Saturday, June 23, 2007

How To: Access Beyond TV WebAdmin Over The Internet


BEYOND TV TIPS: How to Access BTV WebAdmin Over The Internet




This how-to is especially for Snapstream Beyond TV users. If you're not a Beyond TV user, just know that the BeyondTV webadmin is a very powerful and feature-rich web-based interface that adds to your HTPC experience.
If you use BeyondTV as your Home Theater PC (HTPC) software , you know that WebAdmin is the web-accessible settings page for Beyond TV that will allow you to change any settings for Beyond TV. From the Snapstream BeyondTV website:

If you're the kind of person who knows what he wants, and expects to get it,
Beyond TV's Web Admin is just what you're looking for. It gives you extensive
control over advanced settings and options through an easy to use web interface.
Change the directory your shows are saved to, customize your channel lineup, and
control the quality and format of your recordings. Configure specific
ShowSqueeze, SmartSkip, and timeshifting settings and more.
The Webadmin also gives you the ability to watch BTV recorded shows over the internet. I'm listing out the steps you need to take to set your network up to do all of this from within your network or via the internet.
  1. Set your BTV PC as a static IP address on your LAN. If you need instructions for this, check out this how-to on LifeHacker.
  2. Forward port 8129 to this static IP of your BTV machine. If you need help forwarding the ports, check out this site for help.
  3. You can now access your webadmin within your home network using http://(Beyond TV PC's IP address):(Beyond TV PC's Admin port). You can also access the webadmin page from the internet (outside your home network) by changing the "Beyond TV PC's IP address" to your PC's internet IP address. To find out our PC's interent IP address go to THIS LINK.
  4. (If you would like to make an easier to remember address instead of your ip address, follow steps 4-7) Create a DynDNS account HERE, select dyndns.org (or any domain name from their list), add your own sub domain, then configure the router with the account information
  5. Download the DynDNS Updater HERE
  6. Install & set up your DynDNS Updater to log into the DynDNS account you created with your username and password
  7. It will take care of the rest for you. It will now update send your internet IP address to the DynDNS address automatically.
  8. Be sure and turn on password protection for the web admin (Advanced Settings >Security Settings >Enabled) so that others can't access your web admin.
  9. You should now be able to access your BeyondTV Settings (WebAdmin) using an address like this: http://yourdyndnsusername.dyndns.org:8129/
If you're interested in how to view BeyondTV recorded tv shows across the internet, check out THIS POST.