Impact to Client if Server changes its IP

[stevech]

It must be me...
I changed the subnet address of the SageTV server. And restarted SageTV.

The client will no longer find the server and connect.
I ran the client and did REGISTER on the command line. It never asked for the server's IP. No help.

Put the Server PC back to it's original IP address. Client now works.

Don't the clients do some sort of directed broadcast to discover the server so the server's IP should not matter as long as it's in the same subnet?

[Opus4]

Had you previously configured the client to automatically connect to an IP address when it starts? If so, it would continue trying to connect _only_ to that address. You could either turn that option off or use the command line parameter that tells it what address to connect to. (Unless I'm misunderstanding what address was changed...)

- Andy

[stevech]

if the SageTV server's IP changes, does that mean you can NEVER connect successfully by starting the SageTV Client as usual (from the Start Menu or clicking on an ICON? That is, am I required to start the CLient using a command line to specify the new IP? If so, would that be a one-time thing?

The client seems to NOT say "can't find Server - enter another IP", nor does it seem to do a broadcast to discover the server - which at first-install, it did seem to try to do, thoug in my case, it found the machine name but reported the router's IP address.

[Menehune]

When I recently changed one of my networks from static to DHCP addresses, I discovered I missed a client and it could not connect to the server with the now dynamic address. To fix that, I had to edit the sageclient.properties file. Open the file in a text editor, find the "autoconnect_server_hostname=" and change it from the server's IP to the server name.

[GTwannabe]

I don't know if this feature is still active in 4.0, but in the older versions, if you needed to get into the client's settings, you could click the A in SageTV in the upper left of the screen.

[stevech]

clicking on the A icon in the SageTV logo on the 4.1 client does nothing.

Can anyone tell me how the client is supposed to work?
Is it supposed to do a subnet broadcast to find the server?
How is it supposed to know if the server's IP address changed?

[Menehune]

The client connects to only one IP or to a computer name on the network.
The client does not know if the server's IP changes. It blindly tries to connect to the user programmed IP or computer name.
Can you see the server listed in Windows' Network Neighborhood?

Because sageclient could not connect to the server at the old static IP-the client would hang at "connecting to sage server" and not allow me to access the in-program configuration sereens, (I had already changed my sage server from a static to DHCP IP), I needed to manually change the "autoconnect_server_hostname=" in the SageClient.properties file on the client machine from
"autoconnect_server_hostname=192.168.0.101" to "autoconnect_server_hostname=menehune".

[stevech]

My client connects just fine to the server so long as the server's IP is that which I used when the client was installed. If the server's IP changes thereafter, the client fails to find the server, does not put up a notice or ask me to enter a different IP address. The changed IP is just a different number, same subnet, e.g., from 192.168.1.201 to 192.168.1.123 (netmask 255.255.255.0)

The name "menehune" - is that the MS Windows computer name (rather than a DNS lookup)?

My confusion was that on first installation, it appeared that the Client did a network broadcast to discover the server. You'd think it would do so thereafter if it cannot find a server. - - Correction - I see that port 8270 is used.

Hence the property: autodiscover_servers=true

[Opus4]

In your sageclient.properties file, what is autoconnect_server_hostname set to?

- Andy

[Menehune]

Yes, Menehune is the server's MS computer name. No DNS server in my network-the entry is blank.
Hmm, my ver 2.2.8 client has no "autodiscover_server" entry. It must have been added in ver 4 clients.