Take an HD200 on the road

[ericscottf]

I read the writeups on the HD300, and one of them mentioned that you could take your HD300 elsewhere with you and, assuming you had everything set up properly (placeshifter on the server, i'm guessing?), plug it into the internet somewhere and watch your TV (assuming you left your sever on).

I bet i could find all of this out by searching extensively, but i was wondering if anyone could contribute their experience doing this with the hd200?
Did it work well for you? Anything worth noting?

thanks!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ericscottf

I read the writeups on the HD300, and one of them mentioned that you could take your HD300 elsewhere with you and, assuming you had everything set up properly (placeshifter on the server, i'm guessing?), plug it into the internet somewhere and watch your TV (assuming you left your sever on).

I bet i could find all of this out by searching extensively, but i was wondering if anyone could contribute their experience doing this with the hd200?
Did it work well for you? Anything worth noting?

thanks!

As long as you have everything setup correctly it works well. You may want to take a laptop with placeshifter outside somewhere and test with that first. With a laptop you could remote in if you have to make changes to your server or router. But once it works on the laptop it should work on your HD200/300.

Gerry

[ericscottf]

interesting. I see why people want a placeshifting android or ios app then.

What kind of throughput is minimum for a nice stutter free connection?

[ericscottf]

I wanted to configure sage to use a different port than the default 31099.

I told sage the new port
I forwarded the new port external to internal 31099 just like the instructions (weird that sage keeps the same internal instead of allowing us to change it, but whatever)
I did an external port scan on 31099 and the new port and indeed, the new port is open to my comp and 31099 is not.

When i test the placeshifter connection through the sage GUI, it fails and my router logs show:
Blocked incoming TCP connection request from 209.216.209.49:52664 to [my external ip]:31099

I then forwarded 31099 to 31099 and the test worked fine.

So my question:
1) am i doing something wrong?
2) is sage incapable of properly testing alternate ports, but this would work otherwise?
3) is sage only kidding when it suggests that i can use a different port, and i must stick with 31099?
4) something else?

Thanks

[gplasky]

Are you testing from outside the LAN? It's not going to work the same way inside on your LAN if you test from there.

Gerry

[ericscottf]

I'm pressing the test connection button in the sage setup menu.
Works fine if i leave the default port
Doesn't work if i use a different port.

[gplasky]

You're changing the port where? And are you opening that port on your firewall(s)?

Gerry

[ericscottf]

I told sage to use a different port in setup->server
I did indeed forward the port.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ericscottf

I told sage to use a different port in setup->server
I did indeed forward the port.

DO yo have firewalls running on your server and/or other machine? You need to open the port there. Your router can forward the port but where is it going to go if the port is shut on the firewall where the Sage server runs?

Gerry

[ericscottf]

If i forward 31099(sage default) and tell sage to use 31099, the test works.
If i forward my new port and tell sage to use the new port, the test fails.

[gplasky]

Because your firewall was probably configured when you enabled placshifter to open the port 31099. Now that you changed the port you need to open that new port on your firewall manually.

Gerry

[ericscottf]

I opened up both ports. As per sage's instructions, i passed 31099 on the firewall to 31099 on the PC and i passed the new port to 31099 on the PC.

If i tell sage to use the default port, the test works.
if i tell sage to use the modified port, it does not work.

[gplasky]

Port forwarding is only going to function outside of your LAN, not inside. And you also need to configure your router to forward incoming traffic on that port to the appropriate local IP address. (not to a port) If your router supports Upnp it Sage should be able to configure it automatically.


Gerry

[ericscottf]

I'd assumed that the test functionality involved the sage server attempting to access the computer from outside.

Also, when doing a port redirect (as seems to be the requirement for sage), you need to forward to the IP of the computer and the different port.

Is there anyone out there who has their placeshifter server operating on a port other than 31099?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ericscottf

I'd assumed that the test functionality involved the sage server attempting to access the computer from outside.

Also, when doing a port redirect (as seems to be the requirement for sage), you need to forward to the IP of the computer and the different port.

Is there anyone out there who has their placeshifter server operating on a port other than 31099?

As long as your router continues to do this:

When i test the placeshifter connection through the sage GUI, it fails and my router logs show:
Blocked incoming TCP connection request from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx52664 to xx.xx.xx.xx:31099

I'm pretty sure it's not going to work for you.

Gerry

[ericscottf]

Yeah, i got you on that. I understand what's going on, I just don't see how things are going to work with changing ports.

Are you working off the default port or a different one?

[gplasky]

Default. So much simpler.

Gerry

[ericscottf]

Apparently.

Until i hear otherwise, I'm going to assume that the test function is hardwired to use the default port and changing ports either doesn't work or causes the test to break.

[Opus4]

You'll need to double (triple?) check your firewalls. If you are configuring the port forwarding on the router manually, check that again too.

I use the built-in UPnP config options to forward 31099 to one PC and 32099 to another PC, since I have multiple SageTV systems for normal use & my work. They both forward fine and test OK using the built-in option to test the connection.

Try something other than 52664, since maybe that is not a valid number or is in a blocked range.

- Andy

[ericscottf]

The 52644 is the port that the sage test was sending from.

Let me try explaining this differently.

When i set up sage to use the default port, and i click the test button, my firewall logs an attempted connection to port 31099.
When i set up sage to use an alternate port, and i click the test button, my firewall logs an attempted connection to port 31099.

What i'm saying is that no matter what my sage port settings are, the test button results in the sage server attempting to connect to 31099, and never a different port.

Am i misinterpreting the meaning of the "use a different port" function in sage? To me, that means that the connection will come in via an alternate port *from the outside*. Am i mistaken?