Connection to server failed

[nickotron]

Hi,

I’ve been struggling with server connection for ages. Gathered lots of info, all detailed on the following post on the Roku forum. Seems like it might be better addressed here. Roku post:

http://www.rokulabs.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=66262#66262

In addition to what is posted there note that my server has a fixed IP address (no DHCP look up), and loss of connection happens regularly. At best I get about 2 hours, often less. Restarting Fireflywill let me reconnect from Roku about 30 secs later (sometime requires a couple of restarts).

Suggestions/inspiration please.

Thanks.

Nick.

[CCRDude]

Actually, I had that before as well (not every 2 hours, but once a day or so)… until I upgraded to Rokus firmware 2.7 beta 4 (did still occur with beta 3).

Also, instead of restarting Firefly, have you tried restarting the Soundbridge? That always helped in my case.

[rpedde]

@nickotron wrote:

In addition to what is posted there note that my server has a fixed IP address (no DHCP look up), and loss of connection happens regularly. At best I get about 2 hours, often less. Restarting Fireflywill let me reconnect from Roku about 30 secs later (sometime requires a couple of restarts).

Is this wired, or wireless? And is the soundbridge static IP, or dhcp?

I’ve heard some reports that it went away by setting the sb to static ip, but I’m not sure if that’s repeatable, or just plain luck.

Would you be willing to try a static ip and seeing if it persists?

[nickotron]

Soundbridge gets its IP from the Router/DHCP. Happy to set a static IP. How? Can’t see any obvious options on Roku UI or web interface. I could reserve it an IP address on the router, but there’s not much on the network so it doesn’t usually change anyway.

Network is wired via Netgear FVS318 (see link to previous post).

Soundbridge gets restarted/rebooted often as it is on a switch power output from the amp. I can try just doing this on next connection loose but pretty sure I’ve tried that before.

For the record SB is running 2.5.174, Firefly 1463, router running its latest firmware.

Tx. N.

[nickotron]

For the record, I’ve picked up the latest SB Beta to see if that helps, 2.7.43. But I’m pretty sure the prob is server end ‘cos I tested with a laptop running iTunes and it lost the connection at the same time SB did.

N.

[CCRDude]

I’ve had pseudo-static IPs even when the problem occured (well, DHCP server assigning static ones based on mac address). Though the 6 hour DHCP timeout could be an explanation why it took longer than 2 hours here.

Happened to me on wireless only, not wired.

But ok, the last point sounds like the server having problems, that’s right. Though that you couldn’t connect to standard iTunes either (topic on Roku forum) seems to hint that the problem is a bit more general, since in SB-to-iTunes, Firefly would not be involved. Maybe some confusing broken multicasting packets from the SB?

[fizze]

well, static DHCP with a timeout?
or just assigned IPs based on MAC with a 6h timeout?
doesnt really make sense, does it?

Im using static DHCP based on mac in my home network, and everything is working like a charm. Although after some 10 days the soundbridge has to be rebooted because it refuses to “see” firefly anymore. internet radio is working fine though.

[nickotron]

“CCRDude: Though that you couldn’t connect to standard iTunes either (topic on Roku forum) seems to hint that the problem is a bit more general, since in SB-to-iTunes, Firefly would not be involved. Maybe some confusing broken multicasting packets from the SB?”

It was iTunes that wouldn’t connect to Firefly (after SB had also lost it). Had been playing it happily until then.

N.

[CCRDude]

@nickotron: oh, sorry for the misunderstanding, I did read this here:

Roku and iTunes (that happened to be running at the same time on the same PC) were both still visible but when I try to connect to either I get “Connection to Server Failed”.

I guess the to then meant from 😉

Well, so if its just the server that crashes, could you post the log entries around the time of such a crash here?

@fizze: what exactly would be “static DHCP”? Isn’t DHCP always dynamic? 😉
I use the standard dhcpd using dhcpd.conf to give a fixed address to some hosts. Why doesn’t this make sense? default-lease-time and max-lease-time are a setting for the whole subnet, and the manpage for dhcpd.conf doesn’t even list how to set an “eternal” lease time at all.
So while the client uses dynamic IPs through DHCP, the server setting will always provide the same IP (that way, I can manage IPs in a central place, and still have mostly static ones without a chance of conflicts due to forgetting that one was already in use). The 6 hour max lease-time never harmed any Windows, Linux or Mac client, and with the new firmware seems to not harm the SB either.

[Shadow]

On the Rokulabs site there is a faq on how to telnet into your Soundbridge and change from dynamic to static ip its not hard to do as long as your somewhat familiar with telnet.

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