Connecting to server

[jhs39 13]

I have to reboot my router fairly regularly.  It came from my internet provider and they won't provide me with newer equipment.  In any case, every time I reboot the router the I.P address for my computer changes and I have to delete the server on Media Browser for Roku, do a scan and then add a new server.  Am I missing something?  Is there a way to set up Media Browser for Roku where it will connect to my server automatically after a router reboot without me going through those steps every single time? 

[SilentAssassin 96]

Don't know how techy you are but you could always reserve the IP of your server on your router, which really is best practice for something acting as a server. If you don't want to do that create a manual sever connection on roku and input the host name of your server.

[jhs39 13]

I'm not sure how to reserve the IP on my router.  I'll have to do some research on that.  I tried to create a manual connection on Roku but it only asked for an I.P address and port number.  It never asked for a server name and I wasn't able to connect.  I probably did something wrong.  Thanks for the suggestions.

[Vidman 589]

You could also at the set the IP manually on the server machine to an IP outside of your router dchp range if you can't reserve it on the router to give it a permanent IP address

Edited May 4, 2014 by Vidman

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

I use a system like Vidman suggests. I have my DHCP range start at 50. Anything less than 50 is reserved for static IP. My routers are .1 and .2. My machine is .3 and it is also the server. Everything else is somewhere between 50 and 80.

[gcw07 347]

I'm not sure how to reserve the IP on my router.  I'll have to do some research on that.  I tried to create a manual connection on Roku but it only asked for an I.P address and port number.  It never asked for a server name and I wasn't able to connect.  I probably did something wrong.  Thanks for the suggestions.

If your server can resolve via a named address instead of IP, just enter that instead. The IP address is just most common, but a URL is fine there. Just make sure it is just the hostname. Like "somesite.com" and not "http://somesite.com".

[jhs39 13]

I'm sure this is a dumb question but how do I determine what the URL is for my server?

[gcw07 347]

It would be the host name of the computer. So it might be something like "MY-HTPC-COMPUTER". Though I haven't tried setting it up with just a computer name like that. Not sure if it will resolve properly or not. You would have to test it.

[ginjaninja 533]

I'm sure this is a dumb question but how do I determine what the URL is for my server?

 

On windows type hostname then return,

this will give you the name that your server would register if your router supported dynamic dns, 

Another thing you can do is look at your routers web interface and see if lists nodes in the local network and wether it assigns dns names or indeed whether it supports a dynamic dns helper on DHCP requests