Running the Xlink Kai engine on the IceBox2

[dclayw]

I have my Toppfield PVR and my xbox connected through the IceBox2. The IceBox2 is operating as a wireless bridge in this configuration. All working very nicely. I replaced my Netgear wireless bridge with the IceBox2 about 2 weeks ago. Prior to that my xbox had been connected wirelessly to the my local network for a couple of years. The xbox is running xbmc, I stream music, video, photographs etc. from my network through the xbox.  I also run Xlink Kai on one of my PCs for online gaming.

It is possible to run the Kai engine on an openwrt router and I would like to run the Kai engne on the IceBox2. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does the IceBox2 use the openwrt linux distribution? If it does, then I expect there wouldn't be any problem running Kai on the Icebox2.

Dave

[dclayw]

OK, I now know that the IceBox2 uses the openwrt linux distribution (I logged onto it using putty client). Would still appreciate any feedback from anyone who has the Kai engine running on the IceBox2, i.e. actually installed on the Icebox, as this is the way I want to go eventually.

And I understand that these questions are not specifically related to IceTV, but what I am trying to do is use the IceBox2 to service my Topfield PVR and my xbox. I could still use my old Netgear wireless bridge to service just the xbox, but I'd rather have a single bridge to service the toppy and the xbox. (I have another use for my Netgear bridge now anyway).

As a workaround to my initial question I am now trying to get Xlink Kai running on my PC (as is the normal setup) for online xbox gaming. (This is the way I had it working before with my Netgear bridge). But I cannot get Xlink Kai to detect my xbox when the xbox is connected to the Icebox2. It should work as the Icebox is just acting as a wireless bridge. Connectivity between my xbox and the rest of my local network all works fine with the xbox connected to the IceBox. The only thing that does not work is Kai. Does anyone have Kai running on their PC and talking to their xbox through the Icebox, or does anyone have any idea as to why it might not work.

Thanks
Dave

[peteru]

No idea. I don't use my xbox for playing games, so have no experience with kai.

[dclayw]

Peter,
Thanks for replying. It was my understanding when I purchased the IceBox2 that in addition to providing connectivity to the toppy, it would also operate as stock standard wireless bridge. Well, it pretty much does act as a stock standard wireless bridge, except for the comms problems with the Kai application. So there must be something peculiar about the IceBox2 in this regard. I know the Icebox has a lot more inteliigence and functionality then a normal bridge and I'm not too familar with it's configuration yet, although I have used putty and had a bit of a look around. I thought perhaps you might be able to suggest some config settings or similar that I could tweak on the IceBox to get this working. Note that I have shelved my initial approach which was to install Kai as a package directly onto the IceBox. All I am doing now is trying to get the Kai application (which is a tunnelling program running on my PC) to talk to my xbox via the IceBox. My dumb Netgear wireless bridge has never had a problem with this. And note also, as I mentioned before, all other connectivity between my PC and the xbox (video streaming etc) works perfectlly through the Icebox.

Thanks
Dave

[peteru]

I don't know how the kai tunneling works, but if it uses some form of MAC spoofing, it could possibly fail.

IceBox2 was designed to provide TCP/IP level connectivity, so anything that works at a level lower than TCP/UDP is a bonus. It's very difficult to support some of the Ethernet encapsulation stuff over 802.11 without resorting to vendor specific hacks that inevitably destroy compatibility with many devices. Sorting out encryption was difficult enough.

If you really must have a kai solution on the IceBox2, you should be able to use White Russian compatible binary packages. Keep in mind that as soon as you start installing non-standard stuff on the IceBox2, you are on your own. As you can probably appreciate, IceTV are not going to have the resources to support your customised solution.

[dclayw]

Firstly, I really appreciate any assistance you can give with this.

I have moved away from installing Kai on the Icebox for the moment, and fully understand the support implications when/if I revisit that. So for now I am simply running the Kai tunnelling program on my PC, this is the standard setup, the Kai engine talks to the Kai servers at one end and to the xbox at the other. All that is required is network connectivity bewtween the componets, I don't believe there is anything particularly complex about it, my dumb Netgear bridge can handle it. The Kai configuration does provide for MAC address translation for the wireless setup; xbox MAC address -> wireless bridge MAC address but I have never had to use that with my Netgear bridge. I did try the translation with the Icebox, but no go.

I don't fully understand what the problem is but I am fairly confident that the solution will be a simple one as only normal TCP/UDP traffic is involved. The reason I raise my problem in this forum is that I don't have enough info about the Icebox setup, I mean it did not even come with a manual. I understand that the IceBox is sold as a "blackbox" solution for IceTV sunbscribers, but the Asus router is powerful bit of gear and inevitably people will want to leveage their investment to get as much use out of it as possible, even if it is operating only as a bridge. It makes no sense for me to run a separate wireless bridge for every bit of gear I have.

Perhaps you could point me at some documentation that describes the Icebox setup and I may then be able to sort the problem out myself. I'm currrently familiarising myself with the openwrt web site. Also, isn't the IceTV functionality simply provided by a package installed on the IceBox.

Thanks
Dave

[j s]

Dave, have you tried connecting the xbox to the Kai PC without using the Icebox (ie direct thru a switch or hub)?  First step in troubleshooting is to eliminate as many variables as you can. 

Get it working this way first then try again thru the Icebox2.

[dclayw]

Yes, as I indicated in earlier posts I have had XBMC and Kai etc running flawlessly through my dumb Netgear bridge for the past several years. Everything works fine with the xbox connected to the Icebox, EXCEPT Kai. So I am currentlly running with 2 wireless bridges, my old Netgear bridge services the XBOX and everything on XBMC including KAI works as it did before. And my IceBox is servicing just my PVR.

What I want to do (when I get some more time to look at it) is run both the PVR and the XBOX through the IceBox and once I get that working I then want to install the Kai engine as a package directly onto the IceBox, thus doing away with the Kai tunneling program that runs on my PC.

But right now, everything is working just great, but with 2 bridges where I should only need one. This is offtopic but recently I bought a Harmony universal remote and the setup I have now is just a dream, and that includes my old 68cm CRT TV  :D

Dave

[j s]

Maybe you know this already - to install anything on Icebox2 you have to first manually install an unrestricted ipkg (unpack the ipk file using winzip then replace the symbolic links to the restricted ipkg locked away in rom). pscp is the best way to do this.  Then ipkg install the sftp package so you can use (for example) FileZilla to ftp anything further you need. Using sftp on port 22 doesn't conflict with ftpd-topfield on port 21