vlc playing rtsp streaming strangeness

[Fluf]

Heya,

I'm pretty darn sure this will be windows specific. I'm on Win7 Ultimate.
I'm trying to play back an rtsp stream on port 554 on the same computer vlc is running on.
No hubs etc involved. It should all be local net traffic. (I'm putting <hostname> instead of my actual hostname).

If I enter the address as : rtsp://<hostname>:554/stream3.0
I get Connection failed: VLC could not connect to <hostname>:554

But if I put : rtsp://127.0.0.1:554/stream3.0
OR rtsp://localhost:554/stream3.0

It works fine!
Unfortunately the software that calls VLC insists on using <hostname> format, so "Why don't you just put 127.0.0.1" isn't a solution.

To add to the insanity. If I use ZoneAlarm as a firewall instead of Windows firewall. It works. But ZoneAlarm doesn't seem to like Win7 much and sometimes fails to initialise at bootup. So I'd rather not go with that.
I've punched holes in the Windows firewall for VLC and the streaming server and it's still borked.
Even adding "127.0.0.1 <hostname>" to the hosts file in c:\windows makes no difference.

Anyone got a clue?
Thanks!!!

[VLC_help]

Does anything else work with <hostname> ? Like http server or ...

[Fluf]

Heya,
Yes, a few other things like local webserver (cassini) work fine with <hostname>
Am afraid it's a "fixed by god knows how".

I used the Default W7 Ultimate 64 SP1 Start v1.00.zip ~ Version 1.00 ~ December 16, 2010 from http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/registry.htm
To make sure nothing had tinkered with windows services.

I also changed to Comodo Firewall http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html , which is a pain as it learns what's safe to run, but I found easier to configure than Windows Firewall.

And having done that! I reinstalled the MediaPortal TVservice I was trying to stream from and let it through the firewall.

Together, the above seems to have fixed it. But I'm still mystified why it failed in the first place, because it looks like a hostname resolution problem to me and I don't think any of the above actually changed how windows 7 resolves your hostname to it's IP address. O.o

Anyway .. who knows. The above might help others in trouble. BlackVipers site is a very useful reference IMHO. Kudos due.

[carlesls]

could you show us the code?
thanks a lot.

[Fluf]

Uhm what code?
I've done some digging and it seems to be related to how Win7 resolves the local hostname. You may have to have "use NetBios" turned on for your internet connection, and the Win7 hosts and lmhosts files have moved to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc if that helps? There's also a diabolically hidden and permission changed "hosts" file somewhere lurking in your winsxs folder. (Is it just me or is that pronounced "WinSucks"?)

In the end though I opened up the MpTV mysql database and changed the server name in there to 127.0.0.1 so vlc gets called with the right IP address.
Strangely some apps seem to be able to resolve the hostname just fine while others choke, and it *might* be related to upgraded security in Win7 networking.

Soz but that's as far as I've managed to kick this can so far.