Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet

Under iTunes 4.0, a lot of people started using music sharing to access the music on their home computers from work. Sadly, iTunes 4.0.1 removed this feature due to piracy concerns. Fortunately, you can re-enable iTunes sharing across subnets with the freeware Rendezvous Beacon.

After downloading and launching Rendezvous Beacon, create a new Beacon with the following values:

Beacon Enabled: (checked)
Service Name: (descriptive name)
Service Type: _daap._tcp.
Port Number: 3689
Text Record: (empty)
Enable Host Proxy: (checked)
Host Name: (rendezvous name of your home computer)
IP Address: (ip address of home computer)

Now you'll be able to access the iTunes shared music on your home computer through your work computer's iTunes as if they were both on the same subnet.

Note 1: I feel that iTunes, because of its five-connection limit and the need to authorize computers to play purchased music, is a very weak platform for pirating music. This hint is intended simply for restoring a very useful feature that was removed by iTunes 4.0.1 because of Apple's fears of music pirating. Please don't ruin this for the rest of us by trying to iTunes for pirating.

Note 2: With Rendezvous Beacon you can use a similar process to publish services via Rendezvous that are served up by non Rendezvous enabled servers. This is potentially very useful for a net admin.

[robg adds: Unlike hints on defeating copy protected songs, which clearly violate the infamous DMCA, I don't believe there's anything inherently illegal about accessing your own music from another location. However, if I'm wrong, I guess this article (but hopefully not the site) will soon vanish in a puff of legal smoke.

The other reason that I feel OK about publishing this one is that there are a ton of other ways to do the same thing. For instance, search macosxhints for "streaming," and you can read several hints on how to set up your own streaming server to send your music to another location. Also, an anonymous hinster pointed out a command line program called mDNSResponder that does the same thing.

People that are truly interested in pirating music are going to use one of the P2P applications, not a measly little iTunes five-connection-limited application that requires an additional third-party application with which to actually steal the music...]

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Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: figz on Jun 10, '03 10:35:20AM

Is there a way to listen to iTunes-streamed music on a Windows machine?

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: joesiv00 on Jan 20, '04 12:36:21PM

I recently found this handy app that will accomplish the same task as "Network Beacon" and it works with Windows!

Rendezvous-Proxy is a Java applet that will run on Windows and Linux/*nix.

I first created a SSH tunnel for port 3689 between the work machine and the iTunes server. Then I ran and configured Rendezvous-Beacon so that it pointed to the local tunnel. (Follow the same instructions for Network Beacon.) Launched iTunes and my (password protected!) library showed up on my Windows work machine!

Also, if iTunes is not running at home, and you can ssh into that machine, you can launch it from the command line. (I think your user needs to be logged in, though, and be the "active" session. I'll need to test more to confirm...)

Good luck!
-Joe

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: whodean on Feb 13, '04 10:38:51AM

Can someone please post a step by step process for this, I would LOVE to be able to access my iTunes library on my home Mac on my Windoze work machine....

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: Fofer on Jun 10, '03 11:21:27AM

You also could turn on file sharing and access your music folder as a network volume. Even make an alias of your remote Mac's iTunes music folder. There are lots of different ways for the "power user" to accomplish the same (or similar) things. Apple just had to appease the record labels and at least make it difficult for "regular folks."

Just to clarify...
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 11, '03 12:06:56AM

* You install Rendezvous Beacon on the LOCAL machine that is not serving tunes

* You set up a Beacon with proxy information for the REMOTE machine that is serving iTunes streams (i.e. the "home computer")

* Once the beacon is running, you will see the Service Name you entered show up in iTunes

* Both iTunes still must be the same version, of course.

Need to some help
Authored by: shawnf on Jun 11, '03 02:08:22PM

O.k. guys, I've never been able to get the streaming feature to work (because of my ignorance). I want to go the opposite way, to share my music at work with my home computer however this is where I get tripped up. We have a small network set up with a router and all so I can get my network IP address (which I assume is given by the router), I'm not sure of what the router IP address is or if I even need it, and then I have a DNS number which I honestly don't know anything about. Any help would be appreciated. Like which IP do I use, how to go about setting it up,....anything really, I'm clueless.....Thanks guys!

Need to some help
Authored by: Tonex on Jun 11, '03 04:49:33PM

Have you tried posting this on the forums?

---
Remember - in a million years we'll all be dust, and none of this will matter

Need clarification for the clarification
Authored by: iPost on Jun 12, '03 02:23:32AM

* You install Rendezvous Beacon on the LOCAL machine that is not serving tunes

Okay. Let's use the example that I've tried for two days now unsuccessfully... Let's say I installed it on my HOME computer, set up a beacon with my HOME computer info... exported it, and emailed it to WORK. I left it running at HOME.

* You set up a Beacon with proxy information for the REMOTE machine that is serving iTunes streams (i.e. the "home computer")

So I get to WORK and import the beacon for HOME. Now both HOME and WORK have iTunes open, sharing on, and beacons on for the HOME computer.

Nothing happens.

I try making my WORK beacon my WORK info.

Nothing happens.

* Once the beacon is running, you will see the Service Name you entered show up in iTunes

Service name in iTunes? No comprende.

Help!

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: siouxzieb on Jul 18, '03 12:28:30PM

i followed your instructions to the letter on my work mac so as to access the playlist on my home mac. i'm now seeing my so-named "home tunes" show up in my work itunes source/playlists, but when i click on it, it immediately de-selects itself, so i'm never able to actually use it. am i missing something?

thanks,
suzanne

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: FACEMILK on Jul 28, '03 12:03:27AM

> but when i click on it, it immediately de-selects itself

I experienced similar behavior when I first tried iTunes sharing on a LAN (not through internet). It was either the builtin firewall (Sytem Prefs > Sharing > Firewall) or the web proxy I installed (System Prefs > Network > Proxies). Turning one of those off fixed the problem. But I prefer those to sharing tunes so I re-enabled them and forgot about the whole thing.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: gordonjones on Aug 11, '03 01:47:25PM

any ideas why my config doesn't work?

i'm trying to access my home itunes server (g3 tower) from work (powerbook) - the home server is behind a linksys cable router. i've fwd'd port 3689 to the server, enabled sharing on the server's itunes, the beacon is configured (on the pbook) as described above and the beacon is on.

the beacon shows up in itunes but just spins away "loading House iTunes Server". eventually it gives up. i have tried turning off the itunes sharing password, opening additional ports, etc. to no avail.

also, i'm able to see the server when i'm within the home LAN (via the beacon), so i suspect it's a router setting that i'm missing.

our work LAN is fairly simple with no filtering, proxies, etc. that i know of.

any tips/tricks are most appreciated.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: hulette on Sep 10, '03 04:31:23PM

I have pretty much the same setup, and am having the same problem. I know the connection is correct, because I am able to connect to the web server, FTP, file sharing, etc., on my home machine from my work machine, and I can select and connect in iTunes from home.

It looks like this topic has been abandoned, so I'm hoping someone will see this and know how to help. Thanks!

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: agoodale on Nov 03, '03 01:32:18PM

I think I know what the problem is. I have a similar config as yours. I'm trying to connect to my home machine, behind a Netgear router, from my work machine running iTunes for Windows XP.

I create the beacon to point to my router's IP address. The router uses port forwarding to send all traffic on port 3689 to my Mac running iTunes.

I did some packet sniffing and noticed that the iTunes requests are HTTP 1.1. In the HTTP headers, the "Host:" header is the IP address of my router, not the Mac itself. This may be causing iTunes to realize that the request is coming from a machine outside the subnet, and thus it doesn't respond.

Try putting your Mac directly on the internet and see if that works. My guess is that it will. I'm not sure how to workaround this.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: bluehz on Nov 03, '03 10:29:02PM

Don't you need to create the beacon on the server machine where the iTunes you wish to share is located? Or am I missing something here...

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: ecammit on Nov 19, '03 01:05:30PM

I was having problems, so here is what I did. It works too.

On both client and server:

Open port 3689 on the firewall in the sharing system preference for incomming for TCP packets.

On the server:

Start up iTunes and leave open.
Turn on "Share My Music" in iTunes preferences.
Turn on remote login in the "Sharing" panel on System Preferences
If you are using a router to connect to the internet, be sure to turn on port forwarding for your router. Forward incomming tcp packets on port 3689 to port 3689 on your server computer and tcp packets on port 22 to port 22 on your server computer.

On the client:

Get and install "Rendezvous Beacon"
Set up like above, but for the hostname and ip address use:
Host Name: localhost
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
Open a terminal and type:
```
ssh -L 3689:<server or router ip>:3689 -l <username> -N <server or router ip></server> &
```
where
```
<server or router ip></server>
```
is the ip of your server or router (without the greater than less than) and where
```
<username>
```
is your short user name on the server
Open iTunes
and turn OFF "Share my music"
and turn ON "Look for Shared Music"

Now select the item in the source list the corresponds to what you named the Rendezvous Beacon service that you set up. If you don't see it, then you need to make sure rendezvous beacon is open and that the beacon you created has the box checked next to it. If you still don't see it, check to make sure that you entered the data for the beacon properly.

Other possible trouble spots:

If you restart your computer (or possibly log out) you will have to open the console and type that command again.
If all you see is a duplicate of the library on your client computer, you need to turn off share my music in the preferences.

I hope this helps!

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: ecammit on Nov 19, '03 01:08:59PM

note, the </sever> text appearing in the last post should be removed. It did not appear in the preview, but got entered in when I published the hint. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The command in the terminal should be:
ssh -L 3689:<server or router IP/DNS>:3689 -l <short username on server> -N <server or router IP/DNS> &

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: stukoch on Jan 14, '04 08:21:46PM

To Cool - Works for me!

Serving from a Windows 2000 box with iTunes 4.2 behind a Linksys router. Client is a iBook running Network Beacon 1.0.1 and iTunes 4.2

Now I can finally move all my music off my iBook - I love this site!

-Stu

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: turkchgo on Jan 15, '04 01:45:04PM

The answer to this riddle is correct by ecammit above, the problem seems to be that having similar names or having "share my music" running on the copy of iTunes you're trying to connect from blocks the beacon from working.

So for example, if your WORK copy of iTunes is sharing music and you're trying to connect to your HOME computer by spoofing/proxying a local Rendezvous beacon, your WORK computer is going to override the machine you're trying to connect to.

Once I turned "share my music" OFF on my work computer, I could load the library of my home computer no problem. And I was having the same problem as everyone else, I could see the beacon share, but iTunes would just sit there spinning trying to load the shared library from home. As soon as I turned sharing off on the work computer, the home computer's library loaded lickity split.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: ecammit on Jan 29, '04 11:00:14AM

Ignore my previous posts, this option works much better.

Ok, here are some new additions that should allow you to continue to share your music on your own computer at your office, and at the same time you shouldn't have to open a port on the firewall of either computer!

Also, I will present two options. You can either allow other people on the subnet of your client (ie the people at work) also share your connection if you want, or you can lock it down so that they cannot (recommended unless you have a really fast upload rate on your server).

For these instructions, I define the Server computer to be the computer that actually contains the music files (usually your home computer). I define the client to be the computer you want to play the remote files on (usually your work computer).

Start up iTunes and leave open.
Turn on "Share My Music" in iTunes preferences.
Turn on remote login in the "Sharing" panel on System Preferences
If you are using a router to connect to the internet, be sure to turn on port forwarding for your router. Forward incomming tcp packets on port on port 22 to port 22 on your server computer.

NOTE: You only have to do this on one computer within the subnet you want to share your music if you choose to do so.

Get and install "Rendezvous Beacon"
Pick a port to use. Make sure you aren't using the port for anything. Also make sure that it isn't a priviliged port. Also don't choose 3689, or you will have to uncheck "Share my music" in the preferences on the client computer. I recommend port 4689.
Set up like below, but for the hostname and ip address use the hostname and address of your client computer if you want to share, or use localhost and 127.0.0.1 if you do not. Also use the port you picked in step 2:
- Beacon Enabled: (checked)
- Service Name: (descriptive name)
- Service Type: _daap._tcp.
- Port Number: (the port you chose, 4689 perhaps?)
- Text Record: (empty)
- Enable Host Proxy: (checked)
- Host Name: (rendezvous name of your client computer or localhost)
- IP Address: (ip address of client computer or 127.0.0.1)
If you want to share, and you have your firewall active, open the port you chose in step 2

Open a terminal and type:
sharing:

ssh -f -g -L 3689:localhost:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

not sharing:

ssh -f -L 3689:localhost:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

where:

<username on server>

is your username on the server
and:

 < server or router ip>

is the address of your server or router

Open iTunes
turn ON "Look for Shared Music" in the preferences
ONLY if you chose port 3689 in step 2 will you have to turn OFF "Share my music" in the preferences

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: hangon on Feb 04, '04 07:39:23PM

when u write:
sharing:
ssh -f -g -L 3689:localhost:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

are u sure that it is correct ....
i will expect something like this:

ssh -f -g -L 4689:localhost:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

or like this:

ssh -f -g -L 3689:localhost:4689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

am i wrong?

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: ecammit on Feb 04, '04 11:21:04PM

I appoligize, it should be:

ssh -f -g -L 4689:localhost:3689 -l  -N

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: cembry on Feb 27, '04 04:23:23PM

I tried this and it seemed to work great. I actually have access to my home library. But every song I try to play will play for about 10-20 seconds and then just stop and move to the next song. Any idea why?

I have MacOS 10.2.6 at home (server) and Windows2000 at work (client).

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: bluehz on Feb 29, '04 12:14:40AM

I have successfully shared my iTunes Library outside my LAN (across the internet) to a user running Windows NT with a combination of Rendezvous Proxy and mt-daapd. My goal was to setup a server that would allow interaction with the library without having to have iTunes open. mt-daapd is a very nice Rendezvous iTunes server you run on the machine where your audio files are that you wish to share. Rendezvous Proxy is a cross-platform java app that runs on the client (remote person wishing to access your itunes library).

I am currently working on some documentation and a Mac installer for mt-daapd for the developer so hopefully they will be available soon. Until then you will need to compile it yourself. You could in fact do without the mt-daapd server as long as you leave your itunes open, but it has been my experience that iTunes is unrealiable as the server end of it. The nice thing about mt-daapd is that it supports playlists and smart playlists, plus it can be built on many unix variants (Linux, etc).

[ Reply to This | # ]

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: ecammit on Feb 04, '04 11:24:17PM

My appoligies, but the above should read:

sharing:

ssh -f -g -L 4689:localhost:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

ssh -f -L 4689:localhost:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

Thanks to hangon for catching this.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: awittekind on Mar 02, '04 10:31:48AM

Help Please!

I have followed the instructions very carefully but I am still not able to connect. I get an error on my client machine when trying to connect to the shared library that I can't connect to port 4689. In my terminal window I get this error -- channel 2: open failed: connect failed: Connection refused
-- Do you have any idea why this is happening?

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: bluehz on Mar 03, '04 01:43:02AM

Rendezvous Proxy is MUCH easier!
http://ileech.sourceforge.net/index.php?content=RendezvousProxy-Tutorial

and it works!

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: ecammit on Mar 10, '04 04:16:23PM

Some people have reported that they are getting a "channel 2: open failed: connect failed: Connection refused" error from ssh with the lines I provided. If this is the case, try changing the 'localhost' in the lines I provided to '127.0.0.1'.

So,
sharing:

ssh -f -g -L 4689:127.0.0.1:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

ssh -f -L 4689:127.0.0.1:3689 -l <username on server> -N < server or router ip>

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: dbudde on May 05, '04 10:56:42AM

OK, I have this working now. Thanks for all the tips. Question though, when I put my client to sleep, and then wake it and run iTunes and try to connect to shared music on the server, I get the following error:

The shared music library is not accessible for an unknown reason (-3260).

How do I re-enable the 4689 port mapping without rebooting the machine? If I just re-execute the ssh command, I get the following message:

bind: Address already in use
channel_setup_fwd_listener: cannot listen to port: 4689
Could not request local forwarding

Also how does one get all this to happen automatically instead of opening a terminal and paste the command in manually after a reboot.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: dbudde on May 05, '04 03:19:55PM

Nevermind. I found a nice little ssh manager app (ssh tunnel manager).

http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/stm/

You can add this to your startup items and it will setup your port forwarding. You can start and stop this with a single click also.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: genericuser on Nov 12, '05 05:19:56PM

Another way to access iTunes and other rendezvous apps remotely is to use Zerospan - it's GPL too.

Re-enable iTunes sharing outside local subnet
Authored by: badtz on Sep 13, '07 02:59:42AM

has anyone been able to get this to work with JUST network beacon without using SSH?

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