Playing my B2 music library on Android Mobile phone away from home

[Stuart Holloway]

I have no idea how difficult this is or even if its possible but...... would it be possible to create a B2 App that would allow me to play the music stored on My B2 on my Android mobile phone when travelling and outside my home wifi network?

I suspect there might be numerous (complicated?) ways to access my B2 music library remotely from my mobile (any help on this  would be much appreciated!) but IF this could be incorporated into a simple Brennan App, I think it would add significantly to the appeal of the B2 to Non techies like me.

[David Tellett]

You can only stream when in range, but you can download music to your phone from the B2 for travelling easily enough.

I use an App called FileExplorer on my iPad. With NAS enabled on the B2 you can play songs over your home network (when in a room other than where your speakers are, for example), or download the songs/albums you want for when you are away from home or out of range.

[Jasper Warwick]

Interesting problem, there is a web article about it here;

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/want-to-stream-music-from-your-pc-to-wherever-you-are/

Basically the B2 will become a file server and then software on you PC will stream the audio to your Android device, If you set up a port on your router to point to the B2 then you might be able to bypass the PC

[Paul Cashman]

After purchasing, I was a little surprised to find that there was no way for the B2 to send audio out through the Web UI for play on a computer or other connected device.  

As sensitive as the UI appears to be to wifi strength and other issues, I realize now that this would be virtually impossible.   

I still haven't managed to keep a stable wifi connection for more than 45 minutes.  When the little "volume snake" across the Web UI stops twitching and vanishes, I know it's done-for. 

[PMB]

Hi Paul,

Are you connecting your B2 to a WiFi repeater or range extender? I ask because the B2 doesn't work well with these devices and prefers to be connected to the main hub/router.

Is your hub/router dual band i.e. 5MHz and 2.4Mhz? There have been posts about this on the Forum.

Have you tried an RT5370 type dongle, with built-in antenna. Posters on the Forum have reported a big improvement with the UI and WiFi reliability using one of these dongles. Search RT5370.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Brennan Support]

Hello Stuart

This is just to let you know  read your comment - with engineering if you can describe it its usually possible - though not necessarily practical.

There are issues to do with your wireless router firewall - but its becoming more and more common to want to talk to internet devices from outside your home - think British Gas Hive and Alexa.

I'll give it some thought

Martin

[Brennan Support]

Hello Paul

Martin here - I must say I use the "little snake" for exactly that - I had thought about removing it - but its useful for just that reason - knowing that Wifi is still OK.

There is a function Settings->Maintenance->Wifi Strength

What level do you get?

What wireless router do you have?

There are a number of ways to deal with Wifi connection issues on the troubleshooting page on the website - have you looked through that

Martin

[Stuart Holloway]

An update for anyone interested in this issue. Following the reply from Jasper Warwick (big Thanks Jasper), I started researching and trying the various streaming apps out there to see whether they would do what I wanted ….. give me access to my entire Brennan b2 music library from any wifi or mobile internet connection …… and I think I've cracked it. The app i'm using is Musecast. There's a free version for others to try it out before committing to anything but I've been so impressed with the app and its simplicity of set up etc that I've paid the £6.49 to remove the ads. Basically the app is loaded on your home computer network (the one the BrennanB2 is connected to) and your mobile phone and then you simply register for a Musecast account and follow the app instructions. You simply specify the location of your Brennan music library (normally \\brennanb2\music) and then let the app scan the details and thereafter it all seems to work very well. You can also specify other music library locations on your computer (incl iTunes) but, for me, this just meant that I had lots of duplicate music files of different qualities etc and that wasn't what I wanted …. I just wanted to access the FLAC files on my B2 from anywhere.

The only downside I can see is that it doesn't seem to want to download my Brennan playlists but I can live with that for the moment

I've alerted Martin to the app and suggested that he might like to look at developing a Brennan branded equivalent because I think its awesome.

Let me know how you get on.  

[Stuart Holloway]

Sorry - the app is called Muzecast not Musecast and I can only find it in the Google Play store, not the Apple app store so it appears to only work with Android devices, Not iphones. Which is strange bearing in mind that you can link your iTunes library to it to listen to on any Android device but I guess this is another example of Apple's desire to lock everything down.  

[Spike Haward]

Hi
I back up my B2 to OneDrive (you can use any cloud based storage) and then connect to that using either Flacbox or CloudBeats - both will stream flac files. I can then stream my B2 content anywhere I can get an internet connection - works like a dream on either my iPhone or iPad, and I am guessing that one or other of those apps (if not both) work with Android.
Hope that helps

[James Wyatt]

Just paid for a TB for a year at Dropbox, and using a few apps on my iPhone & Android Tablet.
Just learned that I can block folders from duplicating from Dropbox to my PC. Just access them online.
Seems to work, just gotta wait for the transfer to complete from the Ext HD Backup.

Great Idea!

[Spike Haward]

Hi Stuart
Had no luck at all with Muzecast.
Loaded onto my PC, and after several hours scanning I had what I thought was a working version (it played tracks via the Muzecast browser interface albeit still just an alpha version) bought the Muzecast for Fire TV as I don't have an android phone - it connected ok, displayed the library and tracks but wouldn't play any despite the PC, Brennan and fire to all on the same network.The app did work if I connected to my OneDrive backup, but very slow in streaming tracks.
The browser interface did not work on fire to or iPhone or iPad. Again, it displayed library, albums, tracks and artwork, but no tracks would play.
I then spent another few hours reinstalling Muzecast, reregistering and rescanning the B2 - this time no library at all!!
Either I am doing something wrong or the software is very very flaky.
Any ideas before I give up and go back to Flacbox and Cloudbeats players connecting to OneDrive.
Spike

[Stuart Holloway]

Hi Spike. I'm not sure what you are doing wrong. I tried several things before settling on the best set up. Firstly, I've got all my b2 files backed up in the bt cloud but when I linked this to muzecast (like your one drive), I also found the streaming was slow and didn't work very well. So I deleted that link Altogether and then re scanned but only linked muzecast to the location of my b2 files on my pc (\\brennanb2\music). That worked first time and has been working ever since. One thing I have noticed is that I need to leave the muzecast app running in the background on my pc and if I switch the pc off, I need to re launch the pc app before my phone can access my music files. Is that your problem? - is your muzecast browser app showing a green light to confirm it's connected to the muzecast server?

[Stuart Holloway]

Spike. Another thought, have you got your brennan set up as a NAS drive? If not, I think this could be the problem.

[Spike Haward]

Hi Stuart
No - all is as you suggested and after attempt 3 I have given up. For me, the server software ran in the background as a service (with the green light to show connected) but the Muzecast alpha version of the browser interface just does not work unless it is on the same PC as the server. Will maybe give it another try when the sort the bugs out of that version, unless they bring out an iOS app first.
Neither could the Fire TV streamer app play any tracks, although it 'saw' the PC, displayed the library and the graphics. Nevertheless, the Fire TV app, connected to OneDrive instead does seem to be stable, and maybe the best player I am using to access my music in other rooms.
Thanks again for the help anyway
Spike

[Paul Cashman]

Hi Martin, I only now just saw your reply nearly 3 weeks later.  Ooops.   Thanks for the reply.  

Wi-Fi signal strength is -49 dB.  I already purchased an "antenna" dongle as suggested here and it is in use.  

I also tested the Wi-Fi by moving the Brennan into my bedroom (where the router is) and the signal strength there was -25 dB.  No luck, at least not for the long-term. 

The router it's connecting to is a Netgear router.  As it is dual-band, which band should I disable for testing?   Does the B2 prefer 2.4 or 5 GHz?

  

[PMB]

Hi Paul,

Which network you disable depends on the WiFi dongle you are using. I suspect the dongle will be 2.4GHz (the one we supply is) so disable (or rename) the 5GHz network on your router.

Paul

Brennan Support.