Windows Media Server Problems

[Hightower]

We have used Windows Media Services for a few years to stream videos to staff. This has worked flawlessly up until recently - now, the server can play files but any other machine can't seem to find them and shows a generic 'cannot play the stream' error.

 

We got a new router/firewall box from our ISP recently and I'm sure this is the cause of it, but I can't just go pointing fingers so can you guys help me troubleshoot it?

 

I can ping the server from any machine using the name or the IP. I've tried streaming the video with both too i.e.

 

mms://SERVER/video.wmv and

mms://IPADDRESS/video.wmv

 

but neither of these work except when carried out directly on the server as explained above.

 

Any other ideas?

[SYNACK]

Have you tried using the RSTP protocol instead as this is the newer streaming protocol. Is the new router setup as the router between multiple VLANs inside your school as it could be filtering this kind of traffic.

 

By the looks of the documentation MMS is a unicast stream and should not be effected by any of the usuall multicast hangups.

 

I am assuming that you can ping the media server sucessfully.

 

Also is sounds like it could be a firewall or listening issue on the server itself, perhaps an update or a new antivirus package has prevented the access of these ports from outside. If not perhaps the service is no longer listening on the external network ports to hand out the files.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/serve/firewall.aspx#RTSPandMMS

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/server/faq.aspx

[Hightower]

Turned the firewall off on the server, and a stream worked. Turned it back on and it didn't. I haven't changed any config on this server in ages so not sure what's happened! Unless an update has caused it or something.

 

Anyhow, tried adding port 1755 to the exceptions list (this appears to be the port used for MMS that I can find) but this didn't work. Any ideas what to add the the exceptions?

[Hightower]

Here we go:

 

How to configure firewalls and Network Address Translation (NAT) for Windows Media Services 9 Series

 

Added the first two rows in the table to the exceptions and we're firing on 4 cylinders again! Wonder what the hell changed though!