Serviio

I have just installed and upgraded to serviio pro. I want to be able to allow my children to view my content over the internet.

I'm really confused and don't fully understand the documentation. Is there a step by step guide to setting this up?

If you want your server to be visible on the Internet, you need two things: a DNS name and port forwarding configured in your Internet router.

Almost every home user has a dynamic IP address, so you need a fully qualified domain name (www.serviio.org is a FQDN). There are sites that you can get these for free. I use DNSEXIT.com. You run some software on your computer to read your IP address and send it to the DNS servers to keep it updated. Then you have an FQDN. Mine is under Linkpc.net.

The router requires port forwarding configured. Serviio is supposed to be able to do this automatically, but it's never worked for me, so I have my router configured manually. I can't tell you the exact steps for your router, but once you log into the configuration pages you should be able to find (usually under advanced settings) where to configure port forwarding. You need to forward port 23424 to the internal IP address of your Serviio computer. Since you don't want this number to change, you should either set it with a static IP or configure an IP reservation in your router (since it is likely your DHCP server for your network).

Once you have these two things done, then your children will just open a browser and enter "http://your FQDN:23424/mediabrowser". They will get the login page, and away you go. remember, the colon and port number (:23424) is required.

I signed up for a service called "noip.com", got the activation link, but it's not working. Haven't had a chance to follow up to see why. I'm giving the kids the address using the ip address and that will have to work for now.

From what I gather the other thing I want to do can't be done, but if you or someone else on this forum has an answer that would be great.

I want my G rated movies separated from the rest. The R, and nc17 and (shhh) a few x rated videos should be available to the grown ups only.

I thought maybe setting up another serviio install on another machine, but there's no way to change the port. So I guess I may have to obtain another server program that uses a different port.

One option might be to use Plex, as it uses a different port. In addition, Plex can be configured to allow access from their web site directly to your server. Still requires port forwarding configuration in your router. I still prefer Serviio overall, although Plex has a real nice user interface.

Back to Serviio. Using MediaBrowser (as you do for remote access), there's no way to restrict access by user, as MB only has one user. For players within your network, you can have restricted access, but not external users. Also, I believe there is a way to change the port number, but it requires some tech savvy. I believe it's set in one of the jar files, and you must edit that file to change the port.

If you decide to use Serviio on a second computer, I suggest putting all your G rated movies on that one, rather than access them from the first computer. This way you aren't doubling up on your network traffic by sending the video from one computer to the other, then back out over the Internet using MediaBrowser. If you want to watch one of the G movies on something internal to your network, you just switch to the other Serviio install.

I do have Serviio on two separate computers (use one as a test box) on my network. They both use the same port of course, which is no issue within the network. However, for external users you could alter the port forwarding within your router to use a different public port, and redirect that to port 23424 on the second computer. Not every router offers this ability. My DSL router (Actiontec C1000A) will only forward the public port to the same internal port. I also have a Linksys E3200, which I use as a Wireless Access Point, and it would allow different internal and external ports. You'll just need to see what you have available.