Using XBMC to access media server through the internet
#1
What I need to do, is set up a media server, that can be accessed through the internet, using XBMC, on Apple TV 2.

I have tried XBMC with various upnp media servers and it works perfectly on XBMC on atv2, but only locally. Now, I need to do it through the internet.

Plex does this on atv2 with their own server/client, but it still needs lots of work on resolving problems. Tversity also streams through the internet, but there's no way to access it with atv2.

So how do I access a media server, through the internet with XBMC on atv2?

Thanks
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#2
Nucleus Wrote:What I need to do, is set up a media server, that can be accessed through the internet, using XBMC, on Apple TV 2.

I have tried XBMC with various upnp media servers and it works perfectly on XBMC on atv2, but only locally. Now, I need to do it through the internet.

Plex does this on atv2 with their own server/client, but it still needs lots of work on resolving problems. Tversity also streams through the internet, but there's no way to access it with atv2.

So how do I access a media server, through the internet with XBMC on atv2?

Thanks

Hi!

What file sharing protocol do you use? whats your network setup? behind firewall? LAN or WAN makes no difference its whats between thats importent. Smile
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#3
What do you mean file sharing protocol? I can use whatever media server you suggest.

Network setup is not an issue. Firewall neither. I can configure outside access without any problems.

What I need is instructions on how to configure XBMC to access any kind of media server, through the internet.

Can you help with that?
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#4
Depends on how and where you are trying to set up the connection between the two points.

(Assuming you have sufficient upload bandwidth at the site server the content) Why not set up vpn between the two sites and then just use a smb connection?
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#5
Yes I am trying to Smile
With protocols I mean SMB, FTP, NFS, rsync, ISCSI protocols so first of we need to choose what we will use for access to your server share, what OS you are running on your server and so on.

My setup:
Im using freeNAS and have setup a SMB share, to connect to it I just use the IP of my freenas and supply the username and password as stated in XBMC Wiki

This works the same way locally and over internet, because my freenas is behind a firewall I have to NAT my locally adress to a public IP this is done in my firewall (using moonwall)
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#6
@prae5
I would prefer that the media server is publicly available through the internet, and that I use authentication to connect to it, instead of having to set up a VPN tunnel between the two locations. I realize that the VPN tunnel is more secure, but that would mean that I need a computer on the client site also, instead of just the Apple TV 2.

@tetzuoshima
I guess that would work. Samba would be like a local share. I’ll give it a try. I have to admit I was thinking of something between the lines of a streaming server, and a streaming client on the Apple TV 2.
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#7
@tetzuoshima
What port did you open on your firewall, to allow SMB access to FreeNAS, with XBMC?

Thanks
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#8
Come to think of it, since FreeNAS is just storage, all the videos will have to be a format that XBMC can play without re-encoding. Unless XBMC on AppleTV2 can also re-encode them?
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#9
It seems that my ISP might be blocking the SBM port. I've put the FreeNAS server on DMZ. I can access it through the web interface, but not through XBMC or Windows explorer. Which would make sense, for ISP's to block SMB browsing :/
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#10
I have tried ftp, by adding a source using

Code:
ftp://user:pass@hostname:21/

It's working, but...

2GB file kept buffering.
500MB file plays ok.
AVI files cannot be played.
MKV files play ok.
Subs are perfect.
No features. (movie info, resume, etc)

Well, not the best solution... :/
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#11
Ye its common for ISP to block this port I guess.
So ftp works that is a good thing Smile the buffering is a latency issue I guess, maybe you can change how much xbmc should buffer before it starts the file? remember that I was doing this back in the days of the old XBOX version, was a gui settings then if I remember correctly, now prob in a txt file.
If you run a normal ftp client how fast is the connection?
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#12
test the port by using a telnet command: telnet yourfreenas 445 to see if its blocked by your isp
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#13
The FTP server connection is not fast. It has a 10Mbps download and 768Kbps upload.

If I could choose encoding quality on a proper UPNP or DLNA server, I wouldn’t have a problem streaming through the internet. But an FTP server is too generic, too featureless.

So for me, SMB and FTP are not good enough solutions.

Do I have any other options I can test?

----------

I tried telnet on the port and it doesnt respond. Locally is OK.
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#14
Another idea would be an ATV2 VPN client. That way I could connect to my network using only ATV2 and access my media server locally.
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#15
Nucleus Wrote:I have tried ftp, by adding a source using

Code:
ftp://user:pass@hostname:21/

It's working, but...

2GB file kept buffering.
500MB file plays ok.
AVI files cannot be played.
MKV files play ok.
Subs are perfect.
No features. (movie info, resume, etc)

Well, not the best solution... :/

I would give Subsonic Media Server a go, I have it running for my music but it also supports videos and it transcodes on the fly to maximise compatibility and reduce bandwidth.

Its a fantastic free program once you get it all up and running.

http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

EDIT It would be nice if XBMC included all of the same functionality. I'd love to access XBMC from anywhere and stream it to any device as an automatically optimized format all within a slick GUI.
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