Setting up subsonic without port forwarding

[sviatapolk]

I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to set up subsonic on my office PC. I have no control over the router and such things as it is a large network of computers.

I have successfully installed the app and can access it thought http://localhost on the music server machine itself.

But whenever I have tried to connect using a client (both from within and without of the network) it doesn't work.

I have tried both ports 4040 and port 80.

I do have admin privileges (Win 7) so I can add exceptions to the firewall.

I suspect that this can't be done, but the part I don't get is why am I able to install audiogalaxy and access my music through that system remotely? Why does it not require port forwarding and subsonic does?

[BKKKPewsey]

I believe AG uses port 443 (SSL) to access.
As that is encrypted that will slip through your companies corporate firewall.
Try setting up SS using port 80 and 443 and see if that works.

[sviatapolk]

Thanks I'll give it a try.

But how does iSub know how to find the correct PC? At home I do use one of subsonic.org's URL's to access my music, but i can also direct iSub via my IP address, which I would think is impossible at work. What I don't understand is how Audiogalaxy knows how to find a server and if the mechanism at work is different from how a subsonic client finds a server.

Does this make sense?

[pir8radio]

I'm sure its prohibited in your companies security policy.... that's why you don't have access to the router.. BUT.. I assume you want others to access your subsonic or just you? the only way to run it behind your companies firewall is setup a VPN connection.. You can do a reverse VPN with things like hamachi or some similar service that might sneak out of your firewall.. If your IT peeps have things setup securely they will be doing packet inspection and/or blocking all outbound ports/traffic that isn't used for business. Dont get yourself canned my friend... What is your actual goal maybe there is a better solution? Why must it run at work?

[sviatapolk]

No it's totally for myself not sharing it with anyone. I certainly don't want to get fired.
I'm a university professor, so IT here certainly checks for illegal downloads and such, whether this is a breach of policy (assuming it worked without having to break through a firewall) is debatable, because we all use tons of bandwidth, and we are allowed to access our desktop and content remotely, including the use of a VPN
So (let's assume I legally own all my music) I'm just accessing my stuff while not here. I'm essentially accessing stuff on my PC via my iPhone.

The reason I want to set it up is because my home Internet connection does go down and my PC crashes and I just wanted to set it up here as a backup server in such an event, so I won't be without my music if I'm out for a long stretch of time or out of town.
I've used audiogalaxy from here without issue, but I much prefer subsonic.

And setting up the SSL port doesn't work.

[pir8radio]

via your phone is a bit harder... being staff also makes the "i didn't know i couldn't" a bit more difficult as well! I don't know how schools manage their networks either, I would think student's and wifi would be on their own vlan.. and staff on their own vlan.. but that's besides the point sorry... shiny objects distract me... Like i said before there isn't too much you can do other than establish a VPN connection to the work network first then connect with the subsonic app to the work IP of your subsonic server... if you have VPN access most phones support vpn including cisco vpn's. i know this isn't ideal... but your kind of limited.

[sviatapolk]

But what I don't get is how audiogalaxy is able to get through, as well as Dropbox without any VPN access set up? Presumably these applications have to work through firewalls and ports.
What's different about audiogalaxy from subsonic?

[pir8radio]

Lets figure it out... i don't know anything about audiogalaxy.... so its running at your work, how do you connect to it? via an IP address (i bet not) or though the audiogalaxy website? (most likely) or does the app say something like "enter your server code" or "server name" that you made up? (also likely) if the answer is yes to "ip address" then they defy the laws of nerdom. If yes to one of the other two then whats happening is, weaker firewalls will generally let anything out to the internet, but limits what can come in to the LAN from the internet. So i would "THINK" that when you run the audiogalaxy server it starts talking "out" of the firewall and contacts some server telling it "HI SERVER BLAHBLAH IS HERE" and maintains some kind of intermittent connection with that internet server... Then you get on your app from your phone and select "BLAHBLAH" server, your app talks to that internet server and says hey this guy is looking for "BLAHBLAH" is it here? The internet server says YEP i am talking to blahblah right now what do you want to do... You click listen to ZZ TOP, the app tells the internet server hey he wants zztop send it to his phone ip... the server tells your audiogalaxy server to send that music directly to your phone... so the internet server and your internal server are always talking and keeping a connection open that STARTED from the INSIDE LAN.. firewall is cool with that, so your internal server just keeps that "tunnel" open waiting for commands from the internet server. I may be way off here but this is how some hacks work, and some P2P stuff.. in lime wire a "TRACKER" is the internet server and it helps the client/sever reach each other. Im a bit curious now, i'll do some research on audiogalaxy.. but i do somewhat know networks so im going to assume the above is correct..

[sviatapolk]

Right. Audiogalaxy login is through a website. You go to audiogalaxy and log in. With the ios client you log into an account.
You don't set up multiple servers on the client app, as you do with isub. And you don't have a domain name like xxxx.audiogalaxy.com.

Subsonic is far superior and isub is a much better iOS client than audiogalaxy.

I'm also able to have Dropbox running with no issue at the office. So it also is able to establish remote connections without any special permissions or a VPN.

[alphawave7]

Right. Audiogalaxy login is through a website. You go to audiogalaxy and log in. With the ios client you log into an account.

Sounds to me like NAT Traversal, of which there are several ways:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAT_traversal
but the end result is exactly what you want. I haven't searched Feature Requests for this yet, but it *should* be one, and would make Subsonic FAR more friendly for the neophpyte and those with 'institutional' or corporate restrictions. Hope Sindre looks into it!