RockyCJC
Member
Skifta has been working fine for weeks now. This morning it was working as I was listening to music in my car over 4G. As of this afternoon, the remote source shows as offline over wifi and 4G. I know it is not my settings since it was working fine until I tried at 11:30am EST. There is nothing in the logs from my phone that would be any help. My connection shows as offline on the website dashboard as well.
Please look into this..
RockyCJC
Member
Performed all of the following and the source came back online. Not sure if any of it had an effect though or if it was just luck:
1) Rebooted the router (Actiontec Verizon Router)
2) Rebooted the NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra)
3) Stopped and Started the Skifta Service Add-On
4) Source showed as online about 5 minutes after step 3.
5) Could not make a connection so closed the Skifta app on my Android client, force stopped the application, cleared cache, and then restarted Skifta.
6) Now able to make connection and streaming music as I type.
Would still like to get some idea as to why this happens about once a month.
I'll raise this with the team lead to see if we can get some post -event stats for your account. I should warn you it's going to be very difficult for us to diagnose if it's a device or MSP / ISP issue.
RockyCJC
Member
Understood regarding the MSP/ISP issues but I almost feel like that reason is gone to too quickly in these cases. I could see the MSP/ISP reason being valid if the following were NOT true:
- The Offline issue occurs very infrequently.
- When the offline issue does occur, I can not get it to show as online when connected to the internet via 4g or wifi (what is the chance that an MSP and ISP both blocked Skifta at the exact same time).
- When the offline issue occurs, it only lasts an hour or 2 at most before restoring (shorter if I try some of the steps I posted a day ago). It would seem logical to me that if an MSP/ISP was blocking Skifta service, the block would remain in effect for longer (if not indefinitely).
RockyCJC
Member
I wanted to add regarding my 2nd point in the previous post, I realize the block could be occurring on the NAS side (at my house) with a block instituted by the Verizon Home ISP, but I think the other 2 points (1 and 3) still call into question whether this is really the issue.
I will add that I am an avid user of Skifta. I probably utilize it for 8 hours out of the day (mostly for music but sometimes to watch movies on my phone). My data usage probably averages over 3 gig a month on Skifta alone, more for other activities through my home ISP. So I would definitely expect a Skifta block more often if the ISP were blocking the service.
Ok - that makes for some very valid and interesting reading - and some very heavy use. I appreciate your time explaining this to us - I'm meeting with the team today.
Hello Chris - ok - chatted to the team.
It's unlikely our logs are going to show the information we need, but we do have some considerations that should help us both identify the issue. This happens infrequently for you - it appears to us that something might be causing your connection to go stale, so if we can identify that, we'll be able to introduce a measure to cope with it. If it's a stale connection, we may look to introduce a keep alive.
1) dynamic external IP on your home Network
Does your network provider give you a new external IP? Some broadband providers in the UK rotate the external dynamic IP once a month. Note your external IP and next time you see the issue, see if the IP has changed.
2) Next time you see this issue - on your NAS, disconnect that NAS network connection. Wait a while and reconnect the NAS to the network. Skifta will trigger a reconnect. Does this bring the device back online?
Let us know the results to these points. Your answers may assist us in improving the handling of stale connections, so thanks for being such a keen supporter of the product!
RockyCJC
Member
I'll address your questions by number:
1) I believe the ISP reserves the right to keep it dynamic but I have not noticed it change. I also use dyndns service to give my home IP a DNS name so that I can just access it using a URL, so it isn't often that I check the IP address - but I can keep an eye on it.
2) I'm usually away from home so physically disconnecting the NAS from the network would be difficult. However, I can get to the Frontview interface on the ReadyNAS and my router's GUI remotely, so I can either shut off Skifta or kill the connection to the network through the router setup. I can give this a try next time it occurs.
RockyCJC
Member
I'd like to add that in the time that I have been using this service, it has continually improved and gotten more reliable. So keep up the great work!
tat2yurbalz79
Member
I'm running piggybacked modem/router to router. both devices netgear. Running windows xp pro sp3. Using HTC wildfire S. Can stream locally, but can't even and have never gotten remote to work. Can't get a connection on the dashboard. everytime i get connection failed. Would love to use this service. but i'm out of ideas. I have been through all the setting on both routers, and firewall/ antivirus options and setting. PLEASE HELP!!!
You'll be wanting this thread here:
http://forums.skifta.com/topic/remote-media-source-status-offline#post-2423
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