My Movies Wiki

Multi Zone

Modified: 2009/03/10 09:52 by admin - Uncategorized
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Multi-zone Connection

When installing My Movies, you have a choice of a My Movies Server/Client version, or a Client version only. The Server/Client version holds both the server and the client parts, and this version must be installed on the machine where other machines should be connected to, or it must be the one installed if you only have one machine, and you do not need to operate in a multi-zone environment.

After installing the Server/Client version, you must run the Collection Management program for the first time - this will create your database on the database server, and gets everything set up automatically. The Server/Client version will automatically configure itself to be connected to its own "Localhost" - if you would like to connect its client parts to another server, you can do so from the "Connect To Server" menu item.

When installing the Client version, it must be connected to a Server with the Server/Client version installed - when you start the Collection Management program for the first time, it will prompt you for the name or IP address of the server, and allow you to connect. Before you can connect to your server, you must read the parts below about file sharing and firewalls. If later on you would like to connect to another server, you can do this from the "Connect To Server" menu item.

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Multi-zone Users, Workgroups and Domains

When connecting to a My Movies server, the client will attempt to connect to the database, and a hidden file share on the server, created by the My Movies installer, which means that the client should be able to access both the running SQL Server Express database server, as well as the file system on the server, without being prompted for access rights on the file system part. As you will probably also be sharing your online stored movies between servers, you need the correct access to the file system.

To be able to directly access the file system between different machines, the machines are required to be configured to use the same “Workgroup”, or for the few that need it, the same “Domain”. After configuring all your PCs to be part of the same workgroup, the users who will access the server should be created with the exact same username and password on both the client machine, and on the server, meaning that if a user logs in on a client machine with the username “Peter”, a user should exist on the server machine also with the username “Peter”, and with the exact same password.

By doing this, the client will not be prompted for username and password when accessing shared files, folders or other services on the server machine, allowing the client to easily share the files between them, and allowing My Movies to connect to its hidden file share. Also check the FireWall section (below) to be sure your firewall is open between machines.

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Sharing Movie Files and Folders

If you would like to share your movie files or folders between your machines, be sure to follow the recommendations on workgroups and users as written in the above section. When you have done this, you must enable sharing for the folders you would like to share on the server machine.

To share a folder on the server machine so that clients can access them, right click the folder you would like to share, and press “Share”. Depending on your operating system, and whether or not you have configured your system for advanced file sharing, the dialog will differ, but it is likely you must write name of the user(s) to share the folder with. If you would like to share the folder with “Peter”, type in “Peter”, and give him write access to the folder. If you would like to share with all users created on the host machine, type in “Everyone” – don’t worry, “Everyone” is not really “Everyone”, but only “Everyone” created as a user on the host machine.

When linking to your shared movies from within My Movies, or when configuring folder monitoring to monitor a file system, it is important to point My Movies to the shared part of the file system. If on the server machine you have movies in "D:\Movies", and, you have created a share for this folder called "Movies", then you must link your titles to "\\servername\Movies" instead of "D:\Movies" - when using the browse dialog, you can do this by browsing to your local network instead of your local files. Similarly, with the folder monitoring configuration, the monitored folder must be the shared folder, and not the local directory - the reason for this is that the local directory will only be visible from the server machine itself, whereas the shared folders will be visible on both the host machine and on the clients. If you fail to configure this correctly, My Movies will prompt you about the location not being found when you try to play your titles from a client machine.

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FireWalls

Windows FireWall Configuration

Windows FireWall Configuration


If you have an enabled firewall on the server, this must be open for both file sharing and for the database server, otherwise the clients will not be able to connect to it. If you are only running in a single zone, with only one machine configured, you do not need to open up your firewall. When opening up items in your firewall, it is recommended that your home network is behind a router, and not connected to the internet, in which case your router will serve as a firewall for connections coming from outside your home network. The guide is based on opening up the required items on "Windows Firewall", if you have another firewall running, you must refer to its manual for how to configure it. With “Windows Firewall”, go to the “Control Panel” and select “Windows Firewall”, and change its settings to create an exception for “File and Printer Sharing”, see the screendump below. My Movies will now be able to connect to your file system, if your machines are within the same workgroup or domain, and the users are created with same password on both server and client. See the section "Multi-zone Users, Workgroups and Domains" for details.

Configuring Windows Firewall to accept File and Printer Sharing You must also open up your firewall for connections to the SQL Server Express database server. With “Windows Firewall”, go to the “Control Panel” and select “Windows Firewall”. Press the "Exceptions" tab, and click "Add program...", locate the file "sqlservr.exe", by default located in "Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\", and then again click "Add program...", and locate the file sqlbrowser.exe, by default located in "Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe".