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At this point, SqueezeCenter should be properly configured to work on your internal network, but machines outside the loving embrace of your router won’t be able to access the web interface or the convenient streaming file. To enable external access, you’ll need to open up your router’s configuration interface and configure port forwarding for the ports SqueezeCenter uses.
Your router’s IP address will usually be the same as the default gateway that ipconfig displays. Type that address into your web browser and log into the router using the password you created when you first configured your router. Next, you’ll need to look for a section labeled Port or Application Forwarding. It’s usually in the Advanced section of the router’s control panel. If your router lets you specify port forwarding based on a rig’s name that will update as your computer’s IP address changes, you can simply specify the rig that will be used for streaming, set it to forward incoming TCP traffic to port 9000 on the server rig, and save your settings.
If your router doesn’t let you specify port forwarding by rig name, you’ll need to configure your server’s IP address manually. Open your Network control panel, right-click your network connection’s icon, and select Properties. Double-click TCP/IP and you can manually specify the IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and DNS server info. Your default gateway is the same IP as your router and the subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0. You’ll need to pick an IP for yourself; most routers reserve the range from x.x.x.2-x.x.x.99 for static IPs. You can choose any unused number in that range. You should be able to get your DNS server info from the WAN or Internet setup section in your router’s control panel. Once you’ve set up a static IP, go back to your router’s forwarding menu and forward the appropriate ports to your new address.
You should now be able to connect to SqueezeCenter from outside your home network, but only if you know your external IP address, which your provider can dynamically change from time to time. We’re going to use the free DynDNS service to automatically forward traffic from a custom URL to our home network—the program updates the IP address every time your provider changes it. Before you proceed, you’ll need to set up a free account at www.dyndns.com.
Once you’ve activated your account, log into the site and go to My Account. Then click the Add Host Services link and select a hostname and URL. We went with radiowill.kicks-ass.net Input the IP address currently assigned by your ISP (which you can get from www.whatismyip.com). Be sure to save your settings!
Next, you need to download the DynDNS Updater, which you can download from www.dyndns.com, as well. Install it on your server machine and follow the prompts. It will ask you for your DynDNS username and password and then ask you which of your DynDNS domains you want forwarded. Make sure you check the Enable Automatic Updates option; we recommend you run the Updater as a service, which will force it to start when Windows starts whether a user is logged in or not.
That’s it! To listen to your stream, open your favorite MP3 player and go to the Open Stream option (the shortcut is Ctrl+U in both iTunes and Windows Media Player). The URL you’ll use is http://yourcustomdomaingoeshere:9000/. Once you’ve connected to the stream, open the SqueezeCenter interface in your web browser using the same URL. Then you can select the tracks you want to listen to and rock out!
Now your stream is set up, but your friends want in on the Internet radio action. Unfortunately, copyright law doesn’t allow you to legally stream your tunes to anyone but yourself. If you want to stream to others, you can—but you have to pay. To get a license to broadcast, go to www.ascap.com/weblicense/. If you’re choosing songs for your friends yourself and not running ads, you’re eligible to use Schedule A of the Non-Interactive 5.0 ASCAP license, which costs $288 a year. Or you could just tell them to make their own station.
Comments are closed on this article
Ammar
June 19, 2008 at 10:57am
Hi there...
It's a very nice and interesting article.
I followed the instructions and everything seems ok. I could connect to my network remotley and was able to get the stream up and running, but the problem is no sound is coming! I have a sound on the machine am running Windows media player from but the songs are coming mute! Any idea of how to solve this problem?
Thanks!
Ammar
psd9876
June 21, 2008 at 11:19pm
There is a completely easier and free and legal way to do this using a program or web site called Nutsie. www.nutsie.com.
What nutsie does is takes your itunes library.xml file and matches your playlist to the nutsie server and meshes it with thier 500,000+ songs that they have.
nuTsie placeshifts your music to any web-connected PC and many mobile phones including Blackberry devices.
it's also a facebook app so you can share your playlist with your friends legally.
Nutsie does this by making it more of a radio station where as you can't seek in a song or go backwards and the playlist plays at random but it's your playlist
Edit in Itunes to your hearts content by making a favorite song playlist and away you go. easy, free (for now) and legal.
witech
June 05, 2008 at 5:16pm
FYI, the correct url for a stream is http://youripordomainname:9000/stream.mp3.
In order to sync your stream across multiple PCs in your home you should download softsqueeze 2.0 at http://tinyurl.com/ymrnn8. It allows you to play music across your network as if it were several radios tuned to the same station. Quite nice when you want to listen to your music while on either end of the house, upstairs or downstairs. This is a hardware emulator for your pc and acts as a squeezebox. IT SHOULD BE INSTALLED ON EVERY PC YOU WISH TO SYNC. The sync feature is located in the upper right corner of the squeeze center main page. Several different options are available in order to customize your softsqueeze emulator. Just look around in the settings.
You should also download the jmfmp3 plugin in order to improve audio playback when using softsqueeze. This is located at http://tinyurl.com/62adt8. Instructions are located under the audio tab in the softsqueeze settings. The link to the plugin is not functional in softsqueeze so use the one I provided or google it.
chipmaster
July 29, 2008 at 7:56pm
I followed all the directions as posted. But nothing worked. I added the name of the domain as a proxy server in squeezecenter and it works without any problems. But does that need to be done to make it work?
