WP8 - Nokia 920 - won't work with Companion

[Hflashman]

Hi,

I just got my Nokia 920 (really an excellent phone) and installed the companion app. I cannot get it to work though.

I have had it side by side with my HTC Trophy with the exact same entries for Internal IP, Port, External IP, Port and password and the Trophy will connect but the Nokia 920 gets an "Error...." connecting to the same HTPC. I upgraded the Companion Services app on the HTPC to the latest version in case that was it but that didn't make any difference.

Is there something I am missing in terms of support for WP8?

Thanks for your help.

[rantanamo]

Please don't say this is so. I just ordered the 822 and was planning on getting Companion.

[Motz]

I know a bunch of people have it working just fine on WP8 devices as they are officially supported. Have you tried to re-boot the phone and the PC? I know it sounds like typical tech support, but give it a shot just to be sure.

Additionally try to just uninstall and re-install the app in case something weird is going on if the reboots don't work.

[newfiend]

I have a Lumia 920 as well and can confirm that the app does work fine for me on mine. The Wi-Fi on the Lumia takes a minute to wake after tuning it on (much longer than my old Focus S) I think this is an issue Nokia is looking into fixing. Try letting the Lumia's Wi-Fi to power up/connect then try launching the app again.. If that doesn't fix it I would try Motz suggestion of removing the app, reboot the phone and re-install it. Make sure your phone is connected to your Wi-Fi as well, it could be connecting to your neighbors "open" Wi-Fi if they don't have it password protected and causing some strange issue..possibly??
newfiend~

[Hflashman]

Thanks for the replies.

I uninstalled on the phone, rebooted, reinstalled. I then uninstalled on my PC and rebooted and reinstalled........same issue - "Error...". The companion app on the PC had all my settings it seems even after reinstall.

I tested the port forwarding on the PC program and that returned saying it was working. The diagnostic report said everything was good also.

I then tried using without any password set up and still the same "Error" on the phone (I have confirmed the phone is on my home wifi and "online").

The one thing here is my phone is not yet activated (plan to do so tomorrow). That would hardly make a difference?

[Motz]

Try to add in a new pc, but use your local IP and port for both settings (internal and external) and see if it connects this way. If WiFi is not connected it skips the local connection and only tries external. If there is an issue in the firmware it could be causing this issue. In the next update I am adding a setting like I added in android which is to always try internal no matter what. Hasn't been an issue for anyone else, but perhaps it was because they activated and got an update.. not sure

[newfiend]

Motz.. Does the ceton app require location services to be turned on? If so I wonder if he is getting the error because of that? If his phone isn't activated yet with no sim card would that cause an error for him if its trying to connect to location services?
newfiend~

Sent from my Lumia 920 using Board Express

[Motz]

Nope, it should work fine even if the phone isn't activated. My test phone isn't activated at all either. Newfiend what is your firmware version on your 920?

[newfiend]

OS Version: 8.0.9903.10
Firmware Rev. # 1232.2109.1242.1001
Hardware Rev. # 1.0.0.0
Radio Software Version 1.0.202041.3


Sent from my Lumia 920 using Board Express

[Hflashman]

Hi guys,

I activated this morning and it connected fine then.....

It seems there is some link there?

[Motz]

Interesting. Might be something weird in the Windows Phone 8 SDK. As you know most of the apps on the marketplace were "upgraded" in a way to WP8, so many of them have never been tested against WP8 since the SDK was recently released. It is very similar to Android or iOS apps in a way that they "should" work the same.

I will investigate more thank you!

[newfiend]

Glad it's now working.. Strange that it wouldn't w/o the sim.. wonder if maybe there is a software update it gets after activation that enables some features of the phone in case of theft? WP8 is supposed to get OTA updates now so?? Maybe? IDK.. anyway happy things are now working as they should. You should enjoy the phone. I love mine so far, great build quality. If you are looking for a case check your Local AT&T store they have the Otterbox Defender cases for them now and they aren't even available online from otterbox yet..
newfiend~

[Hflashman]

Thanks guys!

I don't think I'll get a case as it seems very solid.

I love the companion app on it....seems faster.

Any news when you plan to add streaming on this app? With no Remote Potato client for Metro/RT/Surface, I'd love to have it on this. I'm available to beta test!

Obviously, the ideal would be place-shifting (it could replace my slingbox if it streamed live tv) and time-shifting (the above, like Remote Potato).

[KFish]

I just got the HTC Windows Phone 8X. I installed the Companion app with all the same settings I had on my Trophy and was able to connect within my home network but not outside of it. I followed Motz's advice unistalled and reinstalled the app and poof it worked inside and outside of the home network. Go figure.

[intvsteve]

I've got a Lumia 920 dev kit phone (not activated, no sim card) and have noticed a couple of interesting problems:

1. The wireless discovery finds the phone itself! And not the HTPC.
2. I get things to work by putting in the IP address of my HTPC. Using the hostname (HTPC) fails. Inconvenient if / when the IP address changes.

All the diagnostics come up fine.

Note: Have not rebooted either device.
Also, just as a data point, despite upnp being enabled on the router (WNDR3700v2, latest firmware), needed to manually set up port forwarding.

[Motz]

I am going to look into the wifi scan issue, for WP7 we had to do a lot of work to get that working correctly and I assume they changed a lot of things in WP8, so I will probably have to update the code to reflect this. Hopefully in next update.

[intvsteve]

Y'all are awesome! Responsiveness is great. Same as last year when I first got the InfiniTV. In that case it was a bad HDD but Ceton support was there with lots of good info and quick responses helping debug the dreaded Weak Signal errors that weren't.