(so I DO NOT need it to show up on network-connected TVs, as a DLNA server, on other PCs on same network, or anything like that)
Does this mean I can turn off “media serving” on all shares, disable the whole “media server” nightmare that seems to crash the WD My Cloud every time I connect it to something ?
In particular, I would prefer if the WDMC was NOT visible on the local network in any way, except if I should happen to be there with my laptop/phone and need access, in which case I suppose the Android / desktop app will get me in ?
Yeah, turn off Media Server if you dont need to stream to clients that requires DLNA (i.e. smart tvs). Also, you dont need it if you have clients like a computer, roku, wdtv, etc… to stream (Locally or remotely). Turn on FTP access and add an email account in Cloud Access to use Android App.
The blood, sweat and tears I would have saved if someone told me this when I first purchased that infernal machine …
I might even brave inserting TWO harddrives now, with media serving switched off, and see if the My Cloud will handle it…
Man, what a relief -
So as long as computer and Android are the only two clients I will use, I can let go off all that endless media scanning … wow.
The WD PC desktop app is not really working for me, it won’t install for some reason, so I thought an FTP client would be the best option anyway.
Are there any FTP clients that can stream, audio and/or video ? Particularly FLAC audio ? Using e.g. the Asus router AiCloud solution, very similar to WD My Cloud except it comes with the market’s best router as well, but the AiCloud app is, well, seriously lacking so far. I’ll look into FTP clients.
I experimented a bit, if I’ve understood correctly so far there’s one “secure” type of FTP called SFTP, for which SSH (which AFAIK on the My Cloud is still full of huge security holes) must be enabled, or the standard, not secure FTP which only requires, um, FTP to be enabled but is inherently insecure… ?
Thanks again for the clarification, I’m so glad to hear I can turn all that */")#/ "! Twonky/DLNA/iTunes off!!
FTP is mainly used for file transfers only. Same with the WD Desktop App as its mainly used to transfer files remotely. Your best bet would be to use a media player (i.e. VLC, MPC-HC) and open as network file. Here’s how I have mines setup:
DNS (theres a few free ones) unless you remember your external IP
- Setup a custom port for remote access on the WD My Cloud and forward that port on your router
Our external IP changes occasionally, but with newer Asus routers there’s built-in DDNS (or whatever it’s called), so you can just specify a custom, private web address, and use this + port number as web access interface browser to whatever drives are connected to the router.
Would be really interesting to get this to work straight through a media browser software, though -
in the Asus setup there are self-specified “Web access port” and a “content streaming port” - not sure which one of these to use ? I played around with VLC a bit, but I could never make much sense of VLC’s streaming/transcoding options…
So you say “Setup a custom port for remote access on the WD My Cloud” - AFAIK this can be almost any port with a few, very notable exceptions - which ports would you recommend ? I’ve yet to learn exactly which ports are reserved for specific purposes, couldn’t find a list anywhere, does it perhaps vary between providers or something ?
So when you access the WDMC in the way you describe, does that give you a file list/browsing system of some kind and then you select the file you want ? With folders or not ? … or do you specify a specific file in advance ?
In VLC, under the first “Media” menu, there’s “Open Network Stream Ctrl+N” or “Stream Ctrl+S”. They seem identical to me and I could never get any of them to do anything useful, what are the subsequent options ?
The"AndFTP" app for Android offers “streaming” of sorts, I’m not very familiar with it yet but it seems at least audio files will play back almost instantly and continue throughout folder.
DDNS requires a DNS service provider, there should be a drop down box or a list of providers (DynDNS, No-IP, etc…_). Some of those providers are free, some are not. I use No-IP since its free, but you’ll need to go through a confirmation process every month (basically just clicking on a link in an email they send)
For the ports, if you go though ASUS setup, choose content streaming port since that is likely prioritized (meaning it gets more bandwidth then other apps). Then set that port number on the WD My Cloud custom port. You can choose any port number you want from 1024 - 65000. Sorry I can’t remember the exact port range, but something like that. Stay clear of known ones (ie. 8080). Dont go below that because they’re reservered for other applications. Just pick a random port number thats easy to remember 9999, 12121, etc…
For VLC, its just directly to the file you want to stream. I think something like the AndFTP will let you browse files and streaming using via FTP.
Actually, the best way to do it via streaming PC remotely would be wd2go.com, open the folder (which will mount to your PC like a network share) and play files from there. The way I had it previously would be complicated lol.
It’s in chinese but you get the idea - so instead of having to remember a possibly changing external IP, this guy will have vrzone.asuscomm.com, or *****.asuscomm.com as a fixed point.
Yeah, I see how wd2go COULD be useful. Problem is it relies on WD (for, eh, WD’s product to work), which never seems to end up well …
Played around with AndFTP a bit more, it will buffer then play MP3s, no other formats it seems, unfortunately…
So, with VLC streaming, you put in the entire address and filename ? E.g.
Yes that’s how you get to the file via full address and filename. i normally just rename my files something easy, like having everything in lower case, no spaces, exact title name. But I rarely stream since my upload connection is way too slow.
