Vpn into home network to access network share?

[unxpectederror]

The reason is the manual addition of servers is designed to cover cases where the server is not on the local subnet (such as complex home network configurations)

I am trying to access content on my windows 7 share while over at a friends with the Boxee Box.

So if i vpn into my home router using the VPN function on Boxee it connects sucessfully, and i've confirmed this by sucessfully pinging the boxee box from the remote win7 file server.

The win7 machine is 10.1.1.100 and boxee box is 192.168.1.x and they can sucessfully ping, so if what is said in the above quote(From the network share sticky) is accurate then i should be able to manually add the share should i not?

I get connection time out when trying to add it. The boxe box has no trouble adding the share when I bring it home and put it on the same subnet.

Any ideas? If not then is there a better way to achieve what i'm trying to do?

Thx

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Well I guess not many people are doing what i'm trying to do hence the no replies but i did get it to work, albeit not with the built in vpn functionality.

Both me and my friend are using routers with DD-WRT firmware so we setup the routers to do the VPN tunnel for us and now a samba share works remotely across the VPN tunnel.

Boxee staff you've got another bug to fix: "Remote Samba shares dont work using built in PPTP VPN Client"

[Prospero424]

Well, what your trying to do is certainly... ambitious. What kind of content are you trying to access remotely? Theoretically, you may be able to get it to work with compressed music files, but I seriously doubt the upstream speed on your consumer broadband connection (I'm assuming) is enough to stream even standard-def video over the WAN.

Also, Samba simply wasn't designed to be used over the WAN, even through a point-to-point tunnel. Samba is a block-based protocol while http and ftp are streaming-based. Sure, it sometimes works through Windows Explorer, but never very reliably and NEVER very quickly.

Bottom line: even if you did have the upstream speed (we're talking at least 15Mbit just for 720 content), it probably wouldn't work at all. And even it worked, it would almost certainly never work well.

[unxpectederror]

Some good info there Prospero424. My Upstream is among the best in Canada (Which is not that great compared to rest of the world) at 5mbit.

No I never did expect to get any HD video to work. My Main goal was to remotely access my MP3 collection, idea being i don't having to transfer it over to his place every weekend when we are drinking beers
And as a side effect it would be a bonus to get my piles of old SD content to work.

Now I know you are wondering why not just hook up an external drive or whatever but understand we are old farts and my buddie(Almost 50) is a totally computer illiterate fool (Sorry Clint) lol who can't even operate his laptop nevermind operate an external hard disk.

Goal here was just to get some online contect easily on his TV and have my MP3 collection which changes daily, Mirrored at his place.

Latency between mine and his place is only 7-10ms and we use the same ISP so hopefully it works well. Will find out this weekend how well it works

Boxee needs an ORB app! then there would be no issues!

[Prospero424]

Actually, I've been meaning to mention that I'd REALLY love to see an Audiogalaxy app for Boxee. Not sure if they've opened up their API, though.

This is basically what I use Audiogalaxy for; remote access to my (lossy) compressed music collection. You can access your collection from any web browser and from most smart phones. You can get AAC and MP3 (with no recompression!) if you're using a browser, and you can get AAC, MP3, FLAC, and Apple Lossless on your phone, although it's being recompressed on-the-fly.

I've got a collection of about 15,000 songs, and it's awesome. My Last.fm and Pandora usage dropped off to almost nothing in the last month or so, heh.

As far as I'm aware, the Orb device only works on LANs, not over a WAN. What you're looking for kinda sounds like a SlingBox, but with the ability to pull multimedia files off of a computer rather than just streaming from a set-top device like a cable box. Still, even if there were a device out there that did this, I don't imagine that the quality would be any good.

[unxpectederror]

Nope ORB works great over WAN to any webbrowser (mycast.orb.com) or iphone app. Not only for mp3's but even HD videos too.
My 5mbit connection does a decent job via ORB. It will display 1080P video in roughly DVD quality with maybe 1-3 hiccups per movie. Not too bad.
SD quality video will look as if you were watching local.
No idea how it works compression wise

[Prospero424]

Neat! But, again, I doubt it looks very good on a large display like a TV. Doesn't detract from the coolness, though.

I'm sure it basically does what PlayOn does: transcode the video in real time on your PC and then stream it over the network. Great that it works, but real-time transcoding universally results in poor quality. "Quality" is a subjective term, though, so it all depends on what you want and what you're used to.

I'm curious, though, why aren't you using this "Orb Live" service to stream your video collection at your friend's house? Does it only stream to mobile devices?

[Prospero424]

Oh yeah, one more question:

You said you got it working with a router-based VPN. How is it? Can you watch or listen to anything at all? Now you've got me curious

[unxpectederror]

Yeah the video quality is not that great. you are certainly not going to want to stream the latest blu rays over WAN thats for sure.

But if you are watching crappy content anyways, like Trailer Park Boys, or 1990's UFC lol then its fine, even DVDs look good.

And yeah I got the VPN thing to work "On the Bench" using a crappy 3G (~ 1mbit, 200ms latency) modem and DD-WRT router vpn'd into my DD-WRT router. Worked fine even over this crappy connection for mp3's with no apparent quality loss.
Video piled up solid instantly tho lol.

One I install the new router at my buddies (15mbit) sometime over the next few days/weekend i'll update this thread with the results.

Edit: And yeah I was using orb to stream to my buddies. PITA hooking up his laptop or iphone to his stereo tho....then your stuck over sitting on the floor next to the TV being DJ. Plus being the fool that I am I have it in my head that i want to make it work this way now lol.

[Prospero424]

Worked fine even over this crappy connection for mp3's with no apparent quality loss.
Video piled up solid instantly tho lol.

Hah! That's pretty much exactly what I expected. Thanks for the info. And yeah, keep us updated if you can.

Edit: oh yeah, it looks like someone at least WAS working on exactly what you seem to want.

Unfortunately, I don't see any updates on the project since April.