Connecting within the local WiFi

Within the local WiFi, the client finds the connection to the server automatically via Bonjour.

If you do not want to access the server from outside the local WiFi or invite friends to connect to the server, you can stop reading.

Connecting outside the local WiFi

Required for connecting & sharing:

needs the public TCP/IP address of the router and the port(s) used for the connection
and the router must forward the connection (port forwarding) to the computer running the server.

Router adress and port

The public TCP/IP address of the router can be found within the local WiFi by selecting our remote address service.
In addition, some routers (like the Fritz!Box) can be setup to send a notification mail if the public TCP/IP address has been changed.
Another solution could be to use a dynamic DNS service to connect to the server by a hostname.

Router port forwarding

A description of "how to setup port forwarding" for many router modelscan be found at Portweiterleitung.

The server uses two ports for the connection:

the port number entered in the server window (e.g. 1400)
and a second port (port number plus 1, e.g. 1401).

Thus you must setup port forwarding (to the computer running the server) for two ports using the TCP/IP protocol - e.g. from port 1400 to port 1400 and from port 1401 to port 1401.

IPv6

Even if router port forwarding must be setup for IPv6 as well, the connecting to the server is established by the static IPv6 address of the computer (and not the router). Thus our remote address service (as well as other services) returns not the router but the computer address.

Automatically there are 2 IPv6 addresses for the computer: a static address and a temporary address. And because the router port forwarding uses the static address (and not the temporary address), the IPv6 address of the computer must be configured manually (System Settings -> Network Settings -> Advanced -> TCP/IP) to setup only one address.

In other words: the IPv6 address of the router port forwarding, the result of our remote address service and the computer address must be the same.

Client connection

Connect to the client

The client can then connect to the server by entering the address (or hostname) and the port in the client's preferences - e.g.

"123.45.67.89:1400" for IPv4
"[::ffff:7b2d:4359]:1400 for IPv6
"<Hostname>:1400" for a dynamic DNS service

Connecting to the server by a public TCP/IP address requires to edit the client preferences each time the address has been changed. And connecting to the server by a dynamic DNS service has a privacy issue: each action (like selecting an archive movie) is logged by the service.

The same privacy issue exists for many other media server solutions: after a registration and setup, all connections and actions are redirected from a domain to your computer. And logged as well...

Easy & private connecting

Therefore we decided to use a different way to enable public access to the server:

after a registration, you get a connection key which must be entered in the server and client preferences,
the server uses this key to update the public TCP/IP address in the finessTV database,
the client uses this key to get the current public TCP/IP address,
the client connects directly to the server by this public TCP/IP address.

This means that the connection and all actions are send to the finessTV server by this public TCP/IP address and neither the finessTV domain nor any other domain is informed about what, when, where, or how long etc. the client accesses the server.

Sharing

Share with others

The connection key can be used to login and invite friends to connect to your server.
The invitation with another connection key is send to the friend's email address and can be used to connect to the server as well.

For each invitation, access rights can be setup:

channel switch access
archive access
scheduled recordings access

Connecting & Sharing

.notes .instructions .help