Solved Palace Server DSL Media Download Problem !

I have spent close to 100 hours trying to solve the two serious issues directly related to Palace Server caused by my migration to a DSL connection, killing off many red herrings along the way----and finally did----solve them!

Issue 1: People can't get to your server anymore with the IP address you give them.

Issue 2: When you finally do get guests there, media pictures and sounds won't download from your server to them anymore.

Both of these issues are directly related to a quirk most DSL service providers use, and NEVER tell you about, because it is supposed to be transparent, called NAT or Network Address Translation protocol. This is the key to both problem issues.

Cable connections and standard dial-up modems do not use this NAT protocol. Hence the marked absence of these Palace Server problems in these other two environments.

Almost all Broadband and DSL connections use what is called PPPoE or Point-to-Point-Protocol-over-Ethernet, a TCP/IP broadband connection type generated by the software from your computer when the network connection is first installed. When this OS software fires up the connection to your DSL provider, the NAT IP Address Translator ALSO kicks in.

To understand what NAT does, you must visualize your own computer as being on a LAN ethernet connection to your DSL modem, where your DSL modem is given one IP address and your computer connected to it is given ANOTHER, DIFFERENT, internal IP address.

In essence NAT, which is on the DSL provider side, does the following when it gets the call from your computer software to make a DSL connection:

1 NAT dynamically assigns, on every boot, a new IP address to the DSL modem. Classically, this IP address starts in the 60s range with 62.xxx.xxx.xxx or 67.xxx.xxx.xxx or some low range of numbers in the first three digits of the quartet. THIS DSL MODEM IP ADDY IS THE ONLY ONE THAT GOES OUT TO THE WORLD, AND THE ONLY IP ADDY PEOPLE CAN USE TO GET TO YOU!

2 NAT then turns around and "translates" the DSL modem IP addy into an internal IP addy that it assigns to your machine. Classically, this IP address starts with higher range, three-digit numbers like 169.xxx.xxx.xxx or 203.xxx.xxx.xxx.

This IP addy translation protocol is meant to help protect you against hackers, since your "real" internal machine IP addy is not known to the outside world.

What NO ONE TELLS YOU, HOWEVER, IS IF YOU ARE RUNNING A SERVER, LIKE PALACE SERVER FROM YOUR OWN COMPUTER, USING THE INTERNAL IP ADDY AS YOUR ADDRESS, GETS YOU NOWHERE OUTSIDE YOUR OWN COMPUTER!

Palace Server code was written in a time when the only IP addy you ever had to worry about was the one assigned to your machine, the internal machine IP addy generated by your dial-up ISP. So in the Server code, to handle ever-changing dynamically assigned IP addresses from service providers, the code uses a variable [currentIPAddress] to go and find the IP addy assigned to your machine. It found it, published it, and everything worked just peachy-keen.

Now, in the age of DSL and NAT, YOU CAN ONLY USE THE DSL MODEM IP ADDY TO GET THE SERVER TO WORK. BUT THE PALACE SERVER CODE IS STILL LOOKING INSIDE YOUR MACHINE AT THE INTERNAL IP ADDY, AND NOT AT THE DSL MODEM IP ADDY. SO NOTHING GOOD IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

So now, two things become important:

How do you find out what the DSL MODEM IP addy is.
and ----
How do you get your Palace Server to look at and use that DSL modem addy.

Without some software being re-written, it is basically a manual operation, but very easy to pull off.

To find the DSL IP addy on Windows XP:

Click Start Button => Select Control Panel => Double click on Network Connections => Double click on the Broadband connection you see there => Click the Details tab => and record the "Client IP Address" you see there. (Note: this Details window does not let you copy and paste the addy, so you have to record it the old world way with pad and pencil.) USE THIS IP ADDRESS TO GET GUESTS TO YOUR PALACE IN THE "Connect to:" WINDOW of their Palace Client File => Connect to a Palace => Connect input field.

Another way to get the DSL IP addy is to create a link on your desktop to:
http://www.whatismyip.com/
Connecting to this web site gives you the IP addy you are sending to the world. Low and behold, it is the DSL IP addy, NOT the internal machine IP addy that Palace Client shows it connects to when going to your own server. You can easily copy and paste the numbers displayed at the web site into your connect to thingy or send to guests.

FINALLY -- THE ISSUE OF MEDIA NOT DOWNLOADING TO GUESTS IS EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM!

In your Palace Server, go to Options => Preferences => Network tab. There you will see a grayed out field under "Use an external media and avatar server." In that grayed out field you will see the following:

http://[currentIPAddress]:9990/palace/media/

Note that the default pathname there, pointing to your server media, uses the variable [currentIPAddress]. This means the server is looking to your internal IP addy, which is USELESS, and not to the DSL Modem IP addy.

To download pics and sounds to your guests again, flawlessly:

Click a check mark into the box "Use an external media and avatar server"
The gray default field clears for you to enter your new pathname.
Enter the IDENTICAL pathname, except this time PASTE IN THE DSL Modem IP Addy in place of the variable [currentIPAddress].

The new pathname will look like this:

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:9990/palace/media

where the string of Xs is your actual DSL Modem IP addy.

Click OK. Leave your Server running, open your Client and go to your Server Palace. Guests will now be able to download pics and sounds flawlessly again. Palace Server will retain this new addy pathname until you change it again.

The only drawback to this is, you will have to re-enter a new DSL IP addy everytime you reboot your machine, because each time you reboot a new DSL addy is assigned.

Perhaps some Palace Server Guru will write an optional Add-in sometime for DSL users that will insert a new variable, one that looks for the DSL addy and not the "current IP address" of the machine.

As I see it, the manual fix is a small price to pay to get the wonderful sucker working normally again!

I want to thank all of you who contributed other fix suggestions for these problems. All of them apply in one way or another to folks specific problems. It pleases me to make this contribution back to the community of people I have come to care for and respect a lot.

Oh btw. Also found out that some DSL modems are NOT compatible with Windows XP. Check with your provider to verify your modem is, if you are running XP. Also found out that some modems generate the PPPoE from hardware in the modem, not from your software OS. In these instances, the internal IP addy works normally and the NAT protocol does not affect its use. Go figure.

Ok getting pretty tired now. Hope this will save some the grief I experienced in resolving these DSL issues.

See you. :lol:

Uni