Source-Connect Network Guide

This document is designed to assist you or your IT/Network administrators to configure your network to allow Source­-Connect traffic in and out of your firewalled or NAT network.

Notes

• 'local' means the internal static IP of the Pro Tools machine, e.g. 192.168.1.5, where the machine is behind NAT. If the Pro Tools machine is on DHCP, you should provide the machine with a static NAT IP first.
• Source­-Connect requires access to certain servers. While we try to maintain the same IP addresses for these domains we cannot guarantee it will never change. If you need this information, please contact the support team.

Configure

1. Port forward/map the following UDP ports to the local IP: 6000 ­ 6001. If using Source-Connect Pro, the above ports may be modified to preferred ports, between 1024 and 65535. The ports must be an even number plus the port immediately following. For example, 10060 (even number) and 10061 (number following), or 25980 and 25981.

For detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to set up port forwarding on your router, read through this article.

2. Ensure the firewall allows inbound access on the 2 selected UDP ports. Once you have done this, you can log in. Then, to check that your UDP ports are not firewalled and are mapped to your local IP, the Settings panel has a port status message.

Source­-Connect is peer to peer, and for the network test to return successful you will need to allow outbound/inbound UDP traffic from the STUN Servers. Note that this rule is not necessarily required for successful operation of Source­-Connect, it simply allows Source-Connect to login faster and better guarantee a connection. As long as the IP address of the connection partner you wish to use is allowed in your firewall then Source­-Connect will function as expected.

3. (For Source-Connect Pro/Pro X only) Test using the port test feature in Source-Connect. You can find the “port test” button in the Settings tab of the application.

Port Status Codes

You may see any of the following results, here is what each result indicates.

• Successful: if the test comes back 'successful', it means that the source­-elements.com server is able to send and receive a UDP request from your computer.
• Failed: if you get 'failed' it means that there is either a firewall or there is incorrect or absent port mappings for the UDP ports.
• Not mapped: if you get ‘not mapped’ or ‘unavailable’ it means that the network configuration is not complete but Source­-Connect will try and make a connection regardless. You may not get a successful connection with this message and it is recommended that you complete the network configuration process.
• UPnP: if you get ‘UPnP’ it means that Universal Plug and Play is enabled on your router. You may not get a successful connection with this message and it is recommended that you complete the network configuration process.

Introduction to how Source­-Connect works

Source­-Connect transfers a real­time, high-­quality audio stream between remote locations via the UDP protocol, and thus relies on network access to UDP ports.

Generally, the machine running Source­-Connect is on a private network address (behind NAT, or Network Address Translation). The type of UDP request Source­-Connect uses is sometimes unable to independently negotiate NAT, so the network (secured by a router and/or firewall) must be configured with specific Port Mapping (or Port Forwarding) rules.

If for some reason Port Mapping is not possible, e.g. the user has no administration access to the network, Source­-Connect will not be accessible from any computer not on the subnet.

Using other port numbers

Source­-Connect Pro allows you to specify a particular set of UDP ports. First, you must configure the internal network settings to connect via a static IP, rather than DHCP, and then configure port mapping on the router. For example, you will configure the router to forward all incoming UDP data on ports 6000 and 6001 to their internal IP address, and enters the number 6000 in the Settings Panel of Source­-Connect. (Ports may be any even number between 1024 – 65534 and this number plus one).

How Source­-Connect determines its network status

• Source­-Connect determines the internal(private/local) and queries your external (public) via the API service.
• Source­-Connect determines the port mapping status by sending an HTTP request to our remote server to begin forwarding a series of test UDP packets to the specified ports (e.g. 6000 and 6001) on the determined IP address.
• If Source­-Connect receives these test UDP packets, it knows that port mapping is enabled, and will use these ports for the incoming audio stream.
• If Source­-Connect does not receive any of the UDP packets, it will time­out and inform the user that the test has returned 'failed'.
• If 'failed' it is highly unlikely that there will be received audio by the person who wishes to listen to the audio stream unless you specifically have their public IP address allowed in your firewall.

More about Connection Test: ‘failed’**

If you are able to properly configure their network for UDP port mapping however the connection test does not return successfully, here are some possible causes.

• Your ISP will filter HTTP traffic
• You are behind a HTTP proxy
• All UDP ports are firewalled

In these cases Source­-Connect will not be able to determine the user’s public IP address, and the test UDP packets will be ‘lost’ within the ISP’s network. The test will not return successful.

Security options

In instances where port mapping is simply not possible, we suggest using a VPN. We support the Zero Tier One VPN network and any other VPN network conforming to RFC 1918.

For further support, please contact us.