Unable to jam with more than two participants

[Roland.Zieher]

for the last two weeks or so I am experiencing a problem when more than 2 jammers are joining the session. within minutes of joining a loud pop noise (like unplugging a hot mic) hits the session and at least one of the musicians drops out of the session with no audio no more.
to rejoin, i have to leave the session and rejoin. usually after minutes it happens again and again.
we are all using macs and proper audio interfaces and are wired through ethernet.
Latency is perfect. it works for hours for just two musicians but not for more.
Any other users experiencing this same issue?
Help is appreciated.

[Dimitri Muskens]

>>>
Had the same experience with another jammer from Switserland. Has either (or all) of you fixed the ports in jkz and his/her router?

Not doing that and letting jkz figure it out per UPnP has helped several jammers with the same situation you are describing.


(and ofcourse WiFi OFF and only one IP address active on your mac)

[Roland.Zieher]

>>>
Had the same experience with another jammer from Switserland. Has either (or all) of you fixed the ports in jkz and his/her router?

Not doing that and letting jkz figure it out per UPnP has helped several jammers with the same situation you are describing.


(and ofcourse WiFi OFF and only one IP address active on your mac)

Thanks. 
would you be able to explain how NOT to fix the ports. Is that a jkz setting or a computer setting?

[kempjef]

I believe the responder is saying do NOT do any port forwarding or other port setting changes, the theory being that it may not help, and may in fact make things worse.

[Roland.Zieher]

    kempjef pid='2486' dateline='1588345119']I believe the responder is saying do NOT do any port forwarding or other port setting changes, the theory being that it may not help, and may in fact make things worse.

I changed the settings under "Application Preferences".
I unchecked "Always use the same set of UDP ports".
It improved the stability. instead of cra$ng every 5minutes it crashed 5 times in one hour.

Is there any other settings within JKZ or on the computer which needs to be changed?

[Dimitri Muskens]

I believe the responder is saying do NOT do any port forwarding or other port setting changes, the theory being that it may not help, and may in fact make things worse.

I changed the settings under "Application Preferences".
I unchecked "Always use the same set of UDP ports".
It improved the stability. instead of cra$ng every 5minutes it crashed 5 times in one hour.

Is there any other settings within JKZ or on the computer which needs to be changed?

>>>
Good!
Now, having your computer use a static IP-address in your network might help.
Make sure you have UPnP enabled in your router.
Never use WiFi - actually switch it OFF.
Do not use a firewall for the jkz connection - hardware or software.
If you made port forwards in your router for jkz - disable them.

D./

[kempjef]

Dimitri, do you consider NOT port forwarding as essential?  It appears that JK has gone to the trouble of advising port forwarding, and creating an interface to specify parameters and advise users on Port Forwarding setup.  I haven't found that Port Forwarding makes any difference, but I'd like to know, technically, why you strongly advise against it.  Just trying to understand the reasoning behind it.  Thanks!

[stevant]

I don’t want to confuse matters as Dimitri was a great help to me but I too was having an issue with Network packet errors and I could not be in a room with more than two JK members. My 2 cents is to not only make sure your WiFi is off but to actually go into system preferences, network, click on WiFi and select the minus key and remove it. (You can always add back) Since you are Ethernet you will not need it but it will now eliminate your Mac opening up a conflicting IP address. You can see this in Terminal. This is what was causing my Mac to fight for the same ports in JK causing packet loss and the ability to only jam with a few members before all failed. Try it as it worked for me and another Mac user with a similar issue to me. Good luck!

Thank you again Dimitri for teaching me Terminal commands to see and diagnose things as they happen.

[Dimitri Muskens]

Dimitri, do you consider NOT port forwarding as essential?  It appears that JK has gone to the trouble of advising port forwarding, and creating an interface to specify parameters and advise users on Port Forwarding setup.  I haven't found that Port Forwarding makes any difference, but I'd like to know, technically, why you strongly advise against it.  Just trying to understand the reasoning behind it.  Thanks!

>>>
Please don't get me wrong. I don't "strongly advise against it" in general. But, it has helped a fair few people with the same issues as the OP to just let UPnP take care of the traffic on their LAN.
You are right though, I do not consider it essential  (either way) . It's an additional 'tool' for people/situations that have use/need for these measures. It can work no issues.

[raychew]

Dimitri, do you consider NOT port forwarding as essential?  It appears that JK has gone to the trouble of advising port forwarding, and creating an interface to specify parameters and advise users on Port Forwarding setup.  I haven't found that Port Forwarding makes any difference, but I'd like to know, technically, why you strongly advise against it.  Just trying to understand the reasoning behind it.  Thanks!

>>>
Please don't get me wrong. I don't "strongly advise against it" in general. But, it has helped a fair few people with the same issues as the OP to just let UPnP take care of the traffic on their LAN.
You are right though, I do not consider it essential  (either way) . It's an additional 'tool' for people/situations that have use/need for these measures. It can work no issues.

I agree with Dimitri. Let UPnP take care of the port forwarding where possible. I've been having issues with our band sessions and reviewed router settings with several of them. If you're technically savvy enough to manually create port forwarding rules on your router, it is easy enough to see if UPnP is doing its job.

1. Reboot computer and router just to make sure that no instances of JamKazam is running and that any old UPnP configurations are flushed.
2. Log into the router and go to the port forwarding rules section. There should be no ports open for JamKazam
3. Launch JamKazam and enter a session
4. Refresh your router port forwarding page
5. You should see new entries.
      - From what I can tell UPnP will add 4 entries.
            - I'm assuming that if the session has more than 4 players (plus you), then it will continue to add entries as necessary.
      - The entries may even be labelled (named) as JamKazam-nnnnn (where n=port number)
             - The label is not important and might not actually be named by UPnP. 
      - Each entry represents a UDP port (incoming player session feed) that forwards the traffic to the computer running JamKazam
 6. If you DO NOT see any entries, it's likely that UPnP is disabled on your router.
      - If you prefer not to enable it, then you will need to add port forwarding rules.
            - Again...I would highly recommend enabling UPnP if technology is not your forte.  
            - It is unnecessary to add an entry per port. Most routers will allow you to add a range of ports (starting port / ending port).
                  - Pick a range of 20 ports numerically valued over 1,024 and less than 65,535. (Example: Start Port= 26100 / End Port = 26120)
                        - I would recommend picking a range of 20 ports between 20,000 and 50,000
                        - It doesn't matter what numbers you pick as long as the range of ports are contiguous. 
                        - Write down your "Start Port" number. You will need it later
            - You will need to know the IP address of your PC / MAC when creating the rule so you know where to forward the traffic.
            - If you are going to manually create the port forwarding rules you should create a DHCP reservation or a static IP address on your PC / MAC
            - Apply / Save your settings
 7. You will need to manually configure JAMKazam starting port to match what is configured on your router
            - Launch JamKazam
            - At the very top left (in the white bar) click "Manage"
            - Go to "Networking" > "Configure Port Preference
            - Place a check mark beside "Always use the same set of UDP ports"
            - Enter the "Start Port" you configured in the router
            - Click "Save"

That's it. Good Luck and Good Jams.