Failed to Connect to Server

[windyridge]

I Recently installed Subsonic on my Ubuntu PC and my Droid X. When at home using wireless, it works great...I can stream effortlessly to my Droid. Today was my 1st attempt at streaming using cell service about 20 miles from the house. My Droid would not connect. The error was "cannot connect to server" and it attempted 4 times to connect. I tried again later, same scenario. Is Subsonic using the internet or cellular to connect? I have no cell service at the house. This may be the reason why? I sure hope not as we will not got service at the house for a long time yet. We have excellent cable tho'.

[GJ51]

Most problems are due to improper setup on the router. Setting a fixed internal ip address for the server and proper port forwarding rules on the router are essential for long term stability.

Never use port 80 or 443 - ISP's often use or block them and these are also the default ports on WHS for the remote login page. 8080,8081, work fine. 808X always works. I've seen others use different port numbers that have caused install failures.

READ: http://monroeworld.com/android/subsonic/ This is the Windows tutorial but most of the concepts apply to any setup. Specific setup instructions for other Operating Systems are available in the Tutorials section. http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=6 and on the Subsonic website at http://www.subsonic.org/pages/installation.jsp

In Subsonic Settings/Network - UNCHECK " Automatically configure your router to allow incoming connections to Subsonic (using UPnP or NAT-PMP port forwarding)." make sure to hit the SAVE button, you may have to scroll down to see it depending on your screen size. UPnP or Plug & Pray works sometimes, but not very often and you're better off learning what's going on anyway. You're dipping your toe into the network mgmt. thing anyway, might as well learn what's going on as home networks don't get simpler as time goes on. As your network gets more complex, you're going to have to learn this stuff! No time like the present.

Manually assign a fixed intenal IP and static route to your server at the upper end of the address range of the router, out of the way of DHCP, e.g. 192.168.1.254

Set up your router manually. uPNP might work, but most often it doesn't. Learing how to do it will be a skill you'll love having as your network grows.

Check the Subsonic Control Panel to make sure it's using the right port you're going to use. I typically use 8080 - 440, 8081 - 441, etc.

Set up port forwarding in your router to direct traffic on the selected port to your server. Consult your router documentation to do this, they are all a bit different.

Learn your external IP address assigned by your ISP. Go to http://www.canyouseeme.org/ enter your SS port number and click the Check box to be sure the Subsonic port is open.

Test your setup by entering your external IP:port# to see if it connects. e.g. http://98.117.185.5:8084/ If it works, you're good to go.

[windyridge]

yikes, I will try this....

But why can't I just access it via the internet address without using port forwarding?

[GJ51]

Because routers are designed to block all traffic on anything but default ports in order to protect your network from unwanted intusion. Additionally, if you don't let the network know which computer is hosting SS, how would it find it? After you read the instructions a few times, which I suggest you do before you start, it starts to sink in as to what's going on and why.

[baaldemon]

Because that is how networking works. Your public IP address will resolve down to your wireless router in your house. The router will not be able to send that port to the correct private ip address without you telling it this.

Its because your home router turns your 1 public IP address into multiple private addresses. So lets say you have 3 computers hooked up to your network and the router gets a request for port 8080 on your public IP address, it cannot just know which internal address its intended to go to because there are 3 possible locations. Setting up port forwarding tells the router which of those locations it actually goes to.

With IPv6 this should not be an issue, but since networking is still based on the limited ipv4 address space there are not enough public addresses to give every device connected to the internet its own public address.

[random_id]

This might be a dumb question, but did you donate to get a xxx.subsonic.org address?

On my droid I can only access my xxx.subsonic.org address from the Subsonic app, even though on any other web browser I can use my DDNS address (using all the aforementioned port forwarding and router wizardry).

[windyridge]

I read the directions a couple of times and then understood and lo and behold it works! I have no cell signal here to test with my phone but I typed in the router url and port 4040 on the phone and I connected to the subsonic server so I assume it works. But here's a question, with my Cisco router I have an external and an internal port to be added so I just used 4040 for both because I wasn't sure what to do. I also made the IP already assigned to my Subsonic computer the static IP because the router easily allows you to do this but I can easily change it if you guys say I should. I understand that it's in the range of the DHCP addresses but if it's reserved why does that matter? Will sometime in the future the DHCP server start looking to assign that IP to the other PC's in the house and get confused? Is it okay to leave internal and external ports forwarding to 4040? Not sure what that's about either.

No I did not donate yet.

[windyridge]

Ok not quite there. I can access all the songs but can't play them. I hit the play button and nothing happens on the phone (remember I am accessing phone via wireless with a browser and the IP of the browser and port typed in). On the subsonic page it says: Failed to create port forwarding see log for details. Where is this log?

Open port check tool did say that the port was open.

[GJ51]

Ok not quite there. I can access all the songs but can't play them. I hit the play button and nothing happens on the phone (remember I am accessing phone via wireless with a browser and the IP of the browser and port typed in). On the subsonic page it says: Failed to create port forwarding see log for details. Where is this log?

Open port check tool did say that the port was open.

You need to donate.

You can test your phone on the demo site.

[windyridge]

I'd love to donate but I need to see it working first. I'm not sure about the external and internal port settings on my router, should they both be 4040? Also if I uncheck automatic network configuration of router in my network settings, this turns off port forwarding yet the instructions (A Practical guide to installing and configuring subsonic) say to uncheck it. So I am getting more confused by the minute.

Basically to summarize, the port checker shows the port open (but only when I CHECK automatic configure router, otherwise it disables port forwarding). I can access the server via the internet from my phone, (i went out and chased down a signal) but it seems as though the music will not stream from my computer to the phone. I press play on a song and nothing happens. I am so close, someone please show me the error of my ways :-0

[windyridge]

Ok so I made the donation and I am a paying customer...and i still need help

[GJ51]

OK. Don't panic. It's always something that can be solved. Does SS work inside your network using the local IP address:portnumber format?

I'll be on the road tomorrow, but I'll be available the rest of the week.

Please reread the instructions I posted above and reread your router manual. 99% of the time the issue is the router setup and getting the port forwarding set up properly. If you can reach your SS inside your network at a local ip:port#, it's just a matter of getting requests from the internet routed to the server by forwarding the request to the server. So, if your SS host system is at 192.168.1.250:4040 and your external ip address is 98.115.5.87 then any request for 98.115.5.87:4040 from outside needs to be translated by your router and passed to 192.168.1.250 where SS is listening to port 4040 and waiting to respond. If you go to http://www.canyouseeme.org/ enter your SS port number and click the Check box to be sure the Subsonic port is open then enter your external ip:port number should connect to SS. Take one logical step at a time. If using the external ip:port# works, then it's just a matter of getting Subsonic.org updated to recognize and translate your Subsonic.org name.

Also, please check the performance of your phone on the demo server and report the results.

[windyridge]

Yes I did that, see above, I called it the port checker. Router setup is very straightforward. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the fact that i have both an internal and external port that needs a value. I presumed they both should be 4040 and they both forward to my IP. But when the port checker works, and says the port is open, I have to check the box in subsonic networking settings that says "automatically configure your router" which is exactly what the subsonic instructions say not to do. But if I uncheck it, there is a message that says port forwarding is disabled. Either way via the router IP address:4040 or the server address:4040 I can access my server via the phone, move around in my library and open an album. I just cannot play any tracks. That says to me that my requests are going in, they just aren't coming out. If I use the subsonic org url when I am on my wireless network at home, the songs play fine. If I go to the demo server via subsonic org url, those songs play fine.

[GJ51]

Have you made a successful connection to your server from outside your network on any other computer?

[windyridge]

If I use the subsonic launcher app rather than using the server web address everything works! So all is well. When I logged into Gary's server tho', I could see his music but couldn't play it. I guess as long as I can play my music on my server I am happy. Thanks everyone for your help.