5.30 Prereleases; web interface acess/ports/config

[planetnine]

5.30 prerelease, web interface.

Trying to access REAPER installation from an Android tablet and getting a timeout. Do I need to open a port or port range on the Windows firewall?

It works from a web browser on the same machine as REAPER, but not from other devices on the same WiFi router. Any suggestion where to start?



>

[Sexan]

Well no port forwarding was required (at least for me) but if you are not sure you can change the port from 8080 to 80. That port is almost always open. So if works on 80 not 8080 then you will need to forward it

[karbomusic]

It should have asked the moment you enabled it in Reaper, maybe even with Win7 - neither of those should be open by default FYI - if 80 were allowed already, I'd be curious as to why.

Since it didn't ask, just create a new inbound rule for TCP that allows whichever port you wish using the first command below while running CMD as admin. This is the safe way to do it because it restricts the port being opened to Reaper only. You can make the port number anything you want >1024 just make sure what you use matches what you are using in reaper.

Create a rule (change red items to suit):
netsh advFirewall firewall add rule name="Reaper Web Control" dir=in action=allow edge=no remoteip=any protocol=TCP localport=8080 program="c:\temp\reaper\reaper.exe"

If you want to remove it:
netsh advFirewall firewall delete rule name="Reaper Web Control"

[nofish]

Originally Posted by Sexan

if you are not sure you can change the port from 8080 to 80. That port is almost always open. So if works on 80 not 8080 then you will need to forward it

That worked for me, thanks.

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by Sexan

Well no port forwarding was required (at least for me) but if you are not sure you can change the port from 8080 to 80. That port is almost always open. So if works on 80 not 8080 then you will need to forward it

Thanks!
That fixed it for me too

[mlprod]

Nice web interface! Perfect for sitting in the studiosofa.

May I suggest doing double tapping on the fader to set it back to 0dB.

[planetnine]

That worked, thank you Sexan

Are there any security implications in using port 80 here instead of 8080? I'm talkin external threats here, upstream of the router or via wifi (aside from our seven year old working out how to control it )?

Edit: fader isn't working on my Android tablet, default browser. Is there a fix beyond changing browser? Thankyou.



>

[Sexan]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

It should have asked the moment you enabled it in Reaper, maybe even with Win7 - neither of those should be open by default FYI - if 80 were allowed already, I'd be curious as to why.
[/B]

If you are asking me then I know this from prior experience (before win 7) as I've remember port 80 is used for mails and something else related (forgot what) but it was always opened on every system I've encountered. When fixing something via remove software I would instruct other side to just change the port to 80 (much easier than explaining port forward or firewall rules).

Maybe someone with more network knowledge could explain. Maybe I'm wrong

Anyway 8080 needs to be opened
Please try karbomusic rule for standard port

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by Sexan

If you are asking me then I know this from prior experience (before win 7) as I've remember port 80 is used for mails and something else related (forgot what) but it was always opened on every system I've encountered.

That would be a potential, albeit low, security risk - chances are sometime in the past a rule got added. Port 80 is reserved for http FYI but since your computer isn't a webserver by default, 80 shouldn't be allowed by default. If it is already allowed and you are now using it for Reaper, no big deal though, it just saves a step.

When fixing something via remove software I would instruct other side to just change the port to 80 (much easier than explaining port forward or firewall rules).

This is already built in... The OS running reaper should ask you (just like it did me) and you just click "allow" which achieves the simplicity you want. My instructions are only for when that doesn't happen. What I don't remember is if Win7 explicitly asks, I'm almost sure it does but would need to confirm. I have Win7 in a VM, give me a couple minutes to check. ......

Yes, Win7 should ask when we enable the web control surface (see test screenshot below); if it doesn't and we can't get it to work, run the commands I gave earlier. If we switch to 80 and that works, go for it but it really shouldn't by default.

Maybe someone with more network knowledge could explain.

That's me.

[Sexan]

Great! Thank you for info

[Justin]

Port 80 won't work on macOS, I don't think....

Anyway yes you may need to configure Windows Firewall appropriately for 8080 (or just allow reaper.exe full access)

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by planetnine

Are there any security implications in using port 80 here instead of 8080? )?


>

As far as 80 vs 8080, not really. It's also an internal rule to the machine, anything upstream still gets blocked at the router.

I am slightly curious why it was already opened for several of you though, likely something you did in the past that used the same port, you allowed and it's been there ever since. Windows firewall doesn't remove stale rules automatically IOW. If you ever want to change the port just use the commands I provided above.

[planetnine]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

...anything upstream still gets blocked at the router.

Figured this, but I'm not as network savvy as I used to be.

Originally Posted by karbomusic

I am slightly curious why it was already opened for several of you though, likely something you did in the past that used the same port, you allowed and it's been there ever since. Windows firewall doesn't remove stale rules automatically IOW. If you ever want to change the port just use the commands I provided above.

Maybe something opened it on install, or Windows leaves it open for one of its apps?

Not done firewalls since ZoneAlarm on Win98or XP



>

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by planetnine

Maybe something opened it on install, or Windows leaves it open for one of its apps?

>

The two VMs I checked were mostly vanilla installs and port 80 wasn't open by default. No biggie, it was just a curiosity.

My guess is it is something you used in the past - maybe OSC or something similar. Now whatever did used to use it, if it is still around and it and reaper run at the same time, the port is first come first serve just as a heads up.

[planetnine]

The only FW on this laptop is the Windows one (Win7-64 Pro), and I'm ashamed to say I don't know how to configure it. I find many Windows settings confusing and counterintuitive these days, I was raised on the settings of lower-level, finicky 98 and NT/2000 (and I've forgotten most of that). I'll take a look at opening 8080.



>

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by Justin

Port 80 won't work on macOS, I don't think....

Anyway yes you may need to configure Windows Firewall appropriately for 8080 (or just allow reaper.exe full access)

I can't seem to make it work over here, at all. Reaper is allowed all ports for TCP and UDP in W10 firewall, but upon creating a web interface, I just get "Cannot open port(s)" error... Wat do? :/

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

I can't seem to make it work over here, at all. Reaper is allowed all ports for TCP and UDP in W10 firewall, but upon creating a web interface, I just get "Cannot open port(s)" error... Wat do? :/

Screenshot your reaper config for the web interface if you don't mind since if Reaper is throwing the error, something has the port already or the wrong IP, try changing ports.

Next... Leave reaper out of the picture (but leave it running) and telnet to it... Telnet YOURIP PORT. Also netstat -ano will tell you if the port is open and listening and the PID of the app that owns the socket which in this case should be the PID of Reaper.

You really should just dedicate a specific port for Reaper.exe in the firewall FWIW - you could use a high port like 45000 or something which I think still falls within the default 16k for ephemeral but far above what most any other apps will use for listeners. If not then try something like 9090 or some other randomly made up port that is above the well-known port range.

[EvilDragon]

All ports are allowed for Reaper :/


telnet says connect failed, and netstat -ano doesn't even list Reaper's PID among active connections...

[cfillion]

Have you tried without using rc.reaper.fm?

[EvilDragon]

Yes, same thing.


BTW, it doesn't work even if I disable firewall completely!


I'm up for a TeamViewer session, if anyone's willing to help

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Reaper's PID among active connections...

Yea, the OS isn't allowing Reaper to open a port at all.

You should be able to open a port and the FW just wouldn't allow an outside client to connect if the FW. Is there any AV with end point protection installed, even that might not cause this error but just asking.

You could try running Reaper as admin (only as a test), to see if it still fails but honestly that initial setup should work even without the FW rules.

[EvilDragon]

I'm just using Windows Defender, no more ESET over here.

Running Reaper as admin didn't help :/


EDIT: Even adding port triggering/forwarding on my VDSL router, nothing budges. :/ I may have done that wrongly (I never did any such adjustments on my router...)


As said, I'm open for a TeamViewer session if you're willing to have a go at it

[cyrano]

Are you sure it isn't your router blocking things?

Some routers don't allow local routing between wireless and wired network segments.

[EvilDragon]

It worked a month or so ago, I recall. I didn't touch anything on the router...

And all I'm testing is basically localhost (my PC is connected to router via LAN), so trying to control stuff from Firefox or Edge on the same machine Reaper is running on, just testing it out. No workie.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by cyrano

Are you sure it isn't your router blocking things?

Some routers don't allow local routing between wireless and wired network segments.

The router can't prevent the local machine from opening it's own port.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

As said, I'm open for a TeamViewer session if you're willing to have a go at it

I may be able to but probably can't until maybe 10 ours from now, between now and then I'll pick me own brain. I may whip up a quick piece of code or script that will attempt to open a port and see if that fails without Reaper involved.

[EvilDragon]

I might still be online 10 hours from now.


Much obliged, karbo.

[karbomusic]

You can try this just for testing. It's super simple C# app that creates a TCP socket on the port of your choice.

http://wallsonic.com/TCPTest.zip

Usage:

CD via command line to the location you extracted to and run...

TCPTest YOURIP SOMEPORT

Start simple use the loopback address first:

TCPTest 127.0.0.1 4500

Then with your actual local IP as seen in ipconfig et al. If the creation of the listener is successful you can telnet to it and hit enter and likely get a response. And that port/IP combo should also show up in netstat -ano...



If it cannot create the listener it should print out the error message. It should run as-is on Win10 since I compiled using .NET 4.0 which should be there out of the box. If not, I'll recompile as needed and/or fix any bugs I missed while testing. It's possible Win10 will block/warn, just choose Run Anyway.

[karbomusic]

Just checking in ED.

[EvilDragon]

Sorry! Was away from home, wife had a checkup (she's due soon!). Will check this out in a minute.

[karbomusic]

You allow something like child birth to get in the way of reaper, it's an outrage I tell ya (congrats).

[EvilDragon]

OK so if I did this correctly, I get "Hello from TCP listener!" message over here. So first I did tcptest 192.168.5.15 9000, which created the listener, then opened telnet, and then "o 192.168.5.15 9000", which then said creating connection... did nothing for a bit, but when I hit Enter, I got that message.

I also see both tcptest and telnet in netstat -ano. Telnet connecting from a pretty high port to port 9000 which I opened (used port 50182).


Also of course, when running TCPtest and telnet for the first time, firewall asked me to allow access, which of course I did.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

OK so if I did this correctly, I get "Hello from TCP listener!" message over here. So first I did tcptest 192.168.5.15 9000, which created the listener, then opened telnet, and then "o 192.168.5.15 9000", which then said creating connection... did nothing for a bit, but when I hit Enter, I got that message.

I also see both tcptest and telnet in netstat -ano. Telnet connecting from a pretty high port to port 9000 which I opened (used port 50182).

So that means it had no problem opening up a port but Reaper does. You are correct, you have to hit enter a time or two for the telnet client to work because the listener has to actually receive a byte of data before it responds and I didn't code in to do that automatically.

Under normal circumstances, Reaper would throw that error if the port was already in use, wrong IP used or similar so I'm trying to think of what other reason this could be - wish Justin gave us the actual OS error code when it fails assuming it isn't literally the code for "can't open port" but usually there is a hex or numeric code as to why... not found, access denied etc.

Edit: I wonder how he is pulling the IP from your interface, if there were several (which is possible) and the wrong one came back first, this could happen (maybe).

[EvilDragon]

It does say the correct IP of my computer, though:

[cyrano]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

It worked a month or so ago, I recall. I didn't touch anything on the router...

And all I'm testing is basically localhost (my PC is connected to router via LAN), so trying to control stuff from Firefox or Edge on the same machine Reaper is running on, just testing it out. No workie.

Sorry, missed the localhost part.

Any Windows updates?

What happens if you type in the ip number instead of localhost in the browser's URL bar?

And congrats already. Your first one?

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

It does say the correct IP of my computer, though:

Crap, I missed that, I see it now at the beginning of the lice cap. When it is showing 8080 and an IP, can you get to it from that same machine using 8080 from say your browser? http:// 192.168.5.15:8080? I'd like to prove it works locally before worrying about a router (it still shouldn't complain when changing ports though). Something is odd since we just proved we can open and connect to some randomly chosen port outside of Reaper.

Sorry if I missed earlier, coffee time.

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by cyrano

Sorry, missed the localhost part.

Any Windows updates?

Running W10 Creators update here.

Originally Posted by cyrano

What happens if you type in the ip number instead of localhost in the browser's URL bar?

If you mean, the IP address to access the web interface, same thing - does not open.

Originally Posted by cyrano

And congrats already. Your first one?

Thanks! Yes, first one. We still don't know what's it gonna be

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

Crap, I missed that, I see it now at the beginning of the lice cap. When it is showing 8080 and an IP, can you get to it from that same machine using 8080 from say your browser? http:// 192.168.5.15:8080? I'd like to prove it works locally before worrying about a router (it still shouldn't complain when changing ports though). Something is odd.

I tried a whole bunch of ports, 8000, 8080, 9000, 9100, 30000... nothing worked.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

I tried a whole bunch of ports, 8000, 8080, 9000, 9100, 30000... nothing worked.

I had a late edit to say we just proved we can open and connect to an IP:Port combo on your machine but reaper can't. I'm trying to think of any tracing that might be worthwhile but that's more difficult since it is only the setup of the listener we care about. I really wish they'd give us a /debug switch that spit out logging in reaper.

Let me pull a portable of the version you have just to have apples/apples.

[EvilDragon]

Hope Justin chimes in here, too