8 bits so it'is subnetted to include only 254 hosts per subnet, which fits the requirement of a class c.

If the device is concerned with the first octet and won't allow it to run, then I'll need to either create a separate subnet for my sage system (no big deal) or I'll have to revert back to a 192 subnet.

I was hoping someone had something from Hauppauge or Sage that mentioned the limitation, but I'll test it tonight anyways...

[Opus4]

Since I have no idea about such network stuff, what does it mean that the IP addresses on my LAN are 172.16.1.x, subnet mask 255.255.255.0?

- Andy

[phornung]

It means your network is an awful lot like mine! If you're successfully using an MVP, then the network addresses aren't the problem.

It also means you just saved me a whole branch of troubleshooting...

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Since I have no idea about such network stuff, what does it mean that the IP addresses on my LAN are 172.16.1.x, subnet mask 255.255.255.0?

- Andy

That is a private, aka non-routable network on public internet, network

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3330

[Opus4]

Yes, the MVP works on my network.

The only time it doesn't is when I leave the media extender server enabled on my work system, instead of just my HTPC system, and then it doesn't know which server to talk to.

That reminds me -- I don't what might have changed in SageTV since then, but I initially had to change my subnet mask, as described here. Since I have it working, I've never tried other settings since then to see what might have changed after that.

- Andy

[phornung]

Oh my, I feel dumb. I installed OpenVPN which runs on port 1194, but once I turned that service off, everything started working again. I don't know why the services would conflict, but they did.

Thanks for all the help, guys. If I ever find out exactly why things were conflicting, I'll pass on the info.