Placeshifter outside local network

[lazy]

I am unable to connect from outside my local network. I have placeshifter loaded on a laptop and it works fine from home.

When I try to connect from my neighbors house I see the following:

1. Locator found server.
2. Connecting to correct IP address.
3. Prompted for user name and password.

After entering the user name and password, SageTV software freezes and eventually shows the main menu without any tabs and then shuts down. It says Main Menu at the top but there are no tabs.

Can anyone help me?

[sainswor99]

What's the horsepower of your server like?

[lazy]

Originally Posted by sainswor99

What's the horsepower of your server like?

Should be plenty to display the main menu and stream music.

Board: Intel BOXDQ45CB LGA 775
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz 3MB L2 Cache
Memory: 2gig 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Drives: Three WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
OS: Windows Home Server 32 Bit

[amg]

You probably need to make sure that port 31099 is open on your firewall on your server. Perhaps also set port forwarding on your router to forward port 31099 to your sage server.

[lazy]

Originally Posted by amg

You probably need to make sure that port 31099 is open on your firewall on your server. Perhaps also set port forwarding on your router to forward port 31099 to your sage server.

Thanks for the reply but I have done this and it tests correctly on the SageTV software on the windows home server. Should I try a different port?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by lazy

It says Main Menu at the top but there are no tabs.

I'm not sure what you mean by "no tabs". Are you using SageMC or some other UI mod? If so, try it with the unmodified stock UI and see if that works any better.

[wayner]

I had Placeshifter working fine on my PC but then I changed my Sage PC from a Vista workstation to a different PC running WHS. Since then I am unable to get a Placeshifter connection from outside my LAN.

I have tried from several locations, including locations where there would be no firewall. And yes, I have forwarded port 31099 to my Sage server. Note that I can access other Sage related services, such as the Sage Web Server, Sage Mobile Web, SJQ, SRE, etc outside my LAN it is only PS that is causing problems.

When I try to test the Placeshifter connection I get the following error: "The Locator server could not connect the IP address registered for this Locator ID"

I have also tried changing ports and that didn't help - it just killed the connection to my HD-200s.

* merged *

lazy - I am unable to connect to my Placeshifter outside my LAN and I am also using WHS. I wonder if it is a WHS issue? WHS does have more security on some things than XP or Vista. Note that I have started a thread on this specific topic.

[lazy]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I'm not sure what you mean by "no tabs". Are you using SageMC or some other UI mod? If so, try it with the unmodified stock UI and see if that works any better.

I am using the stock user interface. It does not fully load and therefore the tabs don't show up. Sometimes it desn't even get that far before it shuts down.

[lazy]

I hate to say that I'm happy someone else has this issue. Missery loves company. Maybe we can figure something out before the trial period runs out. I have tried a couple of things that have worked for others. However, I think they had trouble connecting on the local network.

Are you using the locator ID even when connecting from home?

Dissable 3D acceleration.

Dissable video post processing.

I think these only help if the issue is your graphics card. Since we are able to connect fine on the local network they probably dont apply but I tried them anyway.

If you are not making it to the window where you enter your password then your issue is a little different than mine.

[wayner]

Connecting via Locator ID works fine on LAN. The other options don't rally matter they affect playback. You should get to the menu without having to worry about these options.

Given these issues I am convinced that there is an issue with WHS where something is preventing the outgoing connection.

[lazy]

Originally Posted by wayner

Connecting via Locator ID works fine on LAN. The other options don't rally matter they affect playback. You should get to the menu without having to worry about these options.

Given these issues I am convinced that there is an issue with WHS where something is preventing the outgoing connection.

Ok I'm about to go to my neighbor's house to try a couple of things. I'll let you know if I have any luck.

[lazy]

I was able to connect and even streamed a FLAC music file flawlessly but when I tried to reconnect it did the same weird thing. It displayed the main menu for a second or two without any tabs and then shut down.

Try disabling 3D acceleration so you can see what's happening without the menu flashing by. When I have that option enabled it doesn't show me the menu at all. It just shuts down. I also noticed that on the very right hand side of the screen there were some greyed out letters orriented vertically. I went home and connected the placeshifter on LAN and confirmed that they were the first letters of all the menu tabs (SWPSMO ect.) I guess something is screwing with Java but I have all the latest updates.

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by wayner

Connecting via Locator ID works fine on LAN. The other options don't rally matter they affect playback. You should get to the menu without having to worry about these options.

Given these issues I am convinced that there is an issue with WHS where something is preventing the outgoing connection.

I am using placeshifiter with WHS. However, I do not forward the ports out. Instead I VPN into the network and use placeshifter. It works for the most part. Music and pitures work fine, for tv recordings I get sage.playback exception error that usually fixes itself after a couple of reboots.

Might want to look into setting up a vpn connection.

[wayner]

I have two Sage server licenses although I have just been using one of them as a client for 3 months. I will run that other instance as a server and change my port forwarding to that PC. If that works fine then I really think this has to be something that is a unique WHS issue or something specific to that PC. But I can't figure out what that would be since this server is running other services that are accessible over the net such as Sage Web Server, Mobile Web, the WHS web page, SRE, SJQ, etc.

[lazy]

I don’t want you to think I have resolved or abandoned this issue. I know it’s been a few days since my last post but I’m waiting on a reply from official sage support. I created a temporary account and gave them my locator id to see if they can resolve this.

[wayner]

I really think that this may be a WHS problem. I fired up my SageTV Media Center on my Vista PC and went to Detailed Setup and tested the placeshifter connection. It reported everything was fine, even without forwarding port 31099 to the IP of that PC.

But when I try the same test on my WHS version of Sage it says "The Locator server could not connect the IP address registered for this Locator ID"

Obviously the network setup is the same for everything except the individual PC. I am not running Windows Firewall or any other security products on my WHS box. So there is either someother setting that I am missing or there is a bug/compatibility issue with SageTV or WHS that prevents Placeshifter from working over the internet.

[lazy]

The following is the correspondence so far with Sage official support. I may need a little help doing this stuff but for now I need someone to read through it and tell me if you think this guy understands my sittuation. It is unclear to me at some points wheather he is wanting me to do things to the server or the client and he also makes me think he doesnt know I'm running WHS. And it seems like he wants me to recreate the problem on the server and not using placeshifter.

Anyway, here is the correspondence to date:

I am unable to connect from outside my local network. I have placeshifter loaded on a laptop and it works fine from home.

When I try to connect from my neighbors house I see the following:

1. Locator found server.
2. Connecting to correct IP address.
3. Prompted for user name and password.

After entering the user name and password, SageTV software freezes and eventually shows the main menu without any tabs and then shuts down. It says Main Menu at the top but there are no tabs.

Server Specs:
Board: Intel BOXDQ45CB LGA 775
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz 3MB L2 Cache
Memory: 2gig 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Drives: Three WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
OS: Windows Home Server 32 Bit


Sage Reply:
Try this. Go into the settings tab of the Placeshifter prior to connecting to the server and enable or disable 3D Acceleration.

Next create a temp user name/password so that I can see if I can get to the main menu. I will log out after getting to the main menu. You can just create a user name sage with password of sage as well.

I will also need your locator ID.



My reply:I have created your temp user:

(user info deleted for sage forum)

I will try your suggestion but let me know if you are able to connect.


Sage Reply:
I just logged in successfully and it prompted me for the initial configuration wizard.

Try my suggestion below and if that doesn't help then get me logs from the server and the Placeshifter.

From the server:

To enable logging, disable any custom STV's/ plugins you are using, close SageTV and the service if running, then open up your Sage.properties (with
notepad) file in your Frey Technologies or SageTV folder. Add this line to the properties file: "debug_logging=TRUE" Without the quotes and the word TRUE must be capitalized. Then run SageTV and recreate the problem. After you recreate it, you can then close SageTV. Now look for this file in your Frey Technologies or SageTV folder: "sagetv_0.txt" Send me that file. Do not paste the text, but rather paste the whole log file. I want it as an attachment. The quicker you can reproduce the problem the smaller the log file will be. You can also zip up the log file to shrink the size down considerably. In Vista the Sage.properties and the log files will be placed in C:\Users\"your user name"\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program
Files\SageTV.

Sage creates a new log file each time you run it. It will also name the newest log file "sagetv_0.txt" and the previous log file will be named "sagetv_1.txt" and so on. Keep this in mind as you send us the log files.
Also, Sage will create a new log file after one reaches 10 megs. So the "sagetv_0.txt" log file is always the newest. Zipping up the log files will shrink the files considerably if they get too big.

Then send me a copy of your system information. Go to Setup > Help > System Information screen and hit the Info button (defaults to CTRL-I on your keyboard). A txt file named "SystemInfo.txt" will be created in your SageTV folder. Send me that file.

For the Placeshifter logs, go to the settings tab and tell me which version you are running in the About section.

Here's how to get the log file for the Placeshifter. Run the Placeshifter from a command prompt. Go into DOS and go into c:\Program Files\SageTV\Placeshifter or wherever you installed the Placeshifter and type in this command:

java -cp MiniClient.jar sage.miniclient.MiniClient 2> logfile.txt This will create a logfile.txt in that directory. Send me that file.

[lazy]

I was able to generate the debug logs. I will keep you guys updated. The following is my latest reply to sage support:

What do you mean by "initial configuration wizard"? Can you not load the main menu page?

Please find the debug logs for the server and the placeshifter attached. Please note that these are only the logs for the error session. There was no need to try to recreate the problem over and over because it happens every time unless I am on my local network.

You said "Go to Setup > Help > System Information screen and hit the Info button"... There is no info button; Just a "back to help menu" button.

I am running SageTV Placeshifter V6.5.9.204

Thanks for your help.

[GKusnick]

He means the Info button on your remote, or Ctrl+I on the keyboard.

[wayner]

I am continuing to be unsuccessful using PS with WHS. I am trying to find any error mesages in my log - would this be related to Placeshifter and the Locator Server:

Tue 3/24 22:53:59.079 Server challenged location update...sending encrypted challenge response back to server
Tue 3/24 22:53:59.080 RSA support is not there, using alternate lookup crypto submit...javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException: Data must not be longer than 117 bytes
Tue 3/24 22:54:20.292 Server challenged location update...sending encrypted challenge response back to server
Tue 3/24 22:54:20.292 RSA support is not there, using alternate lookup crypto submit...javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException: Data must not be longer than 117 bytes
Tue 3/24 22:54:20.301 ERROR updating locator system of:java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: socket write error