FAQ  •  Register  •  Login

Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

<<

casm23

Serviio newbie

Posts: 4

Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:17 pm

Post Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:41 pm

Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

Apologies for the somewhat incoherent subject; I'll attempt to explain this better below.

Setup is Serviio 1.8 on OS X 10.12.3; TVs in use are a Samsung E-series and Samsung J-series.

The OS X box has a single physical Ethernet interface (en0) which has a virtual interface (vlan0) assigned to it. The two interfaces sit in different networks, and Serviio is bound to the vlan0 interface as confirmed by the console. Everything works as expected in terms of media playback (Samsung J-Series issues in that regard notwithstanding), so as far as Serviio's functionality goes we're good.

However, where things are odd is in how the Samsung TVs are displaying Serviio's reported hostname on the inputs menu. Essentially, they're showing Serviio as an input with the associated hostname and DNS settings assigned to en0 on the OS X box, not the settings for vlan0 (Serviio's bound interface). This is noticeable because the two interfaces are assigned different DNS domains in OS X' network configuration.

To clarify: the TVs display the input as 'Serviio (en0.domain.tld)' instead of 'Serviio (vlan0.example.org)'. 'en0.domain.tld' reflects the DNS settings for en0 on the Mac, which is what Serviio is passing on to the TVs; 'vlan0.example.org' reflects the DNS settings for the vlan0 interface, which seems to me to be what Serviio should be reporting.

Although this doesn't affect functionality, it is a minor information leakage issue: there are devices in the network that Serviio sits in that I don't have complete control over, and I'd really prefer if they couldn't potentially see the domain assigned to the Mac's physical interface.

Should this be considered expected behaviour? Is there a way it can be changed?
<<

atc98092

User avatar

DLNA master

Posts: 5205

Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Location: Washington (the state)

Post Wed Mar 01, 2017 2:23 pm

Re: Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

I am puzzled where these names are coming from. I have a Samsung J series, and the only name that appears is the name contained in the profiles.xml file, which by default is <FriendlyName>Serviio ({computerName})</FriendlyName>. Is this something specific to a Mac?
Dan

LG NANO85 4K TV, Samsung JU7100 4K TV, Sony BDP-S3500, Sharp 4K Roku TV, Insignia Roku TV, Roku Ultra, Premiere and Stick, Nvidia Shield, Yamaha RX-V583 AVR.
Primary server: Intel i5-6400, 16 gig ram, Windows 10 Pro, 22 TB hard drive space | Test server Windows 10 Pro, AMD Phenom II X4 965, 8 gig ram

HOWTO: Enable debug logging HOWTO: Identify media file contents
<<

casm23

Serviio newbie

Posts: 4

Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:17 pm

Post Thu Mar 02, 2017 1:30 am

Re: Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

atc98092 wrote:I am puzzled where these names are coming from.


The name that Serviio shows reflects the hostname and FQDN of the OS X box on the physical interface. It should (to my mind) be using the FQDN of the vlan0 interface, since that's the one that it's bound to.

I have a Samsung J series, and the only name that appears is the name contained in the profiles.xml file, which by default is <FriendlyName>Serviio ({computerName})</FriendlyName>.


Thanks for that - I'll check it in a bit and see what's stored there.

Is this something specific to a Mac?


Maybe, but I kinda doubt it - I'd expect Windows or *nix to do the same thing.

One thing I can think of: when Serviio was first installed on this box, it bound itself to en0 by default (which makes sense). If it did a reverse DNS lookup against the IP address assigned to that interface, it may have written that result into profiles.xml. Given that local DNS has an A record entered for that IP address, I can see how the reverse lookup may have caused this to happen.

That said, I really have no idea how Serviio works in this regard so the above is speculation on my behalf and as such may be completely wrong. I'll look into what's in profiles.xml and report back.
<<

atc98092

User avatar

DLNA master

Posts: 5205

Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Location: Washington (the state)

Post Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:43 am

Re: Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

Yeah, the Windows version doesn't do that. Like I said, it only shows the Serviio icon, and the word "Serviio". I edit the profiles file so my wife can easily see the difference between my main and test server, which has the work "test" in the name. And that's the way it is identified on all of my DLNA capable players. Sony BD and Media Player, Panasonic TV and Roku players. There's no FQDN displayed on any of them. I wouldn't think it would matter which NIC Serviio is bound to. The computer name is the same regardless, unless you have a VM running with a different name.
Dan

LG NANO85 4K TV, Samsung JU7100 4K TV, Sony BDP-S3500, Sharp 4K Roku TV, Insignia Roku TV, Roku Ultra, Premiere and Stick, Nvidia Shield, Yamaha RX-V583 AVR.
Primary server: Intel i5-6400, 16 gig ram, Windows 10 Pro, 22 TB hard drive space | Test server Windows 10 Pro, AMD Phenom II X4 965, 8 gig ram

HOWTO: Enable debug logging HOWTO: Identify media file contents
<<

casm23

Serviio newbie

Posts: 4

Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:17 pm

Post Sun Mar 05, 2017 2:13 pm

Re: Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

atc98092 wrote:Yeah, the Windows version doesn't do that. Like I said, it only shows the Serviio icon, and the word "Serviio".


Hm, OK. Maybe this is a Mac-vs.-Everything-Else issue after all - it wouldn't be the first time Apple's done something weird in that regard, or that a cross-platform application like Serviio has behaved differently than on other supported platforms.

Let me ask this: are you running your own internal DNS server(s), or are your clients just forwarding requests to external DNS? I'm wondering if serviio may not be trying to resolve its hostname against the wrong interface, which in the configuration here would explain what might be causing this.

I edit the profiles file so my wife can easily see the difference between my main and test server, which has the work "test" in the name. And that's the way it is identified on all of my DLNA capable players. Sony BD and Media Player, Panasonic TV and Roku players. There's no FQDN displayed on any of them. I wouldn't think it would matter which NIC Serviio is bound to. The computer name is the same regardless, unless you have a VM running with a different name.


Well... In the configuration here, it would matter which interface address on the Mac was used for the lookup. Each VLAN has its own DNS zone, so doing a reverse lookup against the address bound to en0 would return a completely different FQDN than doing the lookup against the address bound to vlan0. The various VLANs in use cannot perform lookups outside of their own zone (e.g., trying to do a DNS lookup against a vlan0 record from the en0 subnet would result in a failure, which is intentional).

FWIW, I grepped all of /Library/Application\ Support/Serviio/ for various permutations of the hostname and domain names / FQDNs in use on both interfaces. None of them turned up a result, so profiles.xml doesn't appear to be at play here; this was manually verified in an editor.
<<

atc98092

User avatar

DLNA master

Posts: 5205

Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Location: Washington (the state)

Post Sun Mar 05, 2017 9:10 pm

Re: Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

While I have a DNS server running on my Windows Home Server 2011, I'm actually not using it within the network and have the Google DNS servers configured in my DHCP server. Although my Serviio box has a static IP and does point to my internal DNS server. But none of my dynamic IP boxes (including all my playback devices) use this DNS server.

The Serviio name assigned within the Profiles.xml file is the only name Serviio uses to broadcast itself, so it should be the same regardless of NIC or DNS used. It does sound like something Mac specific, and someone else will need to chime in here about it. I have Zero knowledge of Mac, and my Linux experience is severely out of date. :D
Dan

LG NANO85 4K TV, Samsung JU7100 4K TV, Sony BDP-S3500, Sharp 4K Roku TV, Insignia Roku TV, Roku Ultra, Premiere and Stick, Nvidia Shield, Yamaha RX-V583 AVR.
Primary server: Intel i5-6400, 16 gig ram, Windows 10 Pro, 22 TB hard drive space | Test server Windows 10 Pro, AMD Phenom II X4 965, 8 gig ram

HOWTO: Enable debug logging HOWTO: Identify media file contents
<<

casm23

Serviio newbie

Posts: 4

Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:17 pm

Post Sun Mar 05, 2017 11:44 pm

Re: Serviio shows incorrect hostname on TV input

atc98092 wrote:While I have a DNS server running on my Windows Home Server 2011, I'm actually not using it within the network and have the Google DNS servers configured in my DHCP server. Although my Serviio box has a static IP and does point to my internal DNS server. But none of my dynamic IP boxes (including all my playback devices) use this DNS server.


Good to know. We're using very different methods of doing DNS and DHCP, so our configurations can't be directly compared in that regard. It also sounds as though we have substantially different network topologies.

The Serviio name assigned within the Profiles.xml file is the only name Serviio uses to broadcast itself, so it should be the same regardless of NIC or DNS used.


Understood, but profiles.xml does not contain any data that could be considered domain- or hostname-related for either interface. It has to be coming from somewhere else. I think ;)

It does sound like something Mac specific, and someone else will need to chime in here about it. I have Zero knowledge of Mac, and my Linux experience is severely out of date. :D


It's definitely possible that it is a Mac-specific issue, but at this point I'm not 100% certain. Appreciate the help, though!

Return to Serviio Support & Help

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 68 guests

Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by ST Software for PTF.