Universal Media Server | Forum

Hi,

I am trying to install UMS for a local network but it fails on forced IP and port allocation.

I just begin with UMS.
I wish to install it as local serveur on a private network (using a 192.168.xxx)
Everything seems clear, but :

• - by default the IP is not on the local network then I have to force it (to IP not allocated) and I plan to allocate a fixed IP
• - with any port (default 5001 but try 6001, UMS trace says a port 9001 is free on web) I get first a general error "no players" for a while
• - later (a few minutes) the players appear but the status become "port is invalid"
• - later (without doing anything else than wait) : UMS status appears connected

but :

• - his forced valid IP address doesn't appear into the allocated IP by DHCP
• - netstat -a doesn't show any connection related to UMS (his IP)
• - UMS trace doesn't says nothing more that shown at beginning :
  15:56:53 INFO Using forced address 192.168.1.25
  15:56:53 INFO Created socket: /192.168.1.25:9001
  15:56:53 ERROR Another program is using port 9001, which UMS needs.
  15:56:53 ERROR You can change the port UMS uses on the General Configuration tab.
  - note that this happens for any available port

As we can imagine UMS

• UMS is not visible for any player nor for dhcp

I have checked :

• The firewall (bitdefender) and test : unactivation with no effect
• Create rule to allow anything on local network for UMS and checked java

Nothing else to do than report my problem here.

I have practical question which are, it seems not reported on this forum :

• is UMS pingable from local computer
• If "status" reports "connected" how this can be checked from system (Window PowerShell)
• What

Best regards

Trebly
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
note :
As UMS is normally using 9001 port because it reports "connected", even the trace dosn't say anything, I checked the port using netstat and I get :
> netstat -ano | findstr ":9001"
TCP 0.0.0.0:9001 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 2796
TCP [2a01:e35:2fb8:b6f0:f813:29dc:c8ca:732a]:60482 [2620:109:c00c:104::b93f:9001]:443 ESTABLISHED 23172

Note 2 : Context is : Windows10, large amount of memory

I didn't understand everything you wrote, but if UMS picks the wrong IP address you can select either an IP address or an interface that you want UMS to use. If your NIC use DHCP, you should specify the interface, not the IP address. Do not specify both.

UMS use 3 ports. Port 1900 is defined in the UPnP specification and both UDP and TCP must be open for incoming access. Port 5001 is the default port for serving media to renderers. It needs TCP access only. Port 9001 is for the web interface only, and isn't needed for UMS to work.

Hi,

Sorry if you have not understood, I have not given clear explanation.
While reading again, I found, for me, quite all elements clear but because I am still not able to make UMS function (may be I have misunderstood something important), I try here to explain the problem in another way.

Context:
- local network with a box (FREE) with is DHCP and UPnP VA activated, IPV6 and IPV4 activated
- Windows 10 and 3 computers
- Smartphones running Android
- MediaPlayer activated and viewed correctly by a Smart TV Samsung

I have first installed UMS without any advanced parameter, the result : after a while (this is a little problem : the time needed to explore network and what is shown during this phase can lead to errors of interpretation),
so after a while :
- Multimedia readers of the network are found : the local MediaPlayer, the FreeBoxPlayer and the TV (the elements connected as the CD-DVD)
- Checked "connected"

From this point, I can believe that the UMS server will be normally visible from the available mediaplayers.
These are at the moment :

• MediaPlayer (as local player but which is too a server) which is visible from the TV (three ways : SmartHub, as Source from network, and finally from FreeBox player as virtual "disk").
• FreeBoxPlayer (from TV sources explorer as HDMI) : servers can be seen in the "disk list" (can see the internal disk of the FreeBox and MS-MediaPlayer)
• TV in Smarthub mode (the TV finds on network all the media servers)

but not UMS

From this point, what I have to check (in my opinion) ? :
- UMS as server should be visible the same as the other devices connected to dhcp but it is not visible
- try to force the IP to be allocated to UMS (obviously a free IP on the network)

I could not anywhere find an IP which could correspond to UMS (like hidden, but by what ? and more it is connected but to what ?)
Note : for this I have checked the system using the well known IPConfig and netstat.

I have missed something or not well done, what ?

Best regards

Trebly

I'm sorry, but I still don't understand. Are you using a translation service like google translate? I have a lot of trouble trying to figure out what the sentences themselves mean.

In addition to the language problems, you mention several thing that I don't know anything about. I'm not familiar with "UPnP VA", I don't know what a "box" is in this context. I don't know what the MediaPlayer you refer to is. It could be a software running on some device/computer, or it could be a hardware device.

after a while (this is a little problem : the time needed to explore network and what is shown during this phase can lead to errors of interpretation),
so after a while :

Despite reading this multiple times, I can not have the slightest idea what it means.

It also seems to be a problem with the understanding of the IP address. UMS does not have its own IP, it uses one of the IP addresses of the host computer. UMS simply binds to ports on one of the available network adapters. The computer should only have one IP address in the subnet of interest, and UMS should use that one. UMS will normally pick the correct IP address automatically, but if it doesn't you can tell UMS which interface/NIC to use. You should NOT specify an IP address if the host computer uses DHCP.

From the very little I understand from your explanation, this seems like a very basic network or firewall issue. For me to understand it better, you will have to post debug files as described in red on the top of the page.

Hi,

It functions, but I wrote what follows to make everything clear.
Your writings are in italics.

I'm sorry, but I still don't understand. Are you using a translation service like google translate?

No I directly write en English but often I submit my text to a google translation from English to French to verify that the resulting text is a well understandable French. This because I sometimes makes confusion using a word for another, missing punctuation (as I do in French) or some articles...

I have a lot of trouble trying to figure out what the sentences themselves mean.

Generally english people understand all what I say speaking or writing.

In addition to the language problems, you mention several thing that I don't know anything about. I'm not familiar with "UPnP VA",

Sorry a "lapsus scriptum (miswriting)" for UPnP AV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Plug_and_Play

I don't know what a "box" is in this context.. https://www.howtogeek.com/187439/should ... utermodem/ you can rfind a definition of a "box" : Why ISPs Provide Combined Router/Modem Units

For most people, having a combined router/modem unit is just simpler. The Internet service provider can hand their customer a box and that single box handles connecting to the Internet, creating a Wi-Fi network, and sharing the Internet connection between multiple devices. Customers don’t have to buy their own router and hook it up, and the ISP doesn’t have to field support calls from confused customers who have problems setting up their routers.

My ISP (in French FAI) is "Free" and as all ISP in France they name their box : "FreeBox", "LiveBox", "BBox" and so on then "box" is a common word used for these boxes. They have an integrated UI and they have various capabilities. The "FreeBox Evolution" is the highest capabilities of all with many features, it is linked to a "FreeBox Player" and integrates several NAS disks and all features for UPnP and DLNA services, more is able of "hairpinning" which is very interesting particularly for developers and a good local DNS. The DHCP reports the posts and services linked, but even functioning at the end UMS is not found by the "box"; I do believe that this is a problem of exploration of local ports hold by my firewall.

I don't know what the MediaPlayer you refer to is.It could be a software running on some device/computer, or it could be a hardware device.
A shorthand for Windows MediaPlayer, sorry.

after a while (this is a little problem : "the time needed to explore network and what is shown during this phase can lead to errors of interpretation"),Despite reading this multiple times, I can not have the slightest idea what it means.

OK this is not clear : I mean that :
When you have launched the server, and the trace don't tell about any clear error, the status tab displays informations which changes during the network exploration. Because you don't know, during exploration, if a player is "not found" or "not yet found", then you can think "not found" and think about a network configuration error when there is a long delay for any reason.

It also seems to be a problem with the understanding of the IP address. UMS does not have its own IP, it uses one of the IP addresses of the host computer. UMS simply binds to ports on one of the available network adapters. The computer should only have one IP address in the subnet of interest, and UMS should use that one. UMS will normally pick the correct IP address automatically, but if it doesn't you can tell UMS which interface/NIC to use. You should NOT specify an IP address if the host computer uses DHCP.

From the very little I understand from your explanation, this seems like a very basic network or firewall issue. For me to understand it better, you will have to post debug files as described in red on the top of the page.

Sorry, the problem is solved, but I don't know exactly all the reason of the malfunctioning.

What is not documented is that, you need for a local network, necessarily use the advanced parameters to define the host (your network card) or force the value of the IP if this IP is static. Then you will verify that UMS is bound to your network card IP and that the port used is OK. But you need another computer on your network to check the access.


Even this was OK the UMS could not be found on the players, no explanation.
But I have checked locally the configuration of port using the Windows utility software : "portquery"
I have connected another computer to the network and ran ntstat -nao, run TCP requests, to check the access to UMS. Because before I could just verify if I had the access from the TV.

At a time I got the connections right.

About the log (named in French UI "traces"), I could verify sometimes ERRORS before the good IP and unavailable port 5001. I cannot find back what occurs.

Thanks for your help.
When we are alone and tired you can make mistakes, read a word for another, be sure that something is OK because you "view what you mean not what you wrote".
Who helps you, forces your mind to think in another way and find or change elements in the right way even you are not conscious of this. I believe that everybody who develops alone have met this problem.

Best regards

Trebly

It's good that you solved the problem although I'm not entirely sure what did it. In most configurations it isn't necessary to configure which interface or IP UMS should bind to, because UMS will look for a non-loopback interface with a IPv4 address. Normally, only one such interface exists on a computer.

I don't disagree with you that the documentation is lacking, that's a general problem with UMS and with a lot of open source projects in general. The reason is that almost everybody think writing documentation is boring, and that there's often small teams having to do all the work. When you have to choose between writing documentation and fixing a bug making problems for a lot of users, the choice is often to fix the bug. It's not so easy for outsiders to contribute documentation either, because to be able to document something you first have to know how it works.

We have a member in our team, @Sami32, which is French as well. I constantly misunderstand him as well. He would probably understand what you wrote perfectly fine

I'm not a native English speaker either, I'm Norwegian, so there are many barriers for a message to get through.

As a side note, I strongly dislike such ISP provided "boxes" and refuse to use them. I don't trust them to have control of my network, governments can easily order them to spy on people for example. They might also allow things you don't want or block other things you do want. I have been running my own DNS servers for years, and when I don't have them available I use some independent DNS - NOT that of the ISP. It has become very common for governments to use DNS for censorship, and they enforce this by requiring that the ISP does the censoring for them. Thus, I wouldn't use any DNS or DNS service controlled by the ISP. Even if the router has its own DNS server, it could simply be a "proxy" which uses the ISP's DNS servers for queries instead of the root servers. That would mean that the censorship still applies.