question

[npsken]

me and my friend are working on this together, but only under one condition. Is it possible to access recordings anywhere even not on my home network? like across the town?

[Kindrael]

if you know how to setup your computer/firewall/router.

From work I have downloaded my MPEG recordings and WMV recordings. If you record to WMV format, you can scale it stream to the particular internet connection you are going to access if from (modem to Cable).

[npsken]

but can my friend access it from a web browser when he's halfway across the town?

[RobertH]

yes if both have an internet connection and you expose the computer with snapstream to the internet thru whatever firewall solution you have inplace (you do have a firewall dont you)

to allow web streaming you have to expose the following ports on tcp:
8129 -> web interface
1755 -> pre-recorded streaming interface
8080 -> livetv streaming interface

(of course all of these ports are configurable and can be changed in the web interface) note port 8080 and many others are commonly blocked by many internet providers to prevent the spread of viruses and trojans. So your provider may prevent the access to these ports.

I would recommend you download the trial version and play with it to see if it can meet your needs/wants

[RobertH]

of course there will be limitations based on your upload/download speed at both points if you want to do any type of streaming. Also mpeg recordings can get quite large very quickly and cannot be streamed (they can only be downloaded in their entirety before being played back) dvd low res is something like 600-800 megs per 30 min! so it makes for downloading over cable modems with low upload speeds very difficult.

If you are going to be sharing content like this over 2 high speed connections I would recommend finding out what speeds both ends can send/receive and then pick the lowest speed and make the recording bitrate in windows media format just under that. that way you will be able to do live streaming and streaming of pre-recorded files in realtime.

[aharbour]

i do this us to uk . I can get it to stream at around 300K (wmv)

[npsken]

so once I connect this to my router, does it have its own special address? like would i type <ip address>:<machine#>:8129 instead of <ip address>:8129 ?

[RobertH]

no your router has a public ip address, and then distributes private ip addresses into the network it is hiding (192.168.*.*) you will have to give the machine that will be running snapstream an ip address that wont change (because if it did change the following would not work properly).

You would then have to access the configuration program of the firewall/router to allow it to forward 8129,1755,8080 to the machine's ip running snapstream. This varies from one router to the next, but is documented in the help manual from the manufactuerer of the router.

To access the snapstream box you would then need to know the public ip address of the router: (for example if the public ip address was 12.12.12.12) you would access like this:

(from client computer out side network ie your friend)
http://12.12.12.12:8129

as a side note I would STRONGLY recommend that you turn on the security settings for snapstream, they give minor protection for prying eyes and would protect your content.

[aharbour]

I have a program that post my ip address back to a server (go to www.no-ip.com)

when I want to watch tv at work i type in http://[myselectedname].no-ip.com:8129

This takes me to the web interface of snapstream. My router is set to forward requests on port 8129 to the pc running snapstream. I also run streaming tv on port 7000 because thats the real video port and its the only one open in my company firewall.

[npsken]

that's exactly what i was just thinking of doing, except, i don't know what to choose. Would you recomend no ip? their setup is confusing the last time i went

[aharbour]

I had no problems with no-ip.com and the service has been
pretty reliable.

[npsken]

thanks

[PBMax]

I have a D-Link Router that I use to connect to the internet via a DSL modem.

I use dyndns.org to have my current IP updated everytime I get a new ip.

They have a large number of domains too!

You can even have a dyndns.tv address.

[npsken]

i don't know if this would work, but what about Joy Nic ?

[RobertH]

probably not you arent looking to get a permanent domain, unelss you buy it from someone who does dynamic dns stuff like dyndns.org or ods.org. It can often take normal domain providers weeks to get domains pointing to new IP addresses, but places like ods and dyndns have their systems already setup and designed to allow easy changing by the user. if you dont like having:

whateveryouwant.ods.org
or
whateveryouwant.dyndns.org
(they allow other things after the first dot)

then you can get one of their upgraded plans and get
www.whateveryouwant.someextension
but it is easier (Hell I have 3 different machines running under dyndns.org domain and I use them almost daily, especially when I was at work to get to my computers at home to do something)
and they all offer programs that you can stick on your computer to update the dns records with your new ip if it changes. DynDNS is free but ods has just changed over to a 5$ per year policy on subnet names (ie you.ods.org)