Firewall settings

[sigfreund 0]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question but I can't find any info on firewall settings or what ports need to be open to access my server from outside my home.

[TheWorkz 7]

Forward the same port that you connect to the web interface with: 8096.

[ebr 16169]

The ports in use are listed on the front page of the Dashboard.  There may be more than one depending on your OS.

[sigfreund 0]

So for me to access from outside my home, I need to forward port 8096 to the computer that is my server (192.168.1.205 in my case) and access if from the outside via my static address (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:8096) and make sure all of my profiles have good passwords.  Does that sound about right?

Edited November 18, 2013 by Tikuf
remove ip

[Sundog 16]

That's correct. Look up a service like no-ip.biz so you don't have to remember your IP. Most firewalls have an option to update no-ip without needing to install the windows clients. Then you set your firewall to forward 8096 to your MB server ip. On most home firewalls it's set under the tab "application forwarding".

[johnchimpo 7]

So for me to access from outside my home, I need to forward port 8096 to the computer that is my server (192.168.1.205 in my case) and access if from the outside via my static address (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:8096) and make sure all of my profiles have good passwords.  Does that sound about right?

sigfreund You should not post your IP address on a public forum.... especially if its static... and especially when you're telling the world what port you will open. Could a mod edit the post please?

Edited November 18, 2013 by Tikuf
remove ip

[sigfreund 0]

I can now access media from my office with a web browser but when I try to access via MediaBrowser I get the message "Warning could not directly access media, will attempt to stream.  Use UNC paths on server for direct playback".  Is there a way for the MediaBrowser client to access my media directly so my server isn't forced to transcode everything?  My media is on a NAS box, does this make matters more complicated and would it work if media was stored inside my server?  When I setup my media list I used "//MEDIANAS/Movies", should I use something like "//192.168.1.123" (my NAS address) and would I have to open up ports to this device also to allow direct access.  My server is on a Windows 8 machine and my client is on a Windows 7, I don't need to open up port 8945 because the server is on Windows 8 do I?  I starting to wonder if setting up a tunnel with VPN would allow everything to work remotely just like I was at home?

Edited November 27, 2013 by sigfreund

[johnchimpo 7]

Looks like you're using correct UNC pathing. However I don't believe that MBC supports streaming over the internet - all other client apps do though.

[ebr 16169]

The paths should be with backslashes \\mediaserver\movies.

 

Make sure the MBC machine/user has access to that UNC share.

[sigfreund 0]

Can you eloborate on "Make sure the MBC machine/user has access to that UNC share."?  

[johnchimpo 7]

The paths should be with backslashes \\mediaserver\movies.

 

Make sure the MBC machine/user has access to that UNC share.

 

Right about the slashes, I didn't notice that. But I though MBC could not be used over the internet for streaming, only on a local network.

[ebr 16169]

Right about the slashes, I didn't notice that. But I though MBC could not be used over the internet for streaming, only on a local network.

 

It will try, it just probably won't work very well for most formats.

[bennymac 47]

The ports in use are listed on the front page of the Dashboard.  There may be more than one depending on your OS.

 

@@ebr

 

You mentioned here that there might be more ports depending on the OS. I have MBS installed on Win7 x64, no windows firewall enabled and ports 8096 + 8945 opened at the router BUT i can't access externally using any webpage.

 

I can't connect via any other client either and i'm thinking there are more ports.

 

Thanks

[Luke 42077]

@@ebr

 

You mentioned here that there might be more ports depending on the OS. I have MBS installed on Win7 x64, no windows firewall enabled and ports 8096 + 8945 opened at the router BUT i can't access externally using any webpage.

 

I can't connect via any other client either and i'm thinking there are more ports.

 

Thanks

 

No those are the only two. What he meant is that you only need one port if the server is on windows 8 or 2012. you should put windows firewall back on because disabling it usually causes more harm then good.

[bennymac 47]

Thanks Luke!

 

Yeh just disabled the firewall to out rule it being the issue.

 

Ok, we'll i'm out of guesses as to why external access isn't working..

[Scott84Z28 39]

Why do we need 8945 open?  My MB3 server is running Win7 x64, and the only port I have open on my firewall is 8096 (well, it's a random port number I chose that gets translated to 8096) and I can access the dashboard and stream video/music just fine.  MBT/MBC work from outside as well (for browsing at least, they don't play any video, which I expected).  Can anyone clarify what we need 8945 for?
 

Thanks!

[Tikuf 663]

Can anyone clarify what we need 8945 for?

 

8945 is for websocket communication.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket

Edited December 4, 2013 by Tikuf

[Scott84Z28 39]

8945 is for websocket communication.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket

Cool, thanks for the info.  To add to that though, which clients require this?  As the web dashboard doesn't seem to need it at least.

[ebr 16169]

All the clients use it.  Basically, think of 8096 as the path to the server and 8945 as the path to the client.

 

The things you'll miss out on by blocking it are the real-time information and status reporting like update notifications and automatic refreshes when things change on the server.