Using Alexa to play my Emby MP3's - Asus Merlin DDNS and SSL ?

[Traction Tim 11]

Hi,

I was following the various threads on how to play my Emby MP3's on my Alexa dot speakers, and I think most things are OK but then I went off the rails a bit when I saw a possible short cut in the Merlin firmware (Asus RT-AC86U) for the SSL cert:

• I already have a DDNS address set up in the router that I know works with Blue Iris. tractiontim.asuscomm.com type of thing (Fake address alert there !).
• I noticed in the Merlin firmware on the DDNS page that it has "Webui SSL certificate". This allowed me to create and use a free Let's Encrypt certificate, and it will renew it automatically. Status: Active.
• Port forwarding set up both for for 8096 ext.int, and 443 ext/int to my Synology NAS (Emby server). Set up Public HTTP port number: 8096 and Public HTTPS port number: 443 in Emby settings/Network.
• Emby Premiere OK.
• Emby Connect user set up.

So my question is, can this ever work to allow Alexa to play my Emby MP3's ? I can't see what the Emby settings/Network/Certificate path should be since it was done in the Merlin firmware, so I can't choose "Secure connection mode" in Emby settings/Network which I'm guessing is the show stopper for Alexa.

If I say "Alexa, open m.b. home" it responds "Emby here, hi there", so I think I'm close.

Any ideas ?

Edited June 26, 2022 by Traction Tim

[Luke 42077]

Hi, does your Emby Server dashboard display the https address as your remote address? Are you hoping to play directly on the alexa device, or just to use Alexa to control Emby apps?

[Traction Tim 11]

Hi Luke,

1. Emby server dashboard only shows my WAN address as http. This reminds me that I need to change settings in the Asus router to allow the DDNS address to be https. Done.

2. I am trying to play my MP3's from Emby (Synology x64) directly on my Echo dots. Both are on my LAN.

3. I am slightly confused, but hopefully going in the right direction !

4. Emby won't let me choose choose "Network/Secure connection mode" because I don't have the cert details - they are being handled by the router. I think i need to force https mode in Emby.

5. I just tried setting Network/External domain with https and 443 (even though it states not to add protocol or port) to see if I can get around this. No change to WAN address in dashboard. Tried it without the port = no change.

6. Changed router port mapping from 443 ext/443 int to 443 ext/8920 in. Echo dot seems to recognise Emby playlist names and albums, but then won't play anything.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Traction Tim
incremental updates.

[Traction Tim 11]

Some progress. If I say "Alexa, ask M.B. home to play playlist music" (A new playlist named music) to the Echo dot, then it asks me if I want to play:

1. On this player (echo dot),

2. On Chrome Windows

3. M.B. web

If I choose 1/ it states it has trouble accessing the Emby skill, but if I choose 2/ it will start playing the playlist on my Windows pc in Chrome.  3/ doesn't do anything. So close...

[Traction Tim 11]

I'm trying something different. I have now set up a DDNS from my Synology NAS since Emby is running on it in the hope it will simplify things. tractiontim.synology.me type of thing (fake address alert again). The NAS also allowed me to set up a Lets Encrypt SSL certificate.

http://tractiontim.synology.me:8096 opens up the Emby web page on my mobile phone with wifi off, so external access is working.

So to get https I need:

1. to be able to add something from my Lets Encrypt certificate into "Emby/Network/Custom SSL certificate path:".

2. to then set "Emby/Network/Secure Connection mode" to "Required for all remote connections".

3. and that should then show "Emby/Dashboard/Remote WAN access:" to be https://tractiontim.synology.me:8920

4. and then it will work with Alexa !

I exported my Lets Encrypt cert and unzipped it to find various *.pem files. "Emby/Network/Custom SSL certificate path:" shows help text "Path to a PKCS #12 file containing a certificate and private key to enable TLS support on a custom domain.". OK, search the forum, and this thread helps with pem to PKCS conversion. Converted. 

OK, 1,2,3 done. Reset Alexa skill, https://tractiontim.synology.me:443 (port 443 ext maps to port 8920 int) opens up the Emby web page on my mobile phone with wifi off, so external access is working.

But Alexa can't find the Emby server.

[Traction Tim 11]

I note that https://tractiontim.synology.me:443 opens Emby in Chrome browser on a LAN pc, and shows the locked padlock. I must be close 

[Traction Tim 11]

Right, so I can see the https address in Emby, I can play MP3's in my Chrome browser under the command of the Echo dot, I can log in to Emby remotely with the 8920 port, but the only thing I cannot do is play them on the Echo dot.

I have WAN port 8096 to LAN port 8096,  WAN port 8920 to LAN port 8920, and even WAN port 443 to LAN port 8920 to see if that helps. What am I doing wrong ?

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, thanks for following up. Glad you were able to figure this out. Since you opened a new topic about playing directly on the Alexa, we'll respond there: 

Thanks.