2009-04-17, 03:59
How do I select which network card XBMC should use? Right now it is choosing the wrong network card and is therefore unable to connect to the network.
I sort of did this ...
short answer.. .use the route add command in the DOS command window ....
if that is dobbledeegook, read on...
I enable a 'first' 802.11g WiFi interface that has all the usual auto-config for DHCP etc so that it connects to the home internal network (192.168.1.x addresses) & so on to the BT HH & the big bad internet. PC address here is usually 192.168.1.67
One of the things 'running' over that interface is a VPN tunnel to work land, which includes amongst other things a 'mapped network drive'.. appears as Z: in Network Places.... the way the tunnel works, the PC gets 'yet another address', say something like 192.168.199.110 (and other far away corporate resources can be found on the 192.168.199.x network..)
Then I enable a 2nd WiFi interface (802.11a at 5.18GHz) that is manual configured (purely because there is no DHCP server on the 2nd network) to a 'private development network' 192.168.3.x... PC address (of 2nd WiFi card) is 192.168.3.3.
Note if you are not initially quick enough here, Windoze auto-configures the 2nd interface to the same network as the 1st... then you have to manually force first to 2nd WiFi SSID then to a 2nd IP... if you are using ethernet cards/NICs, this problem does not exist..
On the 'private dev network' are:
- an AP with WiFi IP address 192.168.3.1, and some GE interfaces; one of them called 172.16.60.1
- a 2nd box called STA (for Station = WiFi client..) with WiFi IP address 192.168.3.2 and a GE called 172.16.60.2... connected surprise to the AP GE interface by real cable.
Each box can be configured to do 'anything you like' in terms of traffic flow between interfaces; for now assume it is a full router..
From a DOS window on the PC I can type
ping 192.168.3.1 or .2 and I get replies... = good.
IF I run gmediaserver on one of the boxes & export the media files to the WiFi interface, XBMC UPnP client can find them... you do not even have to know the IP address of the gmedia server box..
This is all over the WiFi network... so may be data rate limited (I have a query on video stutter that I expect is linked to XBMC jitter buffer depth & latency to server, but that will have to wait..).
Now it gets tricky.
Initially,
ping 172.16.60.1 from the Windoze does not work.. even though you think it should as the 'boxes' are IP routers (& they can ping each others interfaces OK...).
Problem is Windoze does not know where (which interface) to find the 172.16.60.x network.
SO then you type
route add 172.16.60.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.3.1
Into DOS command window
and suddenly & magically ping 172 etc works... as Windoze knows to send packets that are addressed to 172xyz over the Wifi to the AP at 192.168.3.1, who sorts it out..
Now if I start a Samba server on one of the boxes (the 'furthest' one) & export/expose the shared folder on the 172.16.60.2 interface, XBMC can be pointed to \\172.16.60.2\folder & it finds the files...(either over the GE link, or the WiFi, depending on how the routing is set up..)
The wierd thing ( & I think responsible for what appears to be an XBMC hang) is that:
- XBMC insists that it's IP address is 192.168.1.67..
- the file manager in XBMC can 'see' the Z: far away network drive & files on it (so via the 192.168.199.xx address as above), as well as the local private network mounted samba files..(so via interface 192.168.3.1 at least..).
- when I am attempting to scan/search for files (can't remember which, I am afraid it is not intuitive, at least not for me..), I think XBMC is crawling over the 11GByte networked far away drive... & that takes forever over a VPN..
enough for now ..18 hr day ends..
short answer.. .use the route add command in the DOS command window ....
if that is dobbledeegook, read on...
I enable a 'first' 802.11g WiFi interface that has all the usual auto-config for DHCP etc so that it connects to the home internal network (192.168.1.x addresses) & so on to the BT HH & the big bad internet. PC address here is usually 192.168.1.67
One of the things 'running' over that interface is a VPN tunnel to work land, which includes amongst other things a 'mapped network drive'.. appears as Z: in Network Places.... the way the tunnel works, the PC gets 'yet another address', say something like 192.168.199.110 (and other far away corporate resources can be found on the 192.168.199.x network..)
Then I enable a 2nd WiFi interface (802.11a at 5.18GHz) that is manual configured (purely because there is no DHCP server on the 2nd network) to a 'private development network' 192.168.3.x... PC address (of 2nd WiFi card) is 192.168.3.3.
Note if you are not initially quick enough here, Windoze auto-configures the 2nd interface to the same network as the 1st... then you have to manually force first to 2nd WiFi SSID then to a 2nd IP... if you are using ethernet cards/NICs, this problem does not exist..
On the 'private dev network' are:
- an AP with WiFi IP address 192.168.3.1, and some GE interfaces; one of them called 172.16.60.1
- a 2nd box called STA (for Station = WiFi client..) with WiFi IP address 192.168.3.2 and a GE called 172.16.60.2... connected surprise to the AP GE interface by real cable.
Each box can be configured to do 'anything you like' in terms of traffic flow between interfaces; for now assume it is a full router..
From a DOS window on the PC I can type
ping 192.168.3.1 or .2 and I get replies... = good.
IF I run gmediaserver on one of the boxes & export the media files to the WiFi interface, XBMC UPnP client can find them... you do not even have to know the IP address of the gmedia server box..
This is all over the WiFi network... so may be data rate limited (I have a query on video stutter that I expect is linked to XBMC jitter buffer depth & latency to server, but that will have to wait..).
Now it gets tricky.
Initially,
ping 172.16.60.1 from the Windoze does not work.. even though you think it should as the 'boxes' are IP routers (& they can ping each others interfaces OK...).
Problem is Windoze does not know where (which interface) to find the 172.16.60.x network.
SO then you type
route add 172.16.60.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.3.1
Into DOS command window
and suddenly & magically ping 172 etc works... as Windoze knows to send packets that are addressed to 172xyz over the Wifi to the AP at 192.168.3.1, who sorts it out..
Now if I start a Samba server on one of the boxes (the 'furthest' one) & export/expose the shared folder on the 172.16.60.2 interface, XBMC can be pointed to \\172.16.60.2\folder & it finds the files...(either over the GE link, or the WiFi, depending on how the routing is set up..)
The wierd thing ( & I think responsible for what appears to be an XBMC hang) is that:
- XBMC insists that it's IP address is 192.168.1.67..
- the file manager in XBMC can 'see' the Z: far away network drive & files on it (so via the 192.168.199.xx address as above), as well as the local private network mounted samba files..(so via interface 192.168.3.1 at least..).
- when I am attempting to scan/search for files (can't remember which, I am afraid it is not intuitive, at least not for me..), I think XBMC is crawling over the 11GByte networked far away drive... & that takes forever over a VPN..
enough for now ..18 hr day ends..
