I posted previously about being put behind Carrier Grade NAT with a fiber upgrade. This knocked out all the incoming connections for Artisan Radio.
Well, a solution has been found. It's not ideal, but it's a whole lot better than having nothing.
I currently use a premium VPN. It turns out that some, not all, VPN companies allow a form of static IP (for a small fee), and port forwarding. This bypasses the no incoming connections restriction, as they are sent in through the VPN tunnel that was established via an outgoing connection.
What are the restrictions, you might ask? At least for the VPN that I use, ports have to be above 10000, so alternate incoming external ports must be used. Most of these can be hidden within links on a web page, but unfortunately to get to that web page you have to know the correct external port. Right now I'm using 18080. I'm attempting to hide it as well through my domain forwarding or DNS, so you just have to type in something like 'artisanradio.com' but I haven't gotten it working yet.
I've also found that even premium VPN's can be slow for these incoming connections. Self hosting with port forwarding on the router allowed an almost instantaneous connection; it can take several seconds or more to connect through the VPN. Once you make the connection, though, I've noticed no stuttering or lag on either the SDR or the internet stream. Even the FM SDR, which requires a bandwidth of around 250kbps. I may restrict the SDR to AM only, as it requires a bandwidth of around 100kbps. The internet stream uses 64kbps.
I'm not sure if geo blocking will work the same way as I envisioned it (through the Advanced Firewall). That will have to be tested in the near future.
Overall, this looks like a workable solution, at least until I find an alternate ISP that is reasonably priced and only uses regular NAT (they're becoming scarcer, as IPv4 addresses are dwindling). It's even becoming difficult to purchase IPv4 static IP's these days at any price (many of the ISP's I contacted didn't offer them at all).
The cost for this solution is only several dollars more added on to the price of the VPN. Much cheaper than any other ISP solution I've found so far. And much simpler than all of the many software solutions I've found (which also include some cost such as leasing part of an external server).
OK, it looks like my changes propogated, so you can just type in http://artisanradio.com and get to my webserver. From there, you can use the links to listen to the SDR or the internet stream. Everything is in test mode right now, so be forewarned.
I've had it verified by the VPN company that Advanced Firewall rules should work, so that we can geo block. Of course, that will have to be tested. Right now, I'm not sure whether we will only allow Canadian IP's through, or Canadian and U.S.
The decision would depend on how we decide to deal with copyright. Currently, all audio material being transmitted and streamed is in the public domain in both Canada and the U.S. If we restrict that to Canada only, a great deal more material becomes available. Music from the electric era, for example (1925 and later), as opposed to just Acoustic recordings.
We'll also be taking the current political situation into consideration as well.
The VPN we're using is Windscribe, and Windscribe is a Canadian company. Our static IP is on a server located in Toronto, Ontario.
Your site doesnt work for me anymore. To keep an online presence in the US, have you considered using something like blogger.com which cost nothing?
I mean in addition to artisianradio.com That way at least your station will be online accessible outside Canada (even if the stream is inaccessible)
I'm just spouting thoughts..
@richpowers It should work, at least for the website and SDR. I've found that sometimes there's a long delay before you can connect through the VPN. Sometimes you have to try twice. Not ideal, but at least it's something. I suspect it's due to the traffic through the VPN server with the static IP, which is located in Toronto.
Oh, and previous links don't work, as I've had to use alternative ports because of the VPN. You access the site through artisanradio.com, and then follow the links there.
It has been down for a few days, but should be back up and stay up. You may have also tried when it was down.
The VPN is definitely a short term solution until I move to an ISP that allows incoming connections. I don't really need or want another short term solution, although I will look at blogger.com.
My site is oriented towards Canada anyway. I'll be adding resources there that will be Canadian content only (such as the radio rules, copyright, etc.). Part15.org and Hobbybroadcaster can take care of the U.S. (and for Part15.org, the rest of the world - Hobbybroadcaster is almost exclusively focused on the U.S.).
Your site take a while to load down here in NZ but once its been loaded it reloads quickly the next time. Your internet stream does play here as well. Myself I pay royalty fees for NZ but I dont bother geolocking my streams.
Thanks for letting me know about being able to get the stream. You shouldn't with the geo blocking.
Turns out that the VPN app I'm using will automatically refresh the problematic firewall rules that lets everything through the ports I opened up. I had deletedall of them, but they came back. I was wondering whether the software might do it, and unfortunately, my fears were well founded. I'm going to have to contact their customer support and see if there's a way to stop that from happening. Otherwise (and it's not very likely that they will do anything), I'll have to find a way around it.
@artisan-radio For what it's worth I get you good in here in Toronto with the both feeds, stream and SDR but SDR is not as good audio quality as the stream. Maybe because it's at 48kbps. But getting it fine.
artisanradio.com is working for me again too, and your stream playing fine as well.
Yeah, you shouldn't be able to get the stream, but the VPN is systematically putting the firewall rules to allow access to the forwarded ports to anyone back in. And to make matters worse, it doesn't get rid of the old ones, so you end up with multiple pairs of rules (after a few days, I had 14 sets of 2 - for UDP & TCP). This is really a bug, as, left running long enough, it will flood your firewall.
I've contacted the VPN provider to see if they'll do anything about it. But if not, I think I've found a solution whereby you can block all access to the firewall via its API through the Group Policy Editor (you can still edit firewall rules via the MMC snap-in). I'd rather not do that, as it could have unforseen effects elsewhere but I will if necessary.