# Sling streaming path when on LAN ?



## swbca (Mar 29, 2013)

Related to this question . . . Our home network has a Watchguard firewall and is configured like a bank with only neccesary outbound ports available for each system. All home routers allow 65,000 outbound TCP ports and 65,000 outbound UPD ports. This firewall only allows about 15 outbound ports as needed by specific systems on the local network.

I just got Dish Saturday and Installed the Dish-Anywhere app on my phone. Initially I kept getting the message that "your receiver is not online". So I added tcp port 5001 to the list of available OUTBOUND ports on the firewall but that didn't fix the problem. So I temporarily opened all outbound ports for the Dish receiver, then it worked.

Question 1. What outbound ports are required for Sling to work ?

Question 2. If I am using "Dish Anywhere" with my phone connected to the same home network as the reciever, is the communication between the phone and the receiver just local on the LAN or is it being routed through a Dish data center ?

Its obvious the Dish receiver has an agent that maintains a full time "keep-Alive" connection to Dish so Dish-Anywhere clients can can connect to the receiver through a Dish facility. So after the intial connection between the Phone and the Receiver through a Dish Data center, does the actual streaming content go through a Dish facility when the Dish-Anywhere client is on the same LAN as the receiver ?

I am guessing it goes through Dish like all other outbound-agent-based remote access programs. (Like GoToMyPC, Bomgar, ScreenConnect etc.) Even if you are on the same local network, if you use one these programs to get to another PC on your local network, the connection is still routed through the outside service provider.


----------



## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I can't answer for Hoppers with Sling but I know standalone Slingboxes use port [strike]8001[/strike] 5001 by default and can be configured to use other ports if desired.


----------



## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

swbca said:


> Question 2. If I am using "Dish Anywhere" with my phone connected to the same home network as the reciever, is the communication between the phone and the receiver just local on the LAN or is it being routed through a Dish data center ?


If the phone is on the same network the stream is routed via the LAN.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Stuart Sweet said:


> I can't answer for Hoppers with Sling but I know standalone Slingboxes use port 8001 by default and can be configured to use other ports if desired.


Nope.


> The Slingbox uses port *5001* when it communicates with your router, so this port needs to be open for your Slingbox to send video outside of your network.


----------



## swbca (Mar 29, 2013)

LtMunst said:


> If the phone is on the same network the stream is routed via the LAN.


OK . . . when my phone initially reported that the receiver was not online, I assume it meant the receiver was not connected to Dish services operated by Dish. So the phone gets the Guide from Dish, then checks to see of the Reciever is On-Line *with Dish *when you make a program selection, but then the Dish Anywhere app knows enough to check to see if the Receiver is local . . . rather than connecting through the internet . . . does that sound right ?


----------



## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

P Smith said:


> Nope.


Thanks for pointing out the typo, there, Smith.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

no one is immune from mistakes, typos, etc


----------



## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

swbca said:


> OK . . . when my phone initially reported that the receiver was not online, I assume it meant the receiver was not connected to Dish services operated by Dish. So the phone gets the Guide from Dish, then checks to see of the Reciever is On-Line *with Dish *when you make a program selection, but then the Dish Anywhere app knows enough to check to see if the Receiver is local . . . rather than connecting through the internet . . . does that sound right ?


Exactly.


----------



## swbca (Mar 29, 2013)

I hope its OK to ask an unrelated Question on this thread . . .

I have a modulator on one of the Joeys sending the modulated signal to our original home TV distribution system. The old cabling is 100% isolated from Dish/Hopper/Joey cabling. And the old distribtuion system cabling has been physically disconnected from our Comcast cable service.

But, while tinkering with the Dish service installed on Saturday, I connected a HiDef TV to the modulated output of one of the Joeys. The modulator is set on Channel 3, BUT on the TV's tuner, Channel 11 (our local channel 11 station) appeared on the TV in a crystal clear HiDef mode, unlike the poor quality of the modulated programming shown on the TV's channel 4. The Channel 11 station (on TV Tuner) was identified as "KARE11-HiDef". How did Channel 11 get on this isolated network only connected to a modulator output. ? 

On the TV's tuner, only channel 4 and Channel 11 had programming . . no other channels.

This is a mystery to me, but I am completely new hopper w/Joeys.


----------



## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

swbca said:


> The modulator is set on Channel 3, BUT on the TV's tuner, Channel 11 (our local channel 11 station) appeared on the TV in a crystal clear HiDef mode, unlike the poor quality of the modulated programming shown on the TV's channel 4. The Channel 11 station (on TV Tuner) was identified as "KARE11-HiDef". How did Channel 11 get on this isolated network only connected to a modulator output. ?
> 
> On the TV's tuner, only channel 4 and Channel 11 had programming . . no other channels.
> 
> This is a mystery to me, but I am completely new hopper w/Joeys.


Your TV probably has a built in OTA ATSC tuner that happens to be picking up channel 11 on its own.


----------



## swbca (Mar 29, 2013)

LtMunst said:


> Your TV probably has a built in OTA ATSC tuner that happens to be picking up channel 11 on its own.


I suppose I should keep the TV Antenna I installed in the Attic 20 years ago. Someday in my future retirement I probably won't be able to afford all the ISP, Cell and TV bills.

If channel 11 came in clear HiDefinition with no antenna connected to the coax network (fed only by modulators), would a 20 year old antenna help pick up other Hi-Def OTA stations, or do you need a different type of antenna ?


----------



## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

swbca said:


> If channel 11 came in clear HiDefinition with no antenna connected to the coax network (fed only by modulators), would a 20 year old antenna help pick up other Hi-Def OTA stations, or do you need a different type of antenna ?


Old antenna should work fine.


----------



## PhantomOG (Feb 7, 2007)

Stuart Sweet said:


> I can't answer for Hoppers with Sling but I know standalone Slingboxes use port [strike]8001[/strike] 5001 by default and can be configured to use other ports if desired.


hmmm... I just installed a NAS on my home network that uses 5001 (I setup the port forwarding for it on my router). If I now get a sling adapter for my Hopper, will this cause issues?


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

no, these are different devices ... 
imagine how all your PC in home network using same HTTP port#80


----------



## swbca (Mar 29, 2013)

PhantomOG said:


> hmmm... I just installed a NAS on my home network that uses 5001 (I setup the port forwarding for it on my router). If I now get a sling adapter for my Hopper, will this cause issues?


Port 5001 for Sling is *outbound* and does not interfere with Port forwarding 5001 which is *inbound*. Outbound 5001 is already open on any home router.

You would only have an issue if you needed to port forward 5001 to more than 1 device, because your consumer router only has 1 public IP to listen for incoming port 5001 so it can only forward port 5001 to one internal device.


----------



## PhantomOG (Feb 7, 2007)

excellent. thanks for the education guys.


----------



## jcastner2721 (Apr 4, 2016)

I had this problem when I was at work. Obviously I dont have access to the router settings so instead I logged on to my VPN and tried connecting to Dish Anywhere and had no problem. Simple work around ecpecially if you have no access to the router.


----------

