WiFi shouldn't be needed for Wifi Sync if using VPN [#10740]

[jimbob_sf]

My Galaxy S4 is rooted with Cisco VPN client. It can see my network just fine. mm for Android won't let me sync without WiFi running.

Oddly, I can start a sync on WiFi at home, shut WiFi, open VPN, and continue sync on LTE.

Is this by design or am I just not doing something correctly?

I'm on latest MM 4.1 build (non debug) and Android Beta on Cyanogen 10.2 nightly. It all works fine on WiFi in my house.

[Lowlander]

Where does it fail? I'm not certain DLNA works over VPN which is a requirement (you need the auto-discovery to work). Did you try to see if the UPnP works in MMA?

[jimbob_sf]

I use a Cisco ASA 5505 appliance and I don't think it supports UPnP. However, from within my home (that runs a full bore Windows domain supporting my company), my TVs and BoxeeBox can all find the MM DNLA server, navigate the directory structure, and play a few tv shows I imported. The standard codecs are either not there or I have to buy them to play mkv/m4v hd video. I'm having a bear of a time figuring out how MM handles video files. It seems completely foreign from TVersity and how I"m used to storing movies/tv shows.

All that said, the strange thing is that this morning i was able to sync my phone with the mm server just fine. I shut off WiFi, turned on the VPN, and continued to sync while driving to work. Once at work, I rebooted the phone and it wouldn't re-connect. I'll try again tonight when I get home to try to re-create the sequence. I'm thinking that it identified the phone/mac/IP on the WiFi connection. When I re-connected, it got a new address and wouldn't let it back in. More testing on my part.

[Lowlander]

Auto-discover could explain that as you were local when discovered. If UPnP in MMA doesn't see the MMW server you won't be able to wifi sync.

[rivorson]

I think there is also a fault in Android's VPN client. When I'm connected to my home VPN I can't connect to any computer or my network drive by name. If I enter the If address it works fine, so it seems that it doesn't support device names.

I'm assuming that MMA searches for MMW by computer name so it won't work for me.

[jimbob_sf]

I tried again last night. If I follow this work flow, VPN works (I use Cisco AnyConnect for rooted android).

1. Connect WiFi locally.
2. Start sync
3. Start VPN on phone
4. Leave WiFi on
5. Leave WiFi range so LTE takes over. The phone continues to sync with the server just fine. Once the LTE connection roos, it all stops and I can't reconnect.

I'll do more resting tonight.

[Lowlander]

When I'm connected to my home VPN I can't connect to any computer or my network drive by name.

Sounds like your VPN doesn't support all protocols.

[rivorson]

I had thought of that, but I get the same result with the VPN server built into my router and the Windows 7 VPN server. When connected to the Windows server I couldn't access the files shared on that same computer by name but could access them by IP address. I've tried on both my Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 7 (both the 2012 version and the 2013 version). However, I can connect to the VPN server using a Windows laptop and it works perfectly, so I have to conclude that it's an Android issue.

[rusty]

It sounds like this is the same issue as http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=10740 i.e. that MMA _requires_ a wireless connection even if a direct ethernet (or in this case VPN) connection is available.

-Rusty

[hibby50]

Instead of forcing wifi to be on can we access upnp or even wifi sync connected over 4g/3g with a vpn?

[rusty]

The requirement for wifi (rather than a network) should be fixed in the latest build (175). Please confirm whether it works for you.

Thanks.

-Rusty

[Aralvor]

On build 182, it asks for wifi whenever i want to sync or UPNP or select a sync server even though i'm connected through VPN to my home network with my computer and MMW open

am i missing something ?