Sage remote control (From work)

[Droid]

I have been reading several requests to add remote control (Web access to sage). I currently have a solution that works well and wanted to share.

1) get a DynDns.org account. This allows DHCP'd routers or PC's to have a DNS entry that can be accessed externally.
2) get software that will run as a service on your pc or get a router that supports DynDNS. (I have a netgear that has this built in) This grabs your IP and sends it to DynDns to be assigned to your domain name (typically something.homeip.com).
3) Open ports 5800-6000 (on your firewall router) and if using a router, port forward to the Sage box.
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4) Download a VNC (I use RealVNC) and install the host server on the Sage box.
5) Install the VNC client on the computer you want to use to remote control...

Done... Sometimes freaks my kids out when I log-in remotely and make changes...

If you need more detail let me know, but I wasnt sure if this was new information or not and I didnt want to bore you...

[chrysek]

If we know what ports Sage Client communicates to SageTV server could we open those ports on firewall and connect client remotely to it? There is no authentication so that’s a bad part and streaming would not be possible but at least all the configs and TV Guide could be accomplished....

I use similar method what you use but I do use Remotely Anywhere which works well for me... Just have to make sure my video is off and I don’t try to see video from Sage since then the system is unusable because of the bandwidth required.

I wonder why Sage Developers can’t create Sage Client Web Edition kind of plug-in, Sage Client has already everything needed, just a little authentication, port open and here you go... Yes it is not as good as using the Web (avability virtually from anywhere in the world without any client software) but at least for people like me who can access it from work I could simply install client software on my PC and connect easily...

Can you imagine if Sage developers went this extra yard and created Web Client so that you could stream video to your remote PC anywhere in the world? If it could convert recorded video to something that could be small (not bandwidth crazy) this could work probably. I would love such feature Probably quality would suck but would love to get such option...

Chris

[ErsatzTom]

The port is 42024. I've connected to it over the internet before. As you mentioned streaming is definitely out but it works.

t

[David]

I'm testing right now to see how well it will work to forward a SageTV Client connection through Secure Shell (SSH) on port 42024. I have BitVise WinSSHD server ( http://www.bitvise.com ) on a computer at home opened up through the NAT router, but and I'm connecting with BitVise Tunnelier (PuTTY should work, too, and it's free, but Tunnelier is really polished!). I'll let you know the results here. Remote Desktop should work, too, but this should be even better as long as the client is installed on the remote computer (I wouldn't try streaming vid, though...but maybe I will try :-)

Back from trying...I've got a 256Kb/sec upload on my cable modem at home, and I'm on a 384Kb/sec up from where I'm at now (both Comcast cable, one home one business, 3-4Mbps down on each). Secure Shell port 42024 connects, and Client comes up to initial menu on my laptop, but when I click SageTV Recordings, it hangs for a while and then says "The connection to the SageTV Server has been lost. Attempting to restore the connection." and Tunnelier indicates that the port has been closed. Tried a couple of times. I'm guessing it times out because it's so slow or something, I haven't gotten to the point where I would be playing video or anything.

It would be great to have a web interface or some other "light client" interface that didn't need as much bandwidth but could be used to view the guide and schedule recordings, and maybe view what has been recorded, without access to the actual video (maybe thumnails?).

I just tried Remote Desktop however, and while slow (it is the encrypted RDP using SSL through encrypted SSH tunneling :-) it does work for everything but video display!

[coderoyal]

Originally Posted by chrysek

I wonder why Sage Developers can’t create Sage Client Web Edition kind of plug-in, Sage Client has already everything needed, just a little authentication, port open and here you go... Yes it is not as good as using the Web (avability virtually from anywhere in the world without any client software) but at least for people like me who can access it from work I could simply install client software on my PC and connect easily...

Hi Chris!

I completely agree with you. I think it would be great for SageTV to create some form of a simple web interface to allow SageTV customers to manage recordings. In fact, with the Web Interface, any user, including Mac, and Linux users, can access the SageTV Server and schedule their recordings.

I know of some products in the market that provider this feature.

I'll let you know how it would benefit us anyway. We are a school district and we use SageTV to record educational shows for students. We aren't using Windows, but district-wide, we use Fedora Core (with the exception of Citrix). The SageTV source can be accessed in any classroom, but obviously, you can't control it.

I've heard of a third-party tool that with an older version of Sage-TV will allow you to do just this though. But with the new version of SageTV, the component doesn't work.

If there was a web-interface available, teachers can use this to control the source (navigate the menus), schedule recordings, etc...

I hope that soon SageTV realizes that by focusing their efforts on a web-based client, they will cover a larger customer base. Also, since there is no client software (it's all web-based), there shouldn't be as many technical support needs for the product.

Heck, they could even provide the strreaming technology right in with it as well!

Thanks for hearing me out!

-Alan
Hermon School Department

[Opus4]

There is still nielm's WebServer, unless you mean something else.

- Andy

[coderoyal]

Originally Posted by Opus4

There is still nielm's WebServer, unless you mean something else.

- Andy

Hi! Yes I'm familiar with it.

Are there plans to upgrade it to work with the latest version of SageTV?

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by coderoyal

Hi! Yes I'm familiar with it.

Are there plans to upgrade it to work with the latest version of SageTV?

It works just fine with SageTV 4.0

[evilpenguin]

http://pigtail.net/LRP/vnc/

This site will show how to easily set up a secure VNC connection to your Sage box. You can also use the the same meathod to connect to neilms webserver securely.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by David

Back from trying...I've got a 256Kb/sec upload on my cable modem at home, and I'm on a 384Kb/sec up from where I'm at now (both Comcast cable, one home one business, 3-4Mbps down on each). Secure Shell port 42024 connects, and Client comes up to initial menu on my laptop, but when I click SageTV Recordings, it hangs for a while and then says "The connection to the SageTV Server has been lost. Attempting to restore the connection." and Tunnelier indicates that the port has been closed. Tried a couple of times. I'm guessing it times out because it's so slow or something, I haven't gotten to the point where I would be playing video or anything.

Hmm...I have Verizon FIOS for my ISP, with a 5MB down, 2MB up connection. Wonder if that would work better?

I use UltraVNC at home for working on my HTPC (still using an SDTV, so stuff is too hard to read when using Windows), so it would be great to use VNC to login from work...

[geogecko]

Ah, one thing no one has mentioned, and something I forgot, is that you can't be using VMR9 or FSE when using VNC, because you won't be able to see what is going on in Sage on the remote machine when using VNC. At least, I have not figured out a way, even over a 100Mb LAN connection.

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

http://pigtail.net/LRP/vnc/

This site will show how to easily set up a secure VNC connection to your Sage box. You can also use the the same meathod to connect to neilms webserver securely.

why all the extra overhead? just turn on ssl in nielm's webserver.