Synology Audio Station

[debar]

I have a Synology NAS that includes a built-in web-based music player called Audio Station. It has the ability to play music stored on the NAS itself & any DLNA media servers on the network. It can be used either on the Local Network or over the internet (remotely).

I set up MediaMonkey's DLNA server on the 4000 port, allowed external IPs, and to share automatically with new devices. Everything works fine on my local network. I have multiple devices that can browse & play music from MM's server. The Audio Station also has no problem browsing & playing music over the local network.

My issue comes when trying to play music from MM's server in Audio Station remotely. I am able to see & browse the MM media server, but it will not play any of the tracks.

Looking through the log, it seems that when browsing through the MM server with Audio Station, it logs the Synology NAS's local IP address. However, when actually playing the songs, it logs the computer on which I am accessing the Synology's Audio Station web-app as the IP address. When trying to play songs remotely, it doesn't log anything, no access denied,e tc.

For more explanation:
I have a laptop with local IP address xx...101
The Synology NAS's IP address is 104
The machine running MediaMonkey has IP address 108

When I use my laptop on my local network to run the Synology Audio Station web app, browsing the MM server logs IP address 104 (client = AudioStation/2.0 UPnP....). When playing the songs, it logs IP address 101 (client = Mozilla/5.0(Windows N.T.....)).

When I use my PC at my sister's house and access the Synology Audio Station web app over the internet, browsing the MM server logs IP address 104 (client = AudioStation/2.0 UPnP....). When playing the songs, it fails, and MediaMonkey doesn't log anything.

I am able to play music from other DLNA servers on my local network remotely over the internet using Audio Station with no problem. I have a WDTV Live Hub that acts as a DLNA media server (Twonky). I am able to browse & play music with Audio Station remotely from the WDTV with no port forwarding on my router.

I have tried to forward port 4000 on my router to IP address 108 (machine running MediaMonkey) and tried it with port forwarding off with no success.

I have also tried with both FLAC & MP3 files, and both with auto-conversion on and off with no success.

If anyone has any input, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Lowlander]

Can you play music from any other source over the internet through Synology Audio Station? If that works I presume port forwarding could be an issue (internet port 4000 forwarded to MM PC's port 4000 would seem enough though). You may want to check the Access Control tab in the Media Sharing options to see if the internet IP is shown (ie attempted access) and if it is enabled.

[debar]

Yes, I can play music from other sources over the internet through Synology Audio Station, including another DLNA server on my network. I did try to forward port 4000 to the PC running MM with no luck.

In the Access Control tab, only local IP addresses are listed, including the Synology NAS and my router (192.168.1.1). They are all enables. The client name for my router is listed "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW 64)....". Should I see an external IP address if an attempted internet access was recognized? Or would it just show my router's local IP address?

[Lowlander]

In that case I suggest you create a debug log (step 4b) capturing the failed internet playback and send it to support: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=69

[debar]

Did a little more testing:

When my music files are on the same PC as MediaMonkey and served up to Synology Audio Station, there is no problem playing over the internet.

However, my initial set-up was all my music files are stored on the Synology NAS (same one that runs Audio Station). My MediaMonkey library monitors this folder through the network. The MediaMonkey media server serves up my library to other devices. The Synology Audio Station tries to play the files from the MM server, but fails over the internet. It works fine on the local network - but I'm guessing it's having trouble with the roundabout (Synology files -> MM library -> MM server -> Synology Audio Station) when trying to stream it over the internet.

I need to test what happens if I map the Synology folder on the MM PC to a drive letter. Right now the library monitors the Synology folder using the UNC path (\\synology\music).

If that doesn't work, I've already downloaded the debug version and will create a debug log.

Is this an issue with MediaMonkey or a network/Synology issue?

[Lowlander]

In my experience it is a NAS issue. I've seen the same with QNAP where internet access to the files through another server (standard webserver) failed as well.

The question is why you use Synology Audio Station > MediaMonkey > Synology NAS and not have Synology Audio Station use the files on the NAS directly for this purpose. If it is play counts there isn't another solution, if it is Playlists you may want to check out: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... child+node It can export your Playlists at regular intervals which can be useful when dealing with Auto-Playlists.

[debar]

Yes playcounts & playlists were the primary reason. I did use the Export playlist add-on with 3.x to solve that problem.

The other reason was because I currently keep 2 "libraries" - a FLAC & an MP3 library. I use FLAC for playback on my home stereo, but use MP3 for streaming over the internet at work to not piss off my ISP. The Synology has limited transcoding options.

I was hoping 4.0 would be an all-in-one solution for me to get everything I need with play counts, on-the-fly transcoding, etc. I'll have to play around a little more.

Thanks for the feedback.