RealPlayer driving me MAD - can anyone help?

[slitchfield]

After weeks of tussling with this, I wanted to set out my problem and publicise the thread, in case someone cleverer than me can help fix it!

Device: Nokia E75, v110 firmware, though I don't think the exact device is that important, since I'm seeing the same behaviour with other devices, e.g. N95

Router: Linksys Wireless G, patched up to date, default settings throughout apart from WPA encryption for security

Application affected: RealPlayer. Proxy set to 'No', Streaming set to my Wi-Fi, 'Unlimited', Lowest UDP '6970', Highest UDP '32000'

Symptom: In YouTube's Mobile Web site (and in BBC iPlayer 1.0 and, doubtless, other apps which kick off RealPlayer), I click on a video and RealPlayer launches. The top-of-screen 'Loading' counter advances swiftly to 100% and then resets to 'Buffering 0%'. And then nothing happens. After a while (50 seconds?) I get a 'Server timeout' error.

I'm at my wits end and would dearly love to get to the bottom of this, if only for my own understanding and to help others. If you're something of a RealPlayer expert then perhaps you can get involved in this thread?

Thanks!

[jApi NL]

Same Realplayer settings . No problem at all . Router is Linksys WEP security . Since several devices show the same symptoms , I guess the issue is originated in the router .

Regards jApi NL

[slitchfield]

Well, I kind of knew that 8-) I'm hoping someone can point out something special I need to have in place or set up in the router in order to let RealPlayer through..... It's worth noting that iPlayer v1.6 on the N86 and 5800 work fine, and iPlayer on the iPhone all work, so it's something weird that RealPlayer wants under certain circumstances....

[NickAnstee]

Steve,

1) Does it work over 3G?
2) In Real Player Advanced Settings Is WLAN Bandwidth Set To 3.01Mbit/s ?

[slitchfield]

Haven't tried over 3G, but then that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid, by using Wi-Fi... might try this later as a one-off experiment though.

Tried the higher bandwidth limit - had no effect. Gut feel says that this is something to do with RealPlayer trying to use ports that the router is blocking - but I'm blowed if I can find what to tweak in the router control panel..... 8-(

[Solnyshok]

huh, your problem then is most probably related to problems with port forwarding. Try disabling firewall, enabling upnp and/or multicast, nat translation. I no longer have Linksys, unfortunately.

[Solnyshok]

Here is excerpt from my DLINK help file

Application Level Gateway (ALG) Configuration
...
RTSP
Allows applications that use Real Time Streaming Protocol to receive streaming media from the internet. QuickTime and Real Player are some of the common applications using this protocol.

[ziggyball]

Try putting your phone temporarily in your routers DMZ and see if that works. If it does you know that you'll need to do some port forwarding to get it working normally...

[belialh]

Originally Posted by ziggyball

Try putting your phone temporarily in your routers DMZ and see if that works. If it does you know that you'll need to do some port forwarding to get it working normally...

How does one put one's cell in DMZ mode?

[miraaa]

Excellent post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Very useful information particularly the last part

[SDK]

Sorry you say I do not quite understand, I liked the design of the casing of the mobile phone if Nokia is quite distinctive