Windows Media Services: Troubleshooting Basic Network Connectivity (306858)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Media Services 4.1
  • Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7
  • Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.1
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 5.2
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.0
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.1
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.2
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.4
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 7
  • Microsoft Windows Media Tools 4.1
This article was previously published under Q306858

SYMPTOMS

Although Windows Media Services works properly when Windows Media Encoder, Windows Media Server, and Windows Media Player are all on the same subnet, when one or more router hops are involved, network related problems can occur.

MORE INFORMATION

Use the following steps to troubleshoot multimedia networking:
  1. Start a Windows Media Encoder session of a live broadcast (even if it's just a reference tone), so you can tell when you have a signal. For this example, use a URL similar to http://encoder:8080.
  2. From the computer running Windows Media Encoder, connect to the stream by using Windows Media Player and the URL from step 1 (for example, http://encoder:8080). This ensures that Windows Media Encoder is working properly without involving any networking hardware.
  3. If the previous step works, go to another computer on the same subnet as the Windows Media Encoder and try to connect to http://encoder:8080. If this works, the Windows Media Encoder is sending the stream out as expected.
  4. From Windows Media Server, start a session of Windows Media Player and try to connect directly to the Windows Media Encoder. If Windows Media Server is not on the same subnet as the Windows Media Server Encoder, failure here can indicate that something is not permitting the stream to get through to the server (for example, a firewall with port 8080 blocked).
  5. If step 4 is successful, verify that Windows Media Server is configured properly. To do this, open the Windows Media Administrator and set the Broadcast Unicast Publishing Point to http://encoder:8080. If name resolution problems occur, you may need to change the NetBIOS name to the Windows Media Encoder IP address.
  6. When you have verified that Windows Media Server is configured correctly, try connecting to the server's stream from a client on the server. By doing this first, you can take away the possibility of networking issues between the server and the client.
  7. If step 6 is successful, from a client computer that is on the same subnet as the server, try to connect to the stream coming from the server. This helps to determine if the server is functioning properly.
  8. If step 7 is successful, try to connect to the server from a client on another subnet. If step 6 was successful and this step is not, a networking issue between the server and the end users may be occurring.
Other things to check:
  • If a switch exists between the server and the clients, ensure that it is set to full duplex in order to avoid packet collisions when resend requests are initiated from the client. On certain types of switches, a duplex setting of Auto may cause it to use half duplex. You may need to force it to use full duplex.
  • Ensure that firewalls have the correct ports open. Note that some ports need to be opened bi-directionally and some require the same port for both TCP and UDP. More information on firewall configuration with Windows Media Server can be found in the following article:

    http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windowsmedia/en/serve/firewall.asp

For additional information on troubleshooting multicast connectivity issues, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

285093 Troubleshooting Multicast Issues with One or More Router

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/26/2003
Keywords:kbpending kbprb KB306858
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.