Remote access

[Jeff. M.]

Sure this has been asked may times, is there any way to connect to my B2 remotely? If I could access it while away from home, and play via VLC or similar. Simpler the better.

Thanks.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Jeff

Are you wanting to connect to your B2 (which will be sitting at home) and play its content on something with you while you are away? - or start music playing at home?

I think both may be possible - you would need to create a VPN to your home's LAN and probably turn on the NAS function of the B2.  Grown up NETWORK configuration. Have a look at this article

https://www.wcido.com/en/remotetools-vpn-vpn-connection-to-home-network

Fred

[Jeff. M.]

Cheers Fred, no, away from home, have had it 9 months now, and am fairly well voiced in its foibles. I use VLC through nas at home sometimes, and it got me wondering. I'll have a look at the article. Thanks. 

[JFBUK]

Hi Jeff,

have you thought about using something like Google Drive ? This would be accessible wherever you are 

Not certain you could automatically mirror the B2 as a NAS to Google Drive but I am sure you can manually synch.

John

[Jeff. M.]

I'll have look at that John, can't do the vpn thing suggested by Fred, my router, bt home hub, does not support it. Cheers. 

[Mike W]

Hi Jeff, here's something I posted in 2018, might be of help:

 I can explain how I've done it but can't guarantee that this work on your network and broadband service.

I am fortunate to have a broadband service that has a dedicated external ip address, lets say it's 51.151.678.789

My internal address is 192.168.1.xxx and the brennan is 192.168.1.200

On my router I went into WAN services and set up port forwarding. This was to point port 80 (TCP) to 192.168.1.200

If you use a web browser and put the external address followed by the port number - 51.151.678.789:80 you get the normal UI web page which means that you can control the B2 from an external location.

If you want to access the music to play remotely, I use Android file manager Astro, set up  a new external location 51.151.678.789:80, this will ask for the b2 login credentials, once done you have access to the music folder and all of your music which you can then play.

I know it sound a bit convoluted but it works for me.

Regards

Mike

[Jeff. M.]

Cheers Mike, as I have a BT router those options may not be open, but I'll have a look.

[Mike W]

Had a quick look, the following link has some good guidance for BT routers

Mike

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/learn-about-broadband/how-do-i-set-up-port-forwarding-on-my-bt-hub-

[Jeff. M.]

Thanks Mike, very useful.

[Jeff. M.]

Hi Mike, I have got as far as the port forwarding and can access my brennan on my android phone, however, I have downloaded Astro, but not sure if I have to enter FTP or SMB server, and which fields, otherwise looking good!

[JFBUK]

Jeff,

SMB server

Host = IP address of your B2

Path = Music

Display Name is optional

Login with username and password

user = root password = brennan

John

[Jeff. M.]

OK mike, this works from my phone if connected to wifi, however as soon as I put the port number on the end of the external address it wont have it, must be a valid IP address!!!

[Jeff. M.]

Sorry, just saw this last from John, It works on my wifi network, but i'm trying to access this through android, so I can get my music anywhere!

[JFBUK]

Jeff,

which ports did you set up to forward on your router ?

My limited knowledge of SMB servers is that they communicate over TCP port 445 and that this port is one that is typically blocked from port forwarding by service provider routers for security reasons.

I know Virgin Media will not allow port 445 to be forwarded on their domestic routers.

I think Mike will have to expand on how he got it to work.

btw if you have VLC installed on your Android phone you can configure it to see your Brennan as a share

open VLC  click on Browse and then the + button that appears

you may have to unselect 'Prefer SMB 1' which you can find in Settings>advanced

John

[Jeff. M.]

Thanks John, I already had the be on VLC on my local network, it's using my phone data I think I'm gonna have trouble with. Hopefully Mike can expand a little on his set up.

[Mike W]

Hi guys sorry for the delay but been away camping.

The setup that I posted worked for me when I was working away, which I no longer do, and allowed me to access the music on the B2. Since then I have changed Internet providers and so I had to setup the new router to do the same function.

I can set it up to allow remote access via html and control the B2 remotely but I can't get it to allow me to see the B2 as an smb. The only thing I can think of is that port 445 is blocked somewhere but looking through the router I can't find out where.

Will continue to work on it and will let you know.

Mike

[Jeff. M.]

Hi Mike I saw that about 445 elsewhere, will have to see if I can unblock it. Thanks.

[Mike W]

Hi Jeff, managed to get it working, will try and list all of the steps:

On my router I have set up port forwarding for port 80 tcp to the lan address of the b2

By using a web browser if I put in the external ip address of my router I can access the b2 ui and control the b2 remotely

Using VLC,  select "browse" down at the bottom, touch the "+" sign, in the entry box select "smb" from the pull down list, at the next screen its asking for the port number, just touch the entry field and it will then take you to another screen with the cursor flashing in the port field, leave this blank.

In the "network share" field put in the external ip address of your router

In "Folder path" put "music"

In "Server name" put "BrennanB2"

Select "ok"

The BrennanB2 should now be in your favourites, selecting it will bring up your music list (hopefully!!)

Let me know if this works ok or the instructions don't make sense.

Mike

[Jeff. M.]

Mike, sorry to take so long to reply, have been on holidays! I can access and control my B2 remotely, but stil cannot access and use it elsewhere, I was connected to VLC ages ago, and sometimes use it to cast to a google home. could be the port forwarding problem holding me back!

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Jeff

Just following this thread and I am confused by what you last said.

" I can access and control my B2 remotely, but still cannot access and use it elsewhere,"

if you can control the B2 "remotely" and if you are therfore "remote" - is that not a definition of "elsewhere" ? 

What I gather is that you can (when way from your house) - now get to the B2's Web UI and control/use this as if you were at home. ( for the life of me I can not see why this would be a useful thing to do! you could not hear it playing!)

I also understand that you want to be able to play your B2's music content when away using the VLC media player app on the device you have with you when away form home. (This I can see as useful!).

In the VLC case I presume you are leaving your B2 powered up with "NAS on" while you are away from home.

You would then need to get your router to expose the B2's NAS to the internet so that your VLC could see it as a music library.

I think you therfore need to find out which port the B2 NAS uses (I don't know this) but it is unlikely to be Port 80 as I do not think NAS is a TCP service - Perhaps Someone here will know !! ?

Fred.

[JFBUK]

Hi All,

The B2 NAS exposes itself as a Samba (SMB) server, and as I said in an earlier post, my understanding is that SMB uses port 445  not port 80 to communicate.

When I looked at this before there are known security vulnerabilities with SMB servers , so ISPs typically do not allow domestic customers to forward port 445 over the WAN. My ISP , Virgin Media in the UK do not , and you cannot set their supplied router to forward port 445.

This is why I remain puzzled that Mike has this working.

John

[Jeff. M.]

Fred and John, I think I put previously that being able to control my B2 remotely was useless to me, I want to ACCESS it , and control it remotely, and I don't think it's going to be possible, I have a BT smart hub. But I now know why Samba app is so called.!😉 If anyone comes up with an idea it would be great, have just been away for a few days, and to have my music with me would have been great. Thanks all. Jeff.

[Mark Fishman]

Why not export your music to a small portable hard drive (easily found for about $60 for 1TB -- note I do NOT mean a "thumb" drive!) and take that with you? Exports are incremental so if you add music to your B2 you can update the copy quite simply.

[Jeff. M.]

Hi Mark, i'm very familiar with the USB formats and their problems, i.e. fakes etc! Howevever, you got me thinking, I could just buy a large micro sd card for my phone. I think all my music is about 120 GB, I buy from a very good dealer in UK has never let me down, this way I could have it with me all the time, and use, cast to, various devices. Just been away for a few days, and both places I stayed had TVs I could have cast to! Oh well, cheers for the idea! 256 GB card should do nicely.

[Jeff. M.]

Mark, this would do nicely, now to check if my phone supports cards this large.
Kingston Canvas Select Plus 256GB microSD - No Adaptor | Ebuyer.com

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Jeff,

My solution for a number of years was per Mark's suggestion of an external HDD combined with a Bose Soundlink speaker.  I live in Northern Ireland but worked mainly in England and Scotland, so I was on 2 flights (sometimes more) per week for the last 15 years, staying in hotels 3 or 4 nights a week. 

Then along came the BB1.  This is a great travelling companion!  I also do transatlantic flights (well was doing until COVID) a couple of times a year to see my USA relatives (my wife is from Atlanta, Georgia) and on those long flights the BB1 is fantastic!  The BB1, bluetoothed to a set of over-ear headphones is great; compact and no wires to get tangled up; superb.

I bought the 32GB version, but later realised that the 16GB would have been better because I immediately bought a 256GB card and transferred the music collection from my B2 to that card.  But there was only a £30 difference, so that was no big issue.

Just an alternative suggestion!

Regards,

Peter.

[Jeff. M.]

Thanks Peter, I think I may go with the large sd card on my phone, it plays flac files, and is always in my pocket, and I can use it to cast!!. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Mike W]

Hi guys, what can I say, I set up as per my previous posting and it works, not sure why it does because I don't put a port number in.

It may be a quirk of my router or a combination of luck and something within vlc, but I can access my B2 away from home, I tested it out from norfolk over the past few days.

Mike

[Jeff. M.]

Ha, that's where I was Mike! So you managed to play your music while away, rather than just control it? I'm gonna have dig deeper I think!

[Daniel Taylor]

It seems that it would've had to have something to do with either NAS or DLNA.

[Shawn Rosvold]

Hi Mike W,

I have VLC open. I don't see browse anywhere.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

within the VLC

[Shawn Rosvold]

Hi Fred,

Selected SMB1.0/CIFS Client, clicked okay and my computer did a BIOS update. That finally finished, then I had to do a Realtek audio driver update.

View network computers and devices, double-clicked on BRENNANN2. No popup panel opened. Double-clicked on the music folder, and the music eventually loaded.

Opened VLC, found network, Brennan, music. Picked a folder of music and started a song (about 15th on the list). The song started playing and started buffering every 15 or 20 seconds. Tried the next song, same thing. I thought maybe the folder need time to fully populate VLC, so I waited a few minutes, started playing the same song, and the buffering continues. Any ideas?

By the way, thanks for finding all the info for me. That was a huge help!

Shawn

[David L Raines]

Same problem for me on an Autonomic MMS-1e device which uses VLC to play.   Song buffers and buffers.  I think the NAS feature on the B2 is just too slow.  

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Shawn, David

I Don't know how your B2 is connected up, but if it is by WiFi, could I suggest that you try using a direct Ethernet cable into the B2 ( see ethernet section on this page https://www.brennan.co.uk/itemcontent.php/content/Techy) - PLEASE 

REMOVE the WiFi dongle if you do connect it by Ethernet cable. Also NOTE your Ethernet connection may cause a new IP number to be used for the B2.

Then try things out.

Fred

[Spike Haward]

Hi

Not sure why many users want to make a direct connection to the B2 via their router, by opening up a port through their firewall and potentially compromising security - presumably to utilize the UI as the player.

Using NAS, for some time now I have backed up my B2 to the 'cloud', and incrementally update it with a simple Robocopy batch file.

My using a player (I use Flacbox as it plays all file formats but I guess VLC could be used too) connected to the BrennanB2/Music via cloud services. I can play my music anywhere I can get an internet connection, as can my wife and we can play different tracks simultaneously.

Maybe a solution for some.

[Rik]

I wonder how much you pay for cloud storage. 

[Jeff. M.]

yes Rik, I was thinking that too!

[Spike Haward]

Hi Rik

Several free Cloud hosts out there

OneDrive, iCloud, AmazonDrive, Dropbox all 5gb free

Mega 20gb free

GoogleDrive 15gb free 

and there are others

[Rik]

All our collections will be much larger. I think the price for even my relatively modest size would be too high.  I think I checked once and found it not really possible for me. 

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi All,

If you are up to a little "maker-ing" with Raspberry Pi's - there is another solution to having your music with you while you are away from home.

This is a little project that I did.

[Mark Fishman]

I don't know when you did this project, but apparently Western Digital shuttered the WD Labs group and discontinued all PiDrive (and kit) development sometime in 2017. Other approaches to the same functionality are probably described on the Internet.

Personally I still think that anyone who has a computer along on their trips from home could easily take a portable bus-powered USB HD with an export of their B2's music folder, which has the added advantage of ensuring that there *is* an export of their B2's music folder...

-- m.

[Shawn Rosvold]

Hi Fred,

I have an old Zune which still functions very well, but it doesn't have any sort of wireless capabilities. I would love to have what you built. Would you consider building one for me?

[Rob Harriman]

I agree entirely with Mark's point here.  Far and away the simplest process for accessing your B2 on your laptop, whilst away, is to backup the B2 to a usb-HDD and then plug that directly into your laptop and use s/w like VLC to play it.  This way you avoid so many potential issues with the scenarios being discussed. Simple, straight-forward and works a treat. Your whole B2 music library goes with you.  What's not to like?

Rob 

[Jeff. M.]

Yup, I'm gonna go with a large SD card, and put them all on my phone. But I need to separate all the mirror files out first. That may take some time.🥱

[Mark Fishman]

I thought a regular export didn't export the mirror files -- and the function that copies the mirror files doesn't copy anything else. Why do you have to separate them?

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mark,

You are correct; the 'Export' function does not back up the mirror files.  But you can save the mirror mp3 files by creating a playlist, then select all mp3 files into that playlist and then use the 'Export MP3s' function to write these out to a USB device.

Regards,

Peter.

[Jeff. M.]

Mark, I was just going to export all my music to an SD card via Nas, but that will include my mirrors, and I don't want those included! 

[Mark Fishman]

NAS isn't very fast (he said to himself doubtfully). If your music will fit on the SD card, why not put the card in a USB adapter and just run Export?

[Jason D]

Allowing access to your Brennan from outside your network is an absolute STUPID thing to do... There is no security other than a username and password between the outside world and your internal network now.  And using port 80 is a recipe for disaster.  Allows a jumping off point for a hacker to get into your network - Guess how I know this!?

[Mark Fishman]

A person I worked with had this posted outside his office:

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

Thank you for sharing your experience. Maybe we don't all have to make the same mistakes, to learn from them.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Jeff,

The 'Export' function does not copy the 'mirror' files to the USB device. So you can run 'Export' and you will have your music collection copied to the USB device and the 'mirror files will not be on the USB device.

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mark,

Regarding the speed of NAS connections, my network (wired Cat5) NAS backup runs at about 15GB per hour, compared to about 28GB per hour for a USB device.

Regards,

Peter.

[Mark Fishman]

About a factor of 2, then -- but is the B2 even that fast when used as a NAS? I'm convinced it's slower than a dedicated NAS device.

[Spike Haward]

OK, if speed of copying via NAS to a USB device or cloud storage is an issue then use a Robocopy batch file for an incremental backup. The initial backup will take some time admittedly, but subsequent updates (if you are adding just a few CDs every week or so) will be very quick.  As was said earlier- far far safer than opening your network to the world.

On the question of cloud storage I mentioned earlier, I use OneDrive as I have an Office 365 account which gives me 1Tb to play with. I also run the backup on a schedule so I don't even have to remember to update and my Cloud copy is always up to date. Yes, there is a cost (which using Office 365 I would have had anyway) but when I have spent £400+ on a B2 and time and effort in loading it this is to me well spent to have an 'offsite' copy that I can access anywhere.

[Mike W]

Well I choose to set up a port forwarding rule within my router to enable access to my B2, I do not consider myself STUPID. I have enabled DMZ to ensure that anyone who wants to gain access to my B2 will have a much harder job getting anywhere else on my lan.

All networks are vulnerable and as long as the best approach is taken when providing the functionality you require, then I consider that as reasonable not STUPID

Mike

[Mark Fishman]

Mike,

I don't think Jason was calling you stupid, in his message above. I think he was berating himself for his own experience of having his hime network broken into. Sometimes people will use the word "stupid" out of their own frustration, in hopes that it will emphasize the lesson.

At least, that's how I read it.

Your statement that "All networks are vulnerable and as long as the best approach is taken when providing the functionality you require, then I consider that as reasonable" is a good one. I think that most security experts would agree. Where they might disagree -- and I think this discussion has demonstrated that -- is on what is the best approach, and sometimes on whether the functionality that you want is the same as the functionality that you require.

Unless you are a specific target for criminals, you don't have to have perfect, unbreakable security: you just need to be a harder target than most other people, and the opportunistic criminal will go somewhere else. That's whay I always lock my car when I park -- someone who really wants to get in still can, but the random crook is looking for unlocked doors.

Where I worked for 30+ years, we said that security is a journey, not a destination. Revisit your needs and your configs periodically, and learn from other people's mistakes. As Alfred E. Neuman (anyone remember MAD magazine?) said, you'll never live long enough to make them all yourself.

Stay well -- m.

[Jeff. M.]

Ok, here's the plan. I'm gonna export all my music to a 256gb SD card, after formatting it to fat 32. Then, I'll copy it to my pc, then delete the export on the card. Format new card in my phone, and clone old card to the new one, including all my music. Stick it in my phone, and I should have all my music on my phone all the time! Should work?

[Mark Fishman]

Two areas that I would be concerned about:

(a) can your phone handle a 256GB SD card?

(b) if so, will the phone work with the cloned card, even before you put the music on it?

Then I guess there's the issue of whether the phone can manage that much music, but first you have to get the phone working with the bigger card.

[Jeff. M.]

Yes, it takes up to 512gb, and yes, it should, I've done it several times in the past, and it's been fine, once when I got sold a fake!😡 So, all 8n all, I think it'll be ok, it plays flac files too! Tried a couple they sound very good !

[David L Raines]

You can also check out YouTube Music "YTMusic" for Android or iOS.  YouTube Music let's you upload your library and then it's available to you anywhere.  You upload through the web (Chrome, etc) on your PC.  Kind of cool.  I don't know what it does to the FLAC file, but I would assume it's uncompressed?

[Mark Fishman]

from https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/answer/9076559#zippy=%2Caudio-quality-on-wi-fi%2Caudio-quality-on-mobile-network

Audio quality on Wi-Fi

1. In the YouTube Music app, tap on your profile picture.
2. Select Settings.
3. Tap Playback & restrictions.
4. Tap Audio quality on Wi-Fi.
5. Select one of the available options:
   • ​Low
     • Uses least data
     • Upper bound of 48kbps AAC
   • Normal
     • Default setting
     • Upper bound of 128kbps AAC
   • High
     • Uses extra data 
     • Upper bound of 256kbps AAC
   • Always High
     • Maintains high quality even when connection is poor
     • Bitrate: 256kbps AAC

It looks as if you're getting *their* version of "your" music, not the copy you upload...

[Jeff. M.]

Thanks David, the app I already have plays flac files from my files on the phone..