This is a common problem you will come across when you reset your computer or router.  The problem is easy to fix you just have to know where to go to fix it.  Below is a walkthrough of what you will need to do in order to fix this problem...

How to Check your IP Address and Port Forwarding settings...

Step 1:  For Windows XP you will need to figure out what your internal IP address is and to get this all you need to do is the following... click start > run then type CMD, this will open up a command window.  In this command prompt type the following, ipconfig then hit enter.  Read the lines that come up and you will see IP Address, write this number down and go to the next step.

*Note* The IP address you will see here will look something like this...  192.168.1.101

Step 2: Open your internet explorer and get access to your router, this will be different depending on your router but for most all you need to do is type in the address of your router which is typically 192.168.1.1, you will want to type this into the address bar then hit enter.  If done correctly you will get a username and password prompt, type in your username and password to gain access then proceed to next step.

Step 3:  Once you gain access to your router you are going to need to find the section for port forwarding.  This section changes from router to router so I would suggest checking your user manual or go to the address below to get a walkthrough of your router.  For most cases the client has already set this up so it should be easy to check find but if you can’t be sure to visit the link below.

*Note* If you do not know how to setup port forwarding check this site for your router model and it will give you a walkthrough of how to do this.  The link to the page is...  http://www.portforward.com , at the top of the page you will see a section that says forwarding click this and it will bring you to a list of commonly used routers.  Select your router from this list and follow the steps to setup the port forwarding on your router.

Step 4:  As soon as you get into your port forwarding settings you will need to check to make sure that the IP address shown here matches the private IP that you got from step 1.  If your router was reset then you will need to follow the steps to re-setup your port forwarding to match the IP for your internal pc and make sure that the port is the same as the port you assigned in the windows media encoder.  As soon as your port forwarding has been setup start your encoder and test your stream. 

*Note* In most cases these first 4 steps is all that is needed to get the stream back up and running but in some cases you may need to assign your streaming pc a private static IP.  If this is the case please follow the steps listed below.

Setting up a private static IP on your streaming PC...

Step 1b:  See step 1 of this walkthrough.  You will need to know what IP range your router is using for its DHCP pool.  In most cases your pc will be assigned an address like this... 192.168.1.101

*Note* The first step isn’t very important as you will be setting up a static IP for your pc, the reason you should check this is to get an idea of what range of addresses are being used.  The other reason to do this step is so you can find out your default gateway address which is typically 192.168.1.1 (you will need to remember your default gateway address so you can enter it into your TCP/IP settings, which is explained in the next few steps).

Step 2b:  For this step you will need to access your computers control panel so you can change your TCP/IP settings to do this you will need to click start > control panel.  When you get to your control panel you will want to open the network connections section, here u will see a local area connection, right click this and select properties then select TCP/IP settings and select properties then proceed to the next step.

Step 3b:  When you get into the TCP/IP settings you will see a small window with a general and alternate configuration tabs at the top, you want to be on the general tab.  In this tab you will see something that says "Obtain IP address automatically" and "Use the following configuration" typically the tab will be set in the "Obtain IP automatically" section, you are going to want to move that to the "Use the following configuration" tab.  When you select the "Use following configuration" a couple boxes will turn white so you can enter information into them.  Proceed to Step 4b.

Step 4b:  After clicking the tab you will see an area to enter in your IP address, Subnet mask and Default gateway, you will need to add a few numbers to these which will allow you to give the PC a Static Private IP.  The numbers entered into this section depend on how you have your router setup but if u follow step 1b you will have the address u are currently using as well as your default gateway.  For the top box you will want to enter the following if your address scheme is using the 192.168.x.x address, the second box is for your subnet mask which will always be the same unless you are doing something more specialized with your setup, the default gateway will never change unless you change your addressing setup to something like 10.x.x.x or 172.x.x.x but for the standard user you will likely be using the following... (The numbers below are an example of a standard Linksys router address setup if you are using a different setup you will want to change accordingly)

IP Address = 192.168.1.20
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway = 192.168.1.1

*Note* the numbers above are dependent on your network setup but for most users this is how it will be setup.

Step 4b-1:  The next 2 boxes you will see at the bottom are where u will assign the address for your preferred DNS Server.  In this section you will want to enter in the same address as your default gateway. 

Preferred DNS Server = 192.168.1.1
Alternate DNS Server = Blank (there is no need to enter anything here).

*Note* The reason why you will use the same address as your default gateway is because it will forward and DNS setup from your ISP so that it can be used by your internal PC's.  The only time you would use a different number is if you are running a DNS server on your internal network.

Step 5b:  Once you have made the above changes click the apply button then click ok.  In some cases your computer may need restarted but if it does do not worry because your settings are saved and will not change.

Step 6b:  Everything is finished for assigning your internal PC a static IP now all that is needed is for you to check your router to be sure that the IP of your internal PC matches the IP you set for your port forwarding to do this follow steps 1-4 above this section. 

If you followed this walkthrough correctly and setup all the port forwarding properly all that is needed is for you to setup your windows media encoder and click play.  If problems continue call check that your public IP hasn’t changed because if it has and you are using a pull our servers will not know where to find your encoder, if this is the case follow my walkthrough on how to setup a no-ip address for use with our systems the link can be found below or you can simply find it here in our forums.

Link to No-IP walkthrough... 

http://dnn.netro.ca/Forum/tabid/58/forumid/12/postid/40/view/topic/Default.aspx

If all else fails feel free to contact our network specialists at our toll free number provided on our main page www.netro.ca