MyHomeServer Tutorials – Changing the web server ports on your HP MediaSmart Server
Important Note: Before you begin, it’s important to mention that if you’ve applied the latest MediaSmart HP Update 3.0 that this tutorial will NOT work properly for you. If you’ve applied the HP MediaSmart 3.0-update,, using remote access with the HP Personal or TZO Custom domain names is *only* possible on 443. You can set the alternate port through IIS & update the TZO WebForwarding, but when you actually reach the initial Webshare landing page, none of the buttons work (eg. Photo viewer. Music Streamer, etc.).
Some ISP’s block port 80, and in very few cases, both port 80 and 443. This can be extremely frustrating to some users and unless you are technical enough to change the ports in your server, your server will not work for using HTTP or HTTPS for remote access to files and photos. This tutorial is designed for the folks who can’t get remote access to work, and have tried everything to get this working.
Try this first! – Review the TROUBLESHOOTING TUTORIAL before you change the ports on your server. This step is a MUST so you can find out what ports are open before you start. In our example, we found TCP ports 1024 and 4443 were open and available.
This tutorial makes a few assumptions. First off, we assume you have a basic understanding of networking and you know your router and network layout. You should also know your router password and understand port forwarding, and have found open ports on your system other than 80 and 443. If you are having trouble grasping the port forwarding techniques, check out some of the tutorials at TZO.COM or you can review info at PortForward.com. To recap – If you DO NOT have a good working knowledge of Home IP networking, STOP AND DON’T DO THIS. If you don’t do this properly or make a mistake, you can lock yourself out of your server. Again, we are not responsible!
Secondly, we assume you have tried to solve your remote access issues using our Troubleshooting guide and nothing has worked. It also assumes that you have simplified your network by removing/changing/setting any VOIP Adapters such as Vonage routers properly. It also assumes that if you have a DSL or Cable modem that includes a NAT, you have used bridge mode, set DMZ or disabled the NAT completely. If you have any of these issues as discussed in the troubleshooting guide and have not taken care of this first, this tutorial may not work for you. When it comes to port blocking issues, simplifying the network is the most important thing and will make your troubleshooting much faster.
STEP 1 – Start a remote desktop session - Start a remote desktop session using a laptop/desktop that resides on the same network as the MediaSmart server. Click Start, Program files, Accessories, Communications and select REMOTE DESKTOP CONNECTION and you will see a screenshot similar to the ones shown in step 2.
STEP 2 – Connecting to the MediaSmart server using Remote Desktop - Connect to the internal LAN IP address of the MediaSmart server, or the server name such as HPServer, or in our case, we called it MyMediaSmart. Using either the LAN IP or the server name, enter that into the remote desktop connection dialog as shown in one of the two screenshots below:
Using the internal IP to connect to the MediaSmart with Remote Desktop
Using the server name to connect to the MediaSmart with Remote Desktop
STEP 3 – Logging into the Server using Remote Desktop - You should be see the login for the MediaSmart server using remote desktop as shown in the screenshot below. Use the administrator account and password for the MediaSmart server and it will log you into the desktop of the MediaSmart
Logging into the HP MediaSmart server with Remote Desktop using the administrator account
STEP 4 – Going into the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager – Now you should be logged into the desktop of the MediaSmart server. CAUTION: You can really screw things up here if you don’t know what you are doing! We are not responsible for you screwing up your server! Click the Start button, Administrative tools, Internet Information Services Manager. You will then see the screenshot shown below. Your screen may look slightly different, but will have the “DEFAULT WEBSITE” which is what we want to edit.
Getting to the Internet Information Services Manager to set the Web Server ports
STEP 5 – Getting to the IIS Properties – You now want to put your mouse over the default website and right-click and select properties as shown in the screenshot below. This will bring you into the website properties of the default website to edit the ports.
Hovering over the default website and selecting properties brings up the port settings
Step 6 – Changing the ports that IIS Server uses – We now need to change the TCP Port to 1024, and the SSL port to 4443 as shown in the screenshot below. If your port 80 is blocked but not 443, you can simply change just the TCP port to whatever port you wish. Once you change the ports, double check that you entered them properly, write them down, and then click OK. Close out the IIS windows and get back to the desktop.
Changing the default website ports on your HP MediaSmart Server
Step 7 – Editing the default.htm file for the default website – You now want to edit the default.htm page in the c:\inetpub\wwwroot directory due to a failure that it will cause after you change ports. To get to this file, Click on the Start menu, then Run, In the “Run” window, next to Open: type in the line \inetpub\wwwroot (as shown in the example below) and hit ENTER or the OK button
Using the RUN dialog to open the inetpub\wwwroot directory
Step 8 – Finding the Default.htm file – You now should see the contents of the directory c:\inetpub\wwwroot
Find the default.htm file as shown in the screenshot below and highlight it.
Finding the default.htm file in the inetpub\wwwroot directory
Step 9 – Editing the Default.htm file – You now right-click on the DEFAULT.HTM file and then select OPEN WITH, and then NOTEPAD. This will open the default.htm file in notepad so you can edit it and fix the error we created by changing the port.
Editing the default.htm file in the inetpub\wwwroot directory
Step 10 – Editing the Default.htm file – You now right-click on the DEFAULT.HTM file as shown below and then select OPEN WITH, and then NOTEPAD. This will open the default.htm file in notepad so you can edit it and fix the error we created by changing the port.
Click the image below to bring this full size. You will see the document.location line as it should look. Edit your document.location line in your file to look exactly like ours. It should be: document.location = ‘home/default.aspx’;
Double check that your document.location line looks exactly like our example, then Click File, Save. You should now exit notepad and close back to the desktop.
Editing the default.htm file in the \inetpub\wwwroot directory with notepad (Click to Enlarge)
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