Manual?

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davelowe
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:12 am

Manual?

Post by davelowe »

Is there a manual anywhere for UMS?
I installed UMS on a linux headless server and added shares etc. I can go to http://ipaddress:9001 and see a list of files. When I click on them they play in the browser. Great. Now I want to use Kodi to control them, or VLC. How is this done? I would like to add security. Is this possible?
Thanks for any help.
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: Manual?

Post by Nadahar »

There is no manual that I'm aware of, but there are some (mostly outdated) documentation that comes with UMS. Some documentation can also be found in UMS' GitHub Wiki. That said, what you're asking for is how to use the renderers (Kodi, VLC), not UMS. UMS should already be available to Kodi, VLC and any other UPnP/DLNA capable renderer when it's running, so you need to check the renderer software's documentation for how to use them to navigate a media server.

There is no security in the UPnP AV/DLNA protocol specification. It was never intended to be "secure", it doesn't even have any form for authentication. That said, there does exist some things you can do, like IP filter in UMS or enabling the use of a code to be able to enter certain folders. I'm not sure how well these features work though.

Security should normally be a concern though (I guess it depends on what you mean with "security"). UMS is read-only, so there's no way a renderer/client can modify or delete content on the server. If you mean, access control with "security" the above applies. It should be mentioned though that UPnP relies on multicast, which isn't routed on the internet, so it is "secure by design" in that sense. If you want to prevent others on your local network from accessing the content, you're basically out of luck except the above.
davelowe
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:12 am

Re: Manual?

Post by davelowe »

Hi Nadahar - thank you very much for your reply. It's a shame that there is no manual, but at least I now know not to look for one!. I'm puzzled by the fact that VLC etc cannot see the renderers so I will read their documentation for clues.
The security (by which I mean access control) can I suspect be done crudely with .htaccess etc.
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: Manual?

Post by Nadahar »

I don't think .htaccess will do anything for you here, as UMS use its own HTTP server implementation that does just what's needed for UPnP AV to function, so things like that aren't implemented. If you're thinking of web-interface access, it is possible to enable HTTP basic authentication - but this doesn't apply to renderer access via UPnP.
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