Why MinimServer using different ipaddress for MinimServer UI and ohnet

[paultaylor]

Running MinimServer on a PC, could see it fine on a control point on same PC but had problem trying to play track on a renderer not on PC.

If use Ipconfig on PC it has a usual ipaddress 192.168.178.34 and also a vEthernet ipaddress 172.17.109.49

Code:

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : fritz.box
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::e441:5f88:7515:3253%9
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.178.34
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.178.1

.....

Ethernet adapter vEthernet (Default Switch):

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::75e0:5371:3ca2:4d1c%26
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.17.109.49
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.240
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Not clear what vEthernet is meant to be used for but whilst I could connect to MinimServer UI using 192.168.178.34:9790 the ohport was 172.17.109.49:9791 rather than 192.168.178.34:9791. I fixed the issue by setting ohnet.port on MinimServers System tab to 192.168.178.0

But my question is why did MinimServer decide to use two different ipadresses for UI and Upnp server port, doesnt seem a good default, and would it be better for MinimServer to always ignore the vEthernet option as it is only going to work if al components (renderer, control point, server) are on same computer

[simoncn]

I think you meant you have set ohnet.subnet to 192.168.178.0, not ohnet.port.

By default, ohNet advertises the server on all available subnets. This means it should have advertised MinimServer on both the 192.168.178.0 and 172.17.109.240 subnets. However, the IP address 172.17.109.49 is not on the 172.17.109.240 subnet because the netmask of 255.255.255.240 means this subnet only contains addresses in the range 172.17.109.241 to 172.17.109.255. It sounds like this misconfiguration of the vEthernet network adapter has caused ohNet to fail in some way that prevents it from advertising on any adapters.

I don't know what the vEthernet adapter is. It is presumably a software adapter created by something running on your machine, perhaps a VPN or similar. If you fix the IP address/netmask mismatch, the default MinimServer settings should work as you expect.

[paultaylor]

(29-09-2022 23:51)simoncn Wrote:  However, the IP address 172.17.109.49 is not on the 172.17.109.240 subnet because the netmask of 255.255.255.240 means this subnet only contains addresses in the range 172.17.109.241 to 172.17.109.255. It sounds like this misconfiguration of the vEthernet network adapter has caused ohNet to fail in some way that prevents it from advertising on any adapters.

Okay, thanks I didnt see that. I will have to investigate although I dont know what vEthernet is or how it is configured.

However, it still seems wrong to me that if MinimServer cannot broadcast on one particular network it doesnt broadcast on the other network, especially since MinimServer Gui is available on the other network

[simoncn]

This is an issue with ohNet, not with MinimServer. When ohNet discovers what it considers to be a fatal error, it might shut down the whole server stack rather than just shutting down the adapter with the error. This is a guess as I don't have an incorrectly configured adapter to try this myself. Have you checked the MinimServer log to see if there are any error messages from ohNet?

[paultaylor]

(01-10-2022 17:25)simoncn Wrote:  Have you checked the MinimServer log to see if there are any error messages from ohNet?

Okay I removed ohnet.subnet and restarted MinimServer and I could see the problem was reoocurring because the uri for artwork return in the xml was using the vethernet address again.

Code:

<upnp:albumArtURI dlna:profileID="JPEG_LRG">http://172.17.92.145:9790/minimserver/*/Music/PopRock/Various*20Artists/The*2080*27s*20Collection*201986/Disc*2001/01*20-*2001*20-*20The*20Final*20Countdown.flac/$!picture-11236-106212.jpg</upnp:albumArtURI>

But I checked the log and couldnt see any ohnet messages

(01-10-2022 17:25)simoncn Wrote:  This is an issue with ohNet, not with MinimServer.

From a user pov it doesnt really matter if the problem is with the MinimServer code or an open src library used by MinimServer, its still an issue with MinimServer

[simoncn]

(02-10-2022 13:02)paultaylor Wrote:  Okay I removed ohnet.subnet and restarted MinimServer and I could see the problem was reoocurring because the uri for artwork return in the xml was using the vethernet address again.

But I checked the log and couldnt see any ohnet messages

Thanks for checking this. It eliminates my initial theory about what could be causing the problem.

When the server device has multiple IP addresses, the IP address in the URI is the IP address to which the browsing request was sent by the control point. This address is provided to MinimServer by ohNet. This should mean that the device running your control point is able to access the address 172.17.92.145, perhaps because it is configured with a subnet mask that allows this access. As the renderer is not able to stream the file, it seems that the renderer device is configured with a subnet mask that is stopping the renderer from accessing this IP address on the server.

If the above analysis is correct, there is no realistic way for the server to know that the renderer is misconfigured and cannot access the same IP address that the control point is able to access. The only solution is to correct the errors in the network configuration.

[paultaylor]

Okay thanks for clearing that up.

So two further questions

1. So in my case are you saying MinimServer will advertise itself twice, once for ethernet address and once for vethernet address, because I dont notice it being listed twice?

2. I can force MinimServer to only advertise itself on one ipaddress by use of the onnet.subnet option ?

[simoncn]

(03-10-2022 08:26)paultaylor Wrote:  1. So in my case are you saying MinimServer will advertise itself twice, once for ethernet address and once for vethernet address, because I dont notice it being listed twice?

It is advertised twice but uses the same UDN for both advertisements. If a control point has a network configuration that can receive both advertisements, it should see from the UDNs that they are the same server and only list one of them.

Quote:2. I can force MinimServer to only advertise itself on one ipaddress by use of the onnet.subnet option ?

This is exactly what the ohnet.subnet property is for.