Monkey Server 0.97 (2011-04-10) [MM3] w/Squeezebox Support

[MediaMan]

jendie, i think you will find some issues if you try and establish connections from 9 pcs at the same time, there is a reason why there are home versions, pro versions and server versions, am glad its working for you but i can assure you you would not want to support windows home versions running server tasks in real network environments

I understand the concept of home versions versus server versions as I have been in this business for a long time. Although this is a server-type application it is designed to work in a home environment.

jednie

Looks like I am having more success now. The firewall exclusions were not present on all machines. Working much better now. Yay. Looking forward to assisting with the help pages in this area.

[MediaMan]

Having a good evening. I now have success coming in via the internet, ie using <publicIPaddress>:2233. And it works with or without no-ip.org

I have monkey server loaded and logged in on an XP SP3 machine ( the one I port-forward to).

Two questions:

1) when I enter the publicIPaddress:2233 in an internet browser on another machine, the monkey server front page loads (yay) but I am prompted for a login password. I was a little surprised ( as it was already entreed on the server), but I guess it loads a new session - when I enter the password, it is accepted, and I can access my entire library. I assume the password prompt is normal???

2) the above was done on a vista machine. when enter the publicIPaddress:2233 in an internet browser on another XP machine, the monkey server front page loads as above, and I am prompted for a login password as above, BUT PASSWORDS ARE NOT ACCEPTED. I have no restriction entered in the user settings and am attempting to enter the default admin/monkey login. Any suggestions??

[MediaMan]

Mystery solved.. and a tip for others having this issue.

When I type in the public address directly.....works fine

When I use the no.ip.org hostname, letting it resolve to the IP public adress...works fine.

BUT- when I use the no.ip.org hostname AND SELECT "Mask URL", then it would not let me get passed the password prompt.

[MediaMan]

jednie - Regarding the url masking, if you have this problem as well, is this something you can address? It would be nice to be able to use URL masking , and still have monkey server work, so that one can give out ones hostname URL...rather than giving out ones public IP address.

[jednie]

jednie - Regarding the url masking, if you have this problem as well, is this something you can address? It would be nice to be able to use URL masking , and still have monkey server work, so that one can give out ones hostname URL...rather than giving out ones public IP address.

You don't have to give out your public IP address if you are using No-IP. I don't use URL masking and I don't have to use my public IP address. I am not sure why you would want to use URL Masking as this would prevent you from being able to bookmark search results within Monkey Server.

When you login to Monkey Server it sets a cookie in your browser which uniquely identifies your session (sessionid). With each request that is made to Monkey Server this sessionid is sent and Monkey Server checks it to make sure that it is valid and that it hasn't expired. My guess is that URL masking is preventing this cookie from being sent to Monkey Server and so Monkey Server keeps sending you to the login prompt as it doesn't know that you have already logged in.

jednie

[MediaMan]

? It would be nice to ..give out ones hostname URL...rather than giving out ones public IP address.

You don't have to give out your public IP address if you are using No-IP. I don't use URL masking and I don't have to use my public IP address. .

jednie

When I type in <hostname>.no-ip.org, Monkey Server works fine, but the browser AUTOMATICALY resolves to and displays my public IP address. I dont give it out, it displays it for me. This is why I asked the question.

Perhaps ist the cache in my broswer (as I had tested in with the ip adress in the past), but when I gave the hostname>.no-ip.org URL to my kid last week, when MonkerServer wasnt quite working for me, she was able to to quote back my public IP address when the page was not found.

If I set URL masking on, it simply sticks with the name only- I dont see the ip address at all....but Monkey Server keeps sending the login prompt

[MediaMan]

Follwup to the URL masking....

1) I am at work now and just confirmed (on a machine that has never run this), that when I use <hostname>.no-ip.org , it resolves back to my public IP address. Are you saying it does not do that for you? I am using the free no-ip account.

2) When I use a similar free service from Dlink, I don't have that problem.. All it requires is that I enter the port number.. ie http://<hostname>.dlinkddns.com:2233 ..... still that's preferred over seeing an IP address.

[jednie]

Follwup to the URL masking....

1) I am at work now and just confirmed (on a machine that has never run this), that when I use <hostname>.no-ip.org , it resolves back to my public IP address. Are you saying it does not do that for you? I am using the free no-ip account.

It doesn't do this for me. I never see the IP address but instead only see <hostname>.no-ip.org. Perhaps my No-IP settings are different. They have several different host types on the setup form at NO-IP and my host type is set to "DNS Host (A)".

jednie

[MediaMan]

host type is set to "DNS Host (A)".

jednie

Ahhh okay. Mine is set to Port80 redirect (as that was the only option that allowed me to specify a port number.

If you are using DNS Host A, which only asks for an IP address, where do you specify the port number????

The only way it works for me is like the other Dlink server, ie I need to speficu the port as part of the URL, ie http://<hostname>:2233.no-ip.org

[jednie]

host type is set to "DNS Host (A)".

jednie

Ahhh okay. Mine is set to Port80 redirect (as that was the only option that allowed me to specify a port number.

If you are using DNS Host A, which only asks for an IP address, where do you specify the port number????

I don't specify a port number on No-IP. It just forwards whatever port I put in the URL to my home router which passes it on to my PC.

[tgriff9020(irshjet35)]

Hey Jednie,
After a week on tinkering I was able to get to the application remotely. Now for my question. On the front page you have it listed

"Templates and Themes
Customizable templates and themes to make the interface look exactly as you want."

How is this achieved?

2. Why would only some of my files show images and not all through the server. They are all embedded in the tags


Thanks for your work

Griff

[jednie]

Hey Jednie,
After a week on tinkering I was able to get to the application remotely. Now for my question. On the front page you have it listed

"Templates and Themes
Customizable templates and themes to make the interface look exactly as you want."

How is this achieved?

I am working on the the templating part right now. It utilizes XSLT for rendering the interface. The way I plan on doing it is having the templates define the layouts and the themes define the color and graphics.

2. Why would only some of my files show images and not all through the server. They are all embedded in the tags

I haven't figured out how to retrieve images that are embedded in the MP3 files so it will currently only display images that aren't embedded. It is on my list of things to do so I will eventually get to it.

jednie

[MediaMan]

I never see the IP address but instead only see <hostname>.no-ip.org. ...my host type is set to "DNS Host (A)".

jednie

Just so you know, even with the above, the ip address is NOT truly hidden, all one needs to do is remove the poet number , let it error our, and bingo, there's your IP address!

The option of URL masking ( on no-ip.org) does indeed mask the IP address, but a noted earlier wont work with Monkey server (as you cant get past the login).

So,for those really wanting to protect there IP address,one needs to use a conventional URL redirection service ( I am going to try some) that redirects yourname.com to <youripaddress>:2233...hopefully they mask the URL in such a way as to hide the ip and still alow Monkey Server to work.

If all else fails, is there anything that can be done on the Monkey Server side such that masked URLs indeed work? Perhaps make the login prompt optional?????

[MediaMan]

Jednie - OKAY - I may have found a solution to truly hiding IP addresses - but it may need a setting option at your end.

Rather that use DNS Host (A) or Port 80, I tried the combination of WebRedirect with Masking ON. In this scenario:

- one uses, as before, the syntax <hostname>:2233@no-ip.org
- no IP address is shown upon lainching
- no IP address is shown on error messages if oer leaves out the port number
- the login prompt is no longer there
- the opening screen comes up perfect - , complete with the genre cloud ( ie it reading the database and is truly connncting)

HOWEVER... the links do not work... it reports back "While trying to retrieve the URL: http://<hostname>.no-ip.org:2233/songs.htm? The following error was encountered: The system returned: (113) No route to host"

Can this be resolved though some setting re absolute vs relative paths????

[MediaMan]

REVISED UPDATE..Think I got the magic combination now to fully hide your public ip address!

• Set up a free account at no-ip.org
• Set up two hostnames:
  • establish <any_host_name_temp> using DNS Host(A) and specify the IP address as <yourPublicIPaddress>
    eg: setup a host name ROCKEE with an your public IP address of 99.89.65.01
  • establish <any_host_name_main> using Web Redirect , set Mask URL on, and specify the IP address as <any_host_name_temp.no-ip.org>:2233
    eg: setup a host name ROCKER with an IP address of ROCKEE.no-ip.org:2223
• in the browser use the syntax http://<any_host_name_main>.no-ip.org
  eg: http://ROCKER.no-ip.org
• your public IP address wil not be shown upon launching (the hosted main name will)
• your public IP address wil not be shown upon any error messages (the hosted temp one will)
• your public IP address wil not be shown on any links ( the hosted temp one will)
• the login prompt and all Monkey Server functions will work perfectly