Slingbox in Dubai

[Bonge]

i'm thinking of getting one of these little beauties and 'slinging' sky over to the sandpit. does anyone on here already do something similar? If so, what kind of connection is needed for decent operation? is Etislut 1Mbps sufficient? i know that i'll get a better picture the higher the connection but will it work with 1Mbps? also what would be required for the upload in the UK?
all info and/or alternative suggestions would be welcome but i'm through paying for the cr:mad:p available here!
cheers
bonge

[bnt]

Etislut? Paging Dr. Freud..! :8

I don't know much about the Slingbox, but I do know that Etisalat are not friendly to odd uses of their internet connections. You can't talk to machines on their network from the wider Internet - they use NAT to give users an "internal only" IP address, so anything you connect up there is not actually on the Internet. (That's how it was on my last visit, to friends a year ago, and I have no reason to believe they've relaxed anything.)

Unless you can find someone in Dubai who has one up and accessible, I'd be wary about buying one. There are some reports that people can "sling" out of Dubai to Slingboxes in e.g. the USA, but that's a different question.

Edit: I've just looked at the Slingbox remote viewing setup instructions. They talk about making home NAT router changes (port forwarding) to allow access from the Internet - but on Etisalat broadband, it's their router, you have no control over it. In other words, I think you're out of luck. Hey, Dubai's not a democracy, you know... :suspect:

[Jet II]

Slingbox does work although it can get a bit choppy when etisalat slow up the web.


Same for VOIP works most of the time but can stutter a bit at peak hours.

[bnt]

When you say "Slingbox does work", can you be more specific? The question was about having the Slingbox inside on the Etisalat network, viewing stuff on it from outside on the Internet. We know it works in the opposite direction, or if you have both Slingbox and Player on the same network.

If it's a NAT connection, you can't get in from outside without making changes. What IP address would you enter in the Slingbox Player? Etisalat's NAT setup (as my friends had) means you have multiple households on the same IP address, and no access to make the changes that the Slingbox Player requires. So, if I was in that situation, I would need to know that I was not behind NAT that I have no control over.

If unsure, a quick way is to compare the IP address that your connection has (run "ipconfig" or check your broadband router) with the address that other sites think you have (e.g. here (http://ip-address.domaintools.com/)). If they look totally different, you're behind NAT.

[Jet II]

Sorry I think you've misunderstood the original question - Bonge wants to view Sky from the UK in the UAE - that does work with the previous caveates.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to transmit TV from the UAE to the outside world:uhoh:

To clarify you put the Slingbox where the Cable or satellite TV receiver is, ie in the UK and watch the channels on your Slingplayer which is wherever your computer is (UAE or whatever)

[bnt]

Well, I must have misread "'slinging' sky over to the sandpit" as slinging the box over. Weird.

[rugmuncher]

The Slingbox does have a range limit of 3000 Miles I believe,,

London - Doobers is 3400'ish.

Maybe see what the Sling people have to say about how strict the 3000 figure is!

An alternative to the Slingbox is Locationfree from Sony.

Rugz :ok:

[Bushfiva]

The Slingbox does have a range limit of 3000 Miles I believe

A slingbox has NO idea how far away the viewer is. UK-Japan works just find.

With a product like At-Large Recorder, you can record the programmes easily. Together with Digiguide, one can set up a month's worth of recordings and watch at one's leisure.

[Bonge]

Bnt, Jet II is correct, sorry if i was not clear in my wording. I have no intention of keeping up to speed with UAE tv when in the UK - although i believe thats on SKY anyway! besides, i don't have an etislut (sic) router i have purchased one here and have already done some port forwarding for some other programmes.

Does anyone have any more precise info about their broadband package in the UAE - ie advertised connection speed (1meg - 2meg etc).

cheers so far!

[Saab Dastard]

Perhaps there is a limit (really a network latency issue) to the "range" of a slingbox, but it would presumably only apply to "live" viewing, rather than recording.

I know very little about Slingbox (does it show?), but I do know a fair bit about real-time apps over wide-area links.

SD

[Bushfiva]

SD, it's VC-1 plus trivial encryption, streamed over TCP, port 5001 by default. If there were a "range" problem, the whole tubey intarweb thingy would be in trouble long ago, methinks.

[Jet II]

Does anyone have any more precise info about their broadband package in the UAE - ie advertised connection speed (1meg - 2meg etc).

I use (?) Etisalats 1mb service (?) :ugh:

Speed is OK in the morning but slows noticeably as the day wears on.

Very slow loading of you-tube videos etc and VOIP gets fairly choppy at times so I doubt that real time viewing of tv is possible.

You will probably just have to set to download any programs overnight in the same way as downloading P2P files.

[Bushfiva]

Jet II, "recording" from the Slingbox via a third-party app is still a streamed connection. The Slingbox doesn't know the data is being recorded. If it won't stream remotely, it won't record remotely either. However, the viewer application is quite good at working out what bandwidth is available to it. The main thing is to not try and force a 640x480 resolution since the 1 Mbps service won't be up to it.

On the UK side, bear in mind that "up" bandwidth on an ADSL connection may be only one eighth of the "down" bandwidth, and the Slingbox will be consuming "up" bandwidth and quota.

(Hey, you're paying nearly twice as much as me for 1% of my bandwidth. Where's the "gloat" icon when it's needed? :p)

[Bonge]

Thanks all for your input. I think we've established that it will work but not as well as it could. I may pay for an upgrade to the inlaws connection in the UK but hey, will cost naff all being in a civilised part if the world!