[Android Apps and Games] komarak:
Hi

Yes there are seveal reasons I don't/can't use the Android Tether method while at work. In Bubble UPNP tether mode (my android phone and WIndows tablet) conneted to my work network (or any other public network) say over WIFI. -the Android phone makes my home DLNA library available to ALL of the members of that public network. i.e. - all of my co-workers can access my home/private media library. Not that I have anyting that I don't want them to sew -. but still not the best situation. Also my network administrator at work frowns upont this too. This method works fine if I am at a friends house - on a relatively private remote network.

When I connect to work I connect over a VPN (windows PPTP) - standard in Windows since XP. Works really well - easy to setup - makes my laptop have a PRIVATE connection to my home network. So looking for a way to DIRECTLY (Windows to Windows ) access my home DLNA server. Drawback of Windwos PPTP VPN is that it does not support the UDP messages (mujlticast/broadcast) that is requred for DLNA/UPNP on say LAN 1 to be visible on LAN 2.

Great suggestion on the bluestancks. Unfortunately I have already tried this - and several other Android on Windows Emulators to solve my problem. Actually Bluestacks came the closest - I was ablte to get Bubbleupnp Android to load and run under Bluestacks. It even conneected to my Bubbleupnp server over my VPN connection successfully. So I could access my home DLNA on my Windows tablet - but only with a media player running within the Bluestacks (MX Player, Vplayer with DLNA plugin, etc.) virtual Android envirinment. Windows DLNA Apps (Windows Media Player or VLC, or XBMC, etc). running OUTSIDE the virtual Android environment did NOT see the UDP Multicast/Broadcast (not sure which) messages that the BubbleUPNP Android app was sending - even though they were running on the same physical tablet pc. If you know how to enable/allow UDP broadcast messages to go out of the Bluestacks environment into the Windows host environment - then this would solve my prolem..

On a side note - I have actually gotten this all to work - but with a different - and MUCH MUCH more difficult method. I have successfully setup OPEN VPN in TAP mode. Open VPN in TAP mode is a LAYER 2 (Mac Address) VPN - not a Layer 3 VPN like Windows VPN (PPTP). My home DLNA server is also setup as an OpenVPN server mode (authenticates inbound connections). I connect to it using OpenVPN on my WIndows Table in OpenVPN Client mode over the Internet. The OpenVPN tunnel is configured in TAP mode - so all of the traffic (TCP, UDP, UDP Multicast/Unicast, etc.) packets taverse the OpenVPN SSL tunnel. Works great. BUT - it took me over 2 weeks to figure out how to set it up. It was extremely difficutl - and looking on the Internet ( and I have searched and searched, and searched) I may be one of the first people to successfully confgiure DLNA/UPNP over the Internet Windows to Windows. I went through the OpenVPN setup (oh the PAIN) so I could understand what the network issues were to allow UPNP DLNA to be transported between networks separated by the Internet. Now I konw a bunch more - and realize that Bubbleguuums method is far supperior thatn ANYTHING i have found - just needs this last bit of functionality to open up a HUGE capability that no one else has been able to easiliy do. And I must emphasize - EASILY DO. Bubbleguuums methods are so simple to setup - much much much simplier that OpenVPN.

Sorry for the long response - but I have been working very hard for several months to get this working - I am hopeful that Bubbleguuum will see the value in what I am trying to do - and how close his BubbleUPNP apps have come to solving the LAN to LAN over the Internet connectivity issues that even the DLNA/UPNP consortium memebers have not solved. Although it is on their "Future capabiliies" roadmap - it is definitly several years away at best.

Please let me know if I have missed anything - sometime I can't see the trees in the forest.

KJK

---------- Post added at 06:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 AM ----------

Realized I did not fully answer your question. Yes there would be a way with Bubbleguuums apps to sofve this issue - with some tweaks.

In a nutshell...

The UPNP Plugin for Foobar2000 (windows App) can connect to a remote computer running Bubble UPNP server and access that remote computers DLNA servers securely and privately over the internet. Works Great !

Bubbleupnp Server (also a Windows App) can make proxies of the DLNA servers it can see - so those Porxy DLNA servers are visible to DLNA renderes on the network where Bubbleupnp server is running. Also works Great !

Combine this functionality into a SINGLE windows APP (i.e. if you could ran a second copy of Bubble UPN server on LAN2 and IF it could connect to the Bubble UPNP server running on LAN1 with the same method that the Foobar2000 pluging does) you now have a way to share DLNA UPNP resources over the Internet (LAN1 to LAN2) direct Windows to Windows without complicated VPN's like OpenVPN, or having to have an Android phone act as the Proxy server. It would be a PRIVATE easy to setup configuration.

Again - if I am missing something subtle - let me konw.

Thanks,

KJK