Serviio

I'm utilizing some extra Dlink DIR-655 Routers for additional wifi access points within our home and our beach house, co-located on the same property. The renders in the beach house were not able to access Serviio or another Sony proprietary DLNA server, Mcrew Server. The renders were all functioning in the main house. I have a single CAT5e running in a buried conduit to feed the beach house. It terminates on one one of the four network ports on the DIR-655. I have the router functionality disabled. A number of the hardwired rendered devices within the beach house terminate on the other network ports of the DIR-655.

I quickly localized the trouble to the DIR-655 by connecting the beach house feed directly to a render, bypassing the DIR-655. With this configuration, the DLNA Servers appeared and were functional on the render.

Obviously, something was blocking the DLNA Server broadcasts within the DIR-655. A few trial and error parameter changes pinpointed the trouble to the uPNP functionality being disabled. Actually, it was my first test as DLNA broadcasts and uPNP are very similar.

So, if your DLNA server is broadcasting through a Dlink DIR-655 and possibly other models/brands and your renders cannot detect the server, try enabling uPNP if it is disabled.

In the DIR-655 this accessed from the GUI main menu-Advanced-Advanced Network tab.

Certainly good advice. Nice troubleshooting.

I looked at the users manual for this router, and I see it doesn't have a dedicated Access Point mode. That's probably why you had so much difficulty with it. It's interesting that a web search also turned up a suggestion to disable uPnP when using as an AP, which I think is an error based on your experience. I use a couple of different routers as APs in my home, but they both have a dedicated AP mode. In my humble opinion, it's far better to use a router with such a mode when wanting to use it as an AP.

If I had been purchasing new for the AP, I would have acquired something with the dedicated AP functionality. These were surplus, so the price was right (free). Actually, I have been utilizing them as APs for several years without issue and they have worked well. I just stumbled into the solution of another issue that had prevented Serviio operation a week or so ago, so this was a secondary problem.

i was a bit surprised. My first reaction would have been that disabling uPNP in the router would have just disabled the router from responding to uPNP broadcasts, not inhibiting the passing of them through the network "switch" section of the router. Thankfully, this one was rather easy to resolve---not like most of what I initially believe will be a 10 minute fix that turns into hours.

Maybe they support open source firmware?

That would be a great solution, but it appears that this router uses a Ubicom32 chipset, while DD-WRT and Tomato are mainly for Broadcom chips. I did a quick search and couldn't find any that offer support. Bummer.