Remote connections failing this morning

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

When I attempted to connect via mobile data with an Android phone this morning, it said channels had to reconnect to the server. I said 'Away From Home' and then hit the Authorize button.

I then tried my FireTV stick (which already had Channels running in the background) and it said there was no signal when trying to tune a live TV channel. I cycled the power from the FireTV stick and restarted Channels and it kicked it to the Welcome to Channels DVR screen where I had to re-authenticate, and it still isn't connecting properly.

Why is this happening occasionally?

#2
  • Is your server running?
  • Is it reachable?
  • Can you login with SSH?
  • Has its IP address changed?

More details are necessary to save others from randomly guessing.

#3

mine is failing too it appears there was a change to the port on my router when autoconfig is on ...

Listening on myip:8090

Had to set it to manual.

This is what happens if I set it to Auto....
020/04/20 09:14:10.310126 [NAT] Successfully mapped port 8090 using natpmp

#4

Channels DVR is hard set to use 8089, and doesn't listen on 8090.

If you are doing some other port redirection within your network with non-standard settings, things are going to be much more difficult to troubleshoot.

#5

I am doing nothing of that kind. It had been working till the latest updates. anyway setting it to manual works so I am ok with it.

#6

Does my.channelsdvr.net load?

#7

Everything is fine now I think I know what is happening .. I port forward on my Router 8089 to my Channels DVR NAS ... If I set it to auto I guess it assumes port 8089 is in use and assigns the 8090.

Manual is working so I will keep it that way.

#8

Just to clarify, the Android phone connection was successful after authenticating.

The server is running
It's reachable
I don't know what SSH is
The IP address hasn't changed, port is manually forced to 8089 as it always has been

I'm just trying to determine why all of a sudden the remote clients (Android phone, and Firesticks) have to re-authenticate. If a family member is traveling with a Firestick, it's virtually impossible to talk them through this. What changed?

#9

The auth token used to authenticate remote clients does expire. It will need to be periodically renewed. That's a feature, not a bug.

#10

The token can expire if you haven't used it for three months. Not clear if that's what happened here.

The remote auth flow is a nightmare at the moment, especially when you're on hotel wifi. We're working on some big changes in this area..

#11

No, these remote devices are used weekly if not daily, so it's not that. It's just strange it all happened the same morning on the various devices.

Any improvement that say, an elderly relative, could negotiate would be appreciated. Thanks for working on improving this. I still don't have the remote firestick reconnected, will have to troubleshoot more after work today.

#12

That is quite strange indeed.

Please submit some diagnostics when you get back to it.

#13

I'm at a remote location and just plugged in my firestick and it simply can't authenticate. So I got on a computer at the remote location, and I can't connect to my server from a browser. This is way off. What diagnostics are you looking for? Client side?

#14

Well if my.channelsdvr.net doesn't load then the client diagnostics aren't going to show anything useful.

Do you have any other remote connect software running on your server? Is it still accessible?

#15

Your server looks up and is responding from here..

Go ahead and submit client diagnostics from the firetv after trying to connect.

#16

Something is blocking my.channelsdvr.net on this remote wifi network. This PC that I'm typing from is on the same network, albeit hardwired. I had my phone on the wifi and it could not authenticate. I put my phone back on mobile data and it does not need to authenticate, the app connects with the server immediately. I've already rebooted the Spectrum modem and separate wifi router device numerous times today.

#17

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#18

Huh. That's strange. Can you ping that domain from the console and see what IP it shows (does it match your home IP?)

#19

Like this?

#20

I just connected the firestick to my phones mobile data hotspot and it worked just fine, went in and played a live TV show from my server (an antenna station with the HDHR). If I force close the app, and then reconnect the firestick to the wifi here, it absolutely won't work, just sits and spins when I relaunch the app.