Unable to connect to MMC outside home network

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Vulcan

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Unable to connect to MMC outside home network

#1

Post by Vulcan » Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:53 pm

Hi, Tried searching for threads on this topic. Is anyone using Ceton's app for remote control of your MC application? I recently installed and configured. The app works well on my home network but I am having trouble getting it to work outside of my network. I am sure it has something to do with either my port forwarding or my Dyndns configuration. I am Using a Linksys/Cisco router. Anyone have experience getting this app up and running?

[Moderator note: topic moved to MMC subforum]

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Crash2009

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#2

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Sep 27, 2016 6:45 pm

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =63&t=9603

Try reading that one. I think the only thing I missed was you have to give your htpc a static IP address.

hvinc

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#3

Post by hvinc » Tue Sep 27, 2016 7:09 pm

Crash is right. I had the same problem about a year ago. I set a static IP in my router, and it's worked ever since.

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Crash2009

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#4

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Sep 27, 2016 7:18 pm

The static I was talking about is done on the htpc. Google " how to give your PC a static IP address"

Vulcan

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#5

Post by Vulcan » Tue Sep 27, 2016 9:27 pm

Crash, thank you for pointing me to that post. It appears from your screen shots that I have everything setup just as you. When I preform the diagnostic it tells me that "everything looks good" but when I test the port forwarding it tells me it's not properly forwarded, curious. I will provide some screen shots below. So the static IP is just the internal network IP, correct? I do that for all my devices on my network. MY WMC machine feeds three Xboxes to provide the TV watching experience throughout the house. Thank you for any assistance you may provide.
DIAGImage.png
PortTestImage.png
Portimage.png

Vulcan

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#6

Post by Vulcan » Tue Sep 27, 2016 9:27 pm

DNSImage.png

cwinfield

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#7

Post by cwinfield » Tue Sep 27, 2016 9:40 pm

Can you connect from your device using the WiFi button? When the cable co changes my modem IP address I have to do that then it updates my external IP and connects fine.

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Crash2009

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#8

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:15 pm

The static IP must be set in the nic properties of the htpc. Like I said before.....Google it.

Is your htpc wired, wireless, or both?

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#9

Post by Space » Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:22 pm

I have my network set up with static DHCP reservations rather than having to set up each PC with a static IP address. I think this is the way to go as it allows you to manage all the static IP addresses in the same place (and have all your PCs configured the same way, to use DHCP to get an IP address). Also, if you have portable Wi-Fi devices (such as a laptop) you can use other Wi-Fi hot spots without having to change your laptop back to using dynamic (DHCP) from the static IP.

In order to set up port forwarding rules, your device needs to have a consistent (always the same) internal IP address so that the rules can point to that address.

Also, you need to have dynamic DNS set up on your router so that if you public (Internet) IP address changes (which your ISP can do at any time) the Internet DNS servers will also be changed so that you can continue to use your personal domain name(s) to access your machine(s) (e.g. yourpc1.ddns.net) from anywhere on the Internet.

You set up your dynamic DNS by selecting a dynamic DNS provider (there are several fee ones I believe) and then either configure your router to update your IP whenever it changes (preferred, if supported by your router), or you can run a separate program on a PC that is running on your network, and it will update the IP when it changes (it actually just sends a periodic update to the dynamic DNS server and the server makes note of what IP address it came from to update your personal domain name).

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Crash2009

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#10

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 2:27 am

I'm not suggesting to set a static IP for every transient device on the network.....

Only permanent devices such as the TV Server (HTPC) should have a static.

What is so difficult.....open the adapter properties, then IPV4, give it a number, and check-mark use this IP.

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#11

Post by Space » Wed Sep 28, 2016 2:43 am

By having static DHCP reservations for all your devices, it is much easier to see when a foreign device has connected to your router (for security purposes), obviously this is not something everyone cares about, or would bother with.

Also, by having all your reservations in the router, you can see which device is assigned which IP address, so that in the future if you want to add a new device with a static IP address you don't have to look at all your computers to see what static IP addressed are already assigned so as to not assign a duplicate IP, it is all right there in one place.

Also if you want to allow remote access to one of your devices quickly, you already have the static mapping, so you just need to make a firewall rule pointing to your already existing static IP and you are done.

So it is just easier to maintain from an administrative standpoint.

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Crash2009

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#12

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 10:16 am

It is very important to setup a static ip address, if you are going to use port forwarding. When you have port forwarding setup, your router forwards ports to an ip address that you specify. This will probably work when you initially set it up, but after restarting your computer it may get a different ip address. When this happens the ports will no longer be forwarded to your computer's ip address. So the port forwarding configuration will not work.

What is an ip address?
IP addresses are four sets of numbers separated by periods that allow computers to identify each other. Every computer has at least one ip address, and two computers should never have the same ip address. If they do, neither of them will be able to connect to the internet. There is a lot of information at the following link. You don't need all of it. But if you want to know more about how networks work, you'll find it there. For more information on ip addresses, subnets, and gateways go here

Dynamic vs Static IPs Most routers assign dynamic IP addresses by default. They do this because dynamic ip address networks require no configuration. The end user can simply plug their computer in, and their network will work. When ip addresses are assigned dynamically, the router is the one that assigns them. Every time a computer reboots it asks the router for an ip address. The router then hands it an ip address that has not already been handed out to another computer. This is important to note. When you set your computer to a static ip address, the router does not know that a computer is using that ip address. So the very same ip address may be handed to another computer later, and that will prevent both computers from connecting to the internet. So when you asign a static IP addresses, it's important to assign an IP address that will not be handed out to other computers by the dynamic IP address server. The dynamic IP address server is generally refered to as the dhcp server.....

this link is for those of you that are Googley Challanged.

https://portforward.com/networking/static-win7.htm

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Crash2009

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#13

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:16 am

No matter which model of Cisco Linksys you have (E, EA, X).....Step 1 is the same for all.

https://portforward.com/cisco-linksys/

Step 1
It is important to setup a static ip address in the device that you are forwarding a port to. This ensures that your ports will remain open even after your device reboots.

Recommended - Our free program will setup a static IP address for you.
Download Network Utilities today!

Or follow our Static IP Address guide to setup a static IP address.
Last edited by Crash2009 on Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Crash2009

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#14

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:29 am

http://www.linksys.com/us/support-artic ... Num=140223

Linksys says the same thing as PortForward.....

Prerequisites:

1. Note the port you need to forward – The service ports have different assigned numbers depending on the type of service, hardware or application. Refer to your documentation or contact your device manufacturer for details.

2. Set Static IP address on the device – You will need to assign a Static IP address or a non-changing IP address so the port forwarding request will be sent and received from the same IP address.

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#15

Post by Vulcan » Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:20 pm

This is all great information and I agree with Crash that the static IP needs to be set at the destination and as I said before, that is how I setup my stationary devices, not my mobile ones. However, I am still receiving the error message that port forwarding is not configured correctly on both of my HTPC devices. and yet the diagnostic test says that everything is hunky dory. I also already have DYNDNS taking care of any ISP IP changes. Did anyone take a look at my attachments above to see if there is any glaring issues with my configuration? Thank you in advance.

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#16

Post by IownFIVEechos » Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:24 pm

Did you also open the port on the windows firewall?

Vulcan

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#17

Post by Vulcan » Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:37 pm

Ooooh, cheeky. I will try that and report back.

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#18

Post by Vulcan » Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:55 pm

So it appears that MMC opens the firewall ports automatically for UDP but MMC asks for TCP. I went ahead and setup a rule for TCP just in case. Did not have an affect on the error message and I will need to test the external network the next time I'm away.

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#19

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 6:08 pm

To test external....just shut off WiFi on one of your phones.

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#20

Post by dkrom » Wed Sep 28, 2016 7:45 pm

You could also try putting the IP of your MC computer in the DMZ. All traffic would then be forwarded to that machine which would allow you to determine if the problem is in your router, or the computer. If you can connect while in the DMZ then your rules are off, if not then it's probably something with your computer. Just be sure to take your computer out of the DMZ as soon as possible so you're not open to attacks.

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