Hello Bob,

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Is there a way to set up either my router, phone app, or combination thereof to be able to access my BIAB machine at home running 2011 from wifi OTHER than while on my network, or even over 3G?



You can connect anywhere in the world, via either WiFi or 3G, although 3G might usually be slower. There are a couple of concepts it is helpful for you to understand. One is private versus public IP addresses.

Each device on a network (computer, router, etc.) has to have a unique IP address. For example, you have a Local Area Network (LAN) that consists of your desktop PC, router, perhaps another laptop, and perhaps your iPhone. Each of those four devices has a unique IP address.

But this doesn't mean that no other device in the world can have the same IP address, because the outside world can't "see" past your router. Your router is the gateway between your LAN and the Wide Area Network (WAN), i.e. the outside world. Your router might have the IP 192.168.0.1 (typical) for your LAN, but it will have a different one for the WAN. THAT one is the one you need to know to be able to connect from anywhere in the world.

To find out what it is, you can simple open the BB2GO dialog in Band-in-a-Box (last item under the Window menu), and click the [Find My IP] button. This launches a website ( http://www.whatsmyip.org/ ) that tells you what your public IP is. Another way you could find out, is to log into your router and look at the settings there (usually the 'device information' or 'status' page).

Note that the Band-in-a-Box Server will display your private IP, not public. Similarly, opening a cmd window and running the ipconfig utility will only tell you your private IP.

Another concept that is useful to understand is static versus dynamic IP addresses. It is unusual for typical homes to have static ip addresses. To get a static IP address you need to request one from your ISP. Otherwise, you'll have a dynamic IP address. This is an address that is assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider when you log into the network, from a pool of available IP addresses that it has. It may change from time to time, so this means that you *may* need to occasionally change the IP address you use to connect. Fortunately, it typically lasts a long time, but it depends on your ISP. For example, my home IP hasn't changed for years.

One last thing... you won't be able to connect to your computer unless you set up a couple of port forwarding rules on your router. This allows your iPhone to communicate with your desktop PC from behind your router. The port forwarding settings are typically under the 'advanced' section, but varies between routers. The ports that you need to forward to your desktop are TCP 6789 and UDP 6790.

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Also, when I create a song and it's sent back to my phone as an MP4, where does that file go? Am I limited to playing that file back in the app or is there a way to export it somehow...to attach to an email or something similar?



At this time you can only play it in the app.

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Finally, is there a way to access my song library at home from my iPhone app, or is this strictly for punching in chords in the app and generating the tunes. If I could somehow access my BnB song library at home from my app, that would be awesome, but it doesn't seem to see any of my songs when I try to "Get Songs" from the Server option of the File menu in the iPhone app.



Place the songs in the \bb\BB2Go folder, and they will be visible by the app. You can have subfolders in the BB2Go folder.

Andrew
PG Music Inc.