Accessing subsonic remotely

[tacgnol]

So, you've got subsonic set up so you can access it from any computer in your home by just typing in 192.x.x.x:8080 or 10.x.x.x. However, these are merely internal IP addresses.

In order to access your computer remotely, you'll have to do two things: open up your port to the outside world and find out an internet address for your computer. In the new version of subsonic, you'll be able to forward your port automatically (using UPnP) and access your subsonic server through a gosubsonic.com address. However, until that time you can use these instructions below. Also, they provide an alternative in case you don't have a router that supports UPnP port forwarding or if say you don't want a gosubsonic.com address.


Forwarding your port
So first thing you'll have to do is to open your port to the outside world. This depends greatly on what type of router you're using. First you'll have to find out your internal IP address. If you're on windows, run "ipconfig" on the command prompt. For linux or OS X, run "ifconfig" look for a string that contains four numbers and three periods. For an internal IP address, the first number should probably start with a 192, 10, or 172.

Now go to your router's configuration page and forward port 8080 (or whatever port subsonic is on) to your computer's internal IP address. If you have to forward a range of ports, you can just do 8080 to 8080 usually. If you have to choose an outside port to forward to an internal port, use 8080 for both.


Addressing your computer from the outside world
To access your computer from the outside world, you'll have to find your internet IP address. This is a number that is unique to your computer's connection to the internet. An easy way to do this would be to go to ipchicken.com where it'll have your IP address in blue.

Now if your port forwarding is set up correctly, you should be able to access your computer using that ip address. Let's say your ip address is 97.74.125.134, your port is 8080, and the path to your subsonic server is /subsonic, you'd type http://97.74.125.134:8080/subsonic to go to your server. If you have the SUBSONIC_CONTEXT_PATH variable set to /, then it would be just http://97.74.125.134:8080 and if you have your port set to 80 (the default http port), it would just be http://97.74.125.134


What if my address is dynamic?
Ok, so most of you either 1) don't want to memorize a string of digits or 2) have a dynamic IP address. A dynamic IP address means that every time you disconnect and then connect again to the internet, you're given a new IP address. If you're not paying extra to have a static IP address, then you probably have a dynamic IP address.

The easiest, best way to deal with these problems is to donate to subsonic and get a gosubsonic.com address when the new release comes out. It's under the network panel under settings (versions 3.9+).

However, you can use another service like dyndns.com if for whatever reason you don't want to do this. Go to dyndns.com and sign up for a FREE account. After you've set that up and signed in, go to the Services page and under Host Services click Add Hostname. Here you can pick a subdomain, and a domain from the drop down that you can have resolve to your computer. You'll see an input asking for an IP Address and a link letting you automatically fill in your current IP address. Use the link and click save.

Now, you'll probably have to wait a bit but eventually you'll be able to go to tacgnol.dyndns.com:8080/subsonic (or whatever your new address is) and access your subsonic server. In order to keep this address automatically up to date (remember that your ip address changes whenever your cable/dsl modem loses its connection) you can use one of the clients on dyndns.com's update clients page:

https://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/

[boognish43]

This worked for me!! Thanks for writing this up

[eli2k]

Also wanted to add that if you use a router (which usually everyone does, I guess) in your home network, then you can add your dynDNS information into the router settings, so whenever your ISP decides to change your IP address for some reason, the router will update it on its own.

[3R3]

thanks for writing such a comprehensive guide...no longer is this mess http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1403 the only guide on how to do it, i was understandibly reluctant to sum it up again^^

great guide, thanks again!

[daveydz3]

hey hows it going?

i don't have any connection issues. i can access my subsonic from anywhere really, only one time did it not work at a hotel.

my situation is that i don't want the address bar to show http://xxx.x.xxx.xxx:xxxx i want it to show http://music.myserver.com

so i sent up a redirect with a domain i already own so that if you put in http://music.myserver.com my subsonic shows up. great it successfully goes to my subsonic however it changes back to just showing http://xxx.x.xxx.xxx:xxxx as i log in and navigate the site. however if i log in, close the browser and then go to http://music.myserver.com it'll already be logged in and the address bar doesn't change to the numbers it stays http://music.myserver.com

and thats what i want. but it only happens if i am already logged in, not initially if i log in.

anyone have any idea on how to fix it? if it can be fixed?

if i wasn't clear, please let me know.

thanks.

[albievo]

I can't figure out how to use this at all. I had simplifymedia before but it was a bit buggy. However, I just installed it on all the computers that I wanted to use it on and presto, I could stream my music library from everywhere. All I had to do was choose my music folder on the source computer.

I have told subsonic where my music folder is but now I have no idea how to hear it from another computer. I would like to be able to do it locally and even from work. But right now I would be happy to be able to do just do it in my own house. Please help. None of the tutorial or forum topics or googling or anything I can find has been helpful.

Thank you kindly,

albievo

[mjones73]

1) To hear it internally - open your browser, go to http://localipofmachinerunningsubsonic: if not 80>

Ex http://192.168.0.2 or http://192.168.0.2:8080 (if your not using port 80, add the port after the address.

To get the IP of the machine running subsonic, it depends on the OS, google will turn up instructions.

2) To access it externally you need to forward the port used in your router then connect to your external address. The port forward guides here or searchable via google should help you with whatever your router is.

In my case my subsonic server runs on a machine in my house with an IP of 192.168.126.4 with a hostname of ratbert and it runs on port 8080.

To access it at home, I open a browser and enter either http://192.168.126.4:8080 or http://ratbert:8080.

To access it outside of my house, I forwarded port 8080 in my router to point to 192.168.126.4 port 8080. This tells the router when it receives a request on port 8080, pass it to the subsonic server running on 192.168.126.4 port 8080.

You would then need to know your external IP and use it in place of the internal IP when connecting via a browser. You can get your external IP by going to a site like http://www.whatsmyip.org/ while in your house. If your IP commonly changes, you'll wanna set up a dynamic dns name as noted above, it's a free service that will create a hostname that points at your external IP and is auto updated when your IP changes.

[sindre_mehus]

Also take a look at the Getting Started documentation.

[albievo]

I put in my internal ip address found through the command line and added the port (81 because when I tried the default it gave me an error) Nothing happens, it just keeps timing out (this is on the machine without subsonic on it). I tried to restore default settings and it tells me "Failed to write ...............bunch of stuff.............then it ends with (Access Denied).

The getting started web page wasn't that helpful to me in all honesty. Unless i am missing something. I appreciate all your time and help sincerely,

Alberto

[albievo]

So I was finally able to get it to play on one of my other home computers. Yay. Thanks all for your time. Is there a limit to how much it can play? On the home base computer I have over 100 gigs of music but only about 40 gigs shows up on the remote computer.


thanks again,

Alberto

[tacgnol]

I have almost 1TB of music that I am serving via subsonic. Make sure the music on your home computer has been added properly. You might also want to check the Music Mask settings in General and the Transcoding section if you have music files that aren't mp3s.

[jsrivard]

This is weird. If I use the xxx.subsonic.org address I can access my music from anywhere. I have set up a dyndns address but when I try to use that one (http://myname.homeip.net:81/) it will not access subsonic.

Yes 81 is the port I have it set to and forwarding works on my router because the subsonic.org address has no issues accessing it.

I have also tried using my external IP (http://xx.xx.xx.xx:81/) but I can not get that to work either.

My SUBSONIC_CONTEXT_PATH variable is set to /.

Does anyone know why xxx.subsonic.org would work but nothing else?

Thanks,
Joel

[herbivore]

I am having this *exact* same issue.

xxx.subsonic.org resolves properly and loads the website, my router forwards port 8080, every online test I've run thru DynDNS appears to resolve the correct IP and says the port is open, yet my dyndns URL just times out...

I can access subsonic with the subsonic redirect or directly from my dynamic IP but not the dyndns name.

**UPDATE: While writing this I just got an email from a friend who was able to contact the subsonic server with http://xxx.dyndns.org:## (## = port number)
Must have been a loopback issue with my router... http://xxx.dyndns.org alone does NOT work.. you NEED the port number to connect (i.e. http://xxx.dyndns.org:8080 ) and loopback connections enabled on your router or if it doesn't support loopback you will need to be on a device outside your LAN to connect.

This is weird. If I use the xxx.subsonic.org address I can access my music from anywhere. I have set up a dyndns address but when I try to use that one (http://myname.homeip.net:81/) it will not access subsonic.

Yes 81 is the port I have it set to and forwarding works on my router because the subsonic.org address has no issues accessing it.

I have also tried using my external IP (http://xx.xx.xx.xx:81/) but I can not get that to work either.

My SUBSONIC_CONTEXT_PATH variable is set to /.

Does anyone know why xxx.subsonic.org would work but nothing else?

Thanks,
Joel

[henryroger]

Additionally, you may even use remote support tools like LogMeIn, GoSupportNow, GoToMyPC, http://www.rhubcom.com remote support servers etc. for remotely accessing computers from anywhere.