MSLoopback Device for Singleseat users (1 Viewer)

[Pat Clark]

Baron of L/S said

This fixed half my problems with power failures and the other half was fixed by running MYSQLfix, now MP is running perfectly and I agree it should at least be mentioned in the installation Wiki.

I assume Baron means the manual setting of hostname as outlined by spiderwheels above.

Apparently, there is no need to mess with the database directly. I followed PD's instructions and then tried the SQL database update of spiderwheels but found the new hostname was already properly set, presumably by TVserver Config.

BTW, the MySQL GUI tools software has been deprecated and entered End Of Life status. Instead, MySQL Workbench has replaced it. It works a little different from the instructions given by spiderwheels above, but it doesn't matter much because the fix outlined is not required.

 

[Pat Clark]

It's hard to see why using the LoopBack Adapter (or 127.0.0.1) would have any effect at all. Surely, any OS would recognize an attempt to connect to itself and do the equivalent of a LoopBack.

Nevertheless, my system has stabilized, with 2.5 days now without failures.

I took the survey a while back and can't remember if "Single Seat" was asked, but I assume it was. But the results would be unreliable because many potential users would run into this problem, uninstall, and never take the survey. The potential number of single-seat users must be huge and far higher than the survey will report.

Windows Media Center underwent a slight "upgrade" recently which was implemented solely through the Program Guide system, in which many QAM channels are no longer available in a new install. That's why I switched -- I had to re-install WMC and lost several of my QAM channels that I still receive with Media Portal and NextPVR. Furthermore, the last I heard, MS will be charging for WMC in Windows 8. Combined, these factors will result in an increase of interest in MP that must be capitalized on. We can't allow such a common configuration to have stability issues right away.

 

[Miwer]

So the adapter is now installed, you need to put in a ip address, so in Device manager\network chose MS loopback adapter, right click and select properties and the advanced tab, here you can enter the ip address of choice, but I recommend the value shown 192.168.2.1, as this should not interfer with any existing network.

View attachment 59092

Close properties and reboot windows.

Well, I know this is an old thread, but that just makes it more of a mystery to me, that no one have caught this:

You do NOT want to put the IP address of your loopback adapter in the "Network Address" edit box in the device properties. "Network Address" here means MAC address, and you should not need to alter it from the default (blank), unless you have a very compelling reason to do so (like licensing issues, where a license is bound to a MAC address, which cannot be the case here).

Best case scenario is that it just doesn't make a difference, and that Windows will ignore the invalid formatted MAC address, and just default to whatever is default. If not, well, I don't know which problems could arise from having an IP address for a MAC address.

No need to reboot after installing the loopback adapter either (if you don't change the MAC address) - should work out of the box.

 

[doveman]

Well, I know this is an old thread, but that just makes it more of a mystery to me, that no one have caught this:

You do NOT want to put the IP address of your loopback adapter in the "Network Address" edit box in the device properties. "Network Address" here means MAC address, and you should not need to alter it from the default (blank), unless you have a very compelling reason to do so (like licensing issues, where a license is bound to a MAC address, which cannot be the case here).

Best case scenario is that it just doesn't make a difference, and that Windows will ignore the invalid formatted MAC address, and just default to whatever is default. If not, well, I don't know which problems could arise from having an IP address for a MAC address.

No need to reboot after installing the loopback adapter either (if you don't change the MAC address) - should work out of the box.

Yeah, it looks like it should be (for Win7) "Settings - Network Connections - Loopback Adapter, right-click -> Properties, select TCP/IP v4, left-click Properties, set IP address to 192.168.2.1). I certainly don't have anything set under Network Address.

 

[Baron of L/S]

So the adapter is now installed, you need to put in a ip address, so in Device manager\network chose MS loopback adapter, right click and select properties and the advanced tab, here you can enter the ip address of choice, but I recommend the value shown 192.168.2.1, as this should not interfer with any existing network.

View attachment 59092

Close properties and reboot windows.

Well, I know this is an old thread, but that just makes it more of a mystery to me, that no one have caught this:

You do NOT want to put the IP address of your loopback adapter in the "Network Address" edit box in the device properties. "Network Address" here means MAC address, and you should not need to alter it from the default (blank), unless you have a very compelling reason to do so (like licensing issues, where a license is bound to a MAC address, which cannot be the case here).

Best case scenario is that it just doesn't make a difference, and that Windows will ignore the invalid formatted MAC address, and just default to whatever is default. If not, well, I don't know which problems could arise from having an IP address for a MAC address.

No need to reboot after installing the loopback adapter either (if you don't change the MAC address) - should work out of the box.

I had this set as instructed, when i try to delete the IP address it says "must not be blank", I'm running XP sp3 Thanks

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Can I just say from my experience it has worked perfectly for the last 4+ years with that setting enabled.

 

[Miwer]

Paranoid, that's just great if it works for you - I havn't tried setting the Network Address myself, so I wouldn't know if actually will cause any problems. Great if it don't. I was merely trying to point out that there COULD be a potential problem in setting that entry to an invalid value. I've used the setting before (to override hardcoded MAC addresses), so I do know what it's for, and it is not for setting the IP address, that's for sure

I had this set as instructed, when i try to delete the IP address it says "must not be blank", I'm running XP sp3 Thanks

That's wierd, since the default value IS blank ..
In that case just enter the default MAC address for the loopback adapter, which is 02-00-4C-4F-4F-50 (tested this on an XP vm)

 

[Baron of L/S]

That's wierd, since the default value IS blank ..
In that case just enter the default MAC address for the loopback adapter, which is 02-00-4C-4F-4F-50 (tested this on an XP vm)[/quote]

Paranoid, that's just great if it works for you - I havn't tried setting the Network Address myself, so I wouldn't know if actually will cause any problems. Great if it don't. I was merely trying to point out that there COULD be a potential problem in setting that entry to an invalid value. I've used the setting before (to override hardcoded MAC addresses), so I do know what it's for, and it is not for setting the IP address, that's for sure

I had this set as instructed, when i try to delete the IP address it says "must not be blank", I'm running XP sp3 Thanks

That's wierd, since the default value IS blank ..
In that case just enter the default MAC address for the loopback adapter, which is 02-00-4C-4F-4F-50 (tested this on an XP vm)

I've tried this again on another computer and you're right, the default value is blank but if I put in data, save it then go back and try to delete it it says "must not be blank", another XP quirk?

 

[Lotsofjazz]

This is aimed at Singleseat users only, particularly those that may have a Wireless connection and randomly find TVServer has stopped responding, or MediaPortal cannot receive TV.

First you need the MSLoopback Device installed, for Vista\Window7 users, Start, select Computer, right click and select manage from menu, open device manager, at the top chose action, "add legacy hardware", XP users control panel add hardware, follow the pictures, selecting network adapters, chose microsoft and then MS loopback adapte.

View attachment 59087View attachment 59088View attachment 59089View attachment 59090View attachment 59091

So the adapter is now installed, you need to put in a ip address, so in Device manager\network chose MS loopback adapter, right click and select properties and the advanced tab, here you can enter the ip address of choice, but I recommend the value shown 192.168.2.1, as this should not interfer with any existing network.

View attachment 59092




Close properties and reboot windows.

To finish setting up go to Control Panel, open the Network Sharing Centre (Win7\Vista) select change adapter srttings, for XP Users its Control Panel Network Connections, now chose the MS loopback adapter and right click, select properties, you will see "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP\ipv4) select and go to properties, here use the chosen ip address, example 192.168.2.1, the subnet mask will automatically be filled in, close and you are done installing\configuring the adapter.

View attachment 59370View attachment 59371View attachment 59372View attachment 59373

Setting up TVServer and MediaPortal.

Open TVServer config as per pictures,

View attachment 59095View attachment 59094

If you right click on master address it should now give you the choice of 192.168.2.1, select and close config, you can do one of 2 things either reboot (recommended) or stop\restart TVService, this may also require stopping and restarting MySQL server which may cause issue if not done in correct order.

OK, so TVServer is now using the loopback adapter, so there should be no interference from wireless network.

Regarding MP settings for streaming, my hostname was "Rays-pc" so there was nothing to change really, it still worked, but to make sure 192.168.2.1 was being used, I did change to ip address.

View attachment 59096

Hopefully this is now a much more simplified set of instructions to get this working.

Above does not interfer with your wireless connection, you will still have internet access, what it does do, is stop disconnections with any network, whether wireless or not from interrupting playback in Mediaportal.

BIG THANKS for this instruction!!

I got to the point to quit MEPO alltogether because timeshifting was stopped again and again, missing my favourite NCIS series again and again.. very frustrating.. I allready noticed it coincides with losing the wifi connection so I started to search on the forum for that and found above message of yours But now running windows 8 it needs a twist which I will explain below., but most of it is still the same as in win 7/vista

UPDATE FOR WINDOWS 8 USERS:

"MS Loopback" has been dropped in win 8, but has been replaced with something else which does the same.. but first have to be installed..

While on the METRO desktop, just type: "hdwwiz" and click the app that appears..(hdwwiz.exe)
next
select Manual hardware installation, next
select Networkadapters, next
select at the left Microsoft and then on the right 'Microsoft KM-TEST-loopbackadapter", next
the loopback adapter will now install

Ok, now you just can follow the instructions of Paranoid delusion for configuring the loopback adaptor, probably shown in the network centre as Unknown Network, just klik on the link 'ethernet' beside it in Network Centre to configure.

I hope this helps.

 

[doveman]

I might have asked this before but I can't see that I have in this thread, so apologies if I've missed it.

I was wondering if there's any way this could be adapted to allow other clients to access the TV Server? I'd prefer to keep the server using 192.168.2.1 so that it's still able to work and record programmes if the network goes down but as it is, other PC's/RPi's running XBMC etc can't accesss the TV Server when it's running on that address.

I wonder if there's some way that a sort of bridge could be added, either in the core or via plugin, so that external machines trying to access the server on 192.168.1.66 (for example) have their requests forwarded to 192.168.2.1?