Unicast/Multicast bridging problems
- Hi!
I'm testing between 2 clients now. It seems that either both of them have to use reflector service or both of them have to use multicast at the same time to be able to see each other.
If one side uses reflector while the other side uses multicast (i.e. bridging), then only the multicast party will be able to see all channel. The reflector (unicast) will only see himself.
Can you explain to me what's happening? Thanks.
Answers
- Hey guys! Found the fault! When venue service manager is configured for port other than 5004, it causes the reflector to not listening properly on the channel. Perhaps the reflector is not opening the custom specified port? Thanks for your help.
All Replies
I need you to describe the network setup for your 2 clients and your Reflector.
Are all 3 of them on the same multicast enabled network?
Do you have a client running on the Reflector machine, or is the Reflector on a machine of its own?
Does the Reflector have multiple NICs?
Are you testing IPv4 or IPv6?
Is a NAT involved?
Etc.
JVE
- Yup. The setup is pretty straight forward. All 3 PCs are in the same IPv4 network with multicast enabled and tested.
So the setup is 1 PC with Venue Service and Reflector. And 2 other PC with ConfXP client.
The Reflector service has only 1 NIC. The two clients have 2 NICs each but only 1 NIC is plugged in and active. Connections are pretty direct and no NAT is involved.
Could it be firewall problem? All of them are using Windows Firewall and I let the settings to be default (as in the one set during Conf XP package installation).
Thanks. This sounds fishy.
What operating systems are involved?
Are you running a Virtual PC?
What happens if you turn off the Reflector service and install a CXPClient on that machine? Does multicast still work between all 3 clients? My guess is that it wouldn't, since the clients are unable to see each other fully when one of them connects to the Reflector and the other doesn't.
You can check the firewall settings, but I think we open per application during the Client and Reflector installs.
JVE
Hi JVE!
The Reflector and Venue service is running on vmware. And this vmware machine is a Ubuntu server machine. I'll check CXPClient on that machine and let you know if multicast still works. Thanks.
I'm not certain (because I don't use VMs), but I *think* you have to enable a network bridge or something like that to get multicast working on Virtual Machines.
JVE
Hi Jason!
I've tested multicast on the vmware machine and it works. I also ran a test to CXPSignal 1 Venue service and received a test video stream from it (of course without connected to the reflector).
When you say it works, does that mean all 3 of your machines were able to see each other's video streams? That is the test that we need to make work.
If so, then re-enable the Reflector and try 2 machines, with 1 connecting to the Reflector. Is it still broken?
JVE
- Hi there! Sorry for the late reply. All 3 machines are able to see each other in multicast.
When I re-enable Reflector service, the unicast machine can't see those in the multicast.
All machines have to join multicast or all machines have to join reflector service to see each other.
UPDATE: I've disabled Windows Firewall on all 3 computers and restart reflector service. Now unicast/multicast bridging is working. Can any let me know which port reflector is using for all communications and audio/video receiving/streaming?
UPDATE: I've further narrowed down the problem. It seems that whenever Reflector is not running properly, the Reflector machine's Windows Firewall need to be turned off, and Reflector need to be restarted. The ports should not matter if ReflectorService has been added as an application exception. Will you check on that please? If not, please try uninstalling and reinstalling and check to make sure you get a Firewall dialog popup during install. If you don't get one, please add an application exception manually. That is better than going port by port.
JVE
- Well... I've already checked this. ReflectorSerivce is already in the application exception. Somehow Windows Firewall is behaving strangely.
5004/5005 UDP (multicast, which apparently isn't working)
7004/7005 UDP (unicast, which is already working)
8083 TCP (join and leave requests, which are already working)
JVE
- Hey guys! Found the fault! When venue service manager is configured for port other than 5004, it causes the reflector to not listening properly on the channel. Perhaps the reflector is not opening the custom specified port? Thanks for your help.
That certainly sounds probable. I don't think we ever tested or expected the Reflector to operate on ports assigned by the Venue Service. Probably a bug on our end. Sorry about that!
JVE
Hi guys,
please tell me, where the venue service manager can be configured with port 5004? I thnink, the default port here is 8083.
btw. we're using CXP in a unicast network and have using a refelector the problem, that "in both directions" video and audio is transmittet, audio is received at both sides but video only in one direction could be received, the other side received only a black window. (Connection is "nated" and was modified some months ago, before this change, all connections works without problems) - any ideas ???.
regards Lausi
Lausi,
You are confusing the Reflector's Join/Leave Request, which occurs on port 8083 with the unicast data on ports 7004/7005 and the multicast data on ports 5004/5005.
If audio is received in both directions, and you receive a black video window, then your network connection between the machines is perfectly functional. Video is failing to render on the receiving side, which is a result of the decoder not being able to decode the video signal or no key frames arriving. There should either be errors in the event log that will give more information or the performance counters should indicate significant packet loss.
If you don't have Windows Media Player 11 installed, that is required.
You could also consider rebuilding the machine from the ground up.
Or you can give me a remote connection, and I can poke around.
JVE
