Registered: Dec 2000
From:

Ok, I'm posting this because I've seen SO many people ask about this, I've seen it answered in many different ways, and (unfortunately) this question has not been added to the Winamp FAQ.

PROBLEM:

You installed Winamp. You're behind a firewall (if you're using Winamp from work, you probably have a firewall). Everytime you play a track from a CD, you get a little window that pops up titled "Retrieving CDDB information..." and it always displays an error "Error connecting to cddb.cddb.com:8880".

If that situation describes YOU, then keep reading, otherwise this stuff won't apply.

WHY ARE THE GODS PUNISHING ME!?:

Actually, no matter what you do, you won't be able to get Winamp, as distributed by Nullsoft, to work with CDDB. THIS PROBLEM WILL OCCUR EVEN IF YOU SET YOUR WINAMP PREFERENCES TO USE A LAN CONNECTION AND YOU CORRECTLY SPECIFY YOUR COMPANY'S PROXY SERVER AND PORT. Those settings do not affect the CDDB interface.

You see, the CDDB interface is provided by one of the Plug-Ins, not the Winamp core application. If you look in your Winamp Preferences -> Plug-ins -> Input you will see one called "Nullsoft CD/LineIn plug-in v1.7", the version number might be slightly different though. If you select this plug-in and click the Configure button you will see all the CDDB options you can set. In the field for CDDB Server, you should see "cddb.cddb.com:8880" or something similar. And herein lies the rub-

CDDB uses its own protocol to communicate with CDDB servers. You can't connect to a CDDB server because your firewall does not allow the CDDB protocol to pass through. To get around this problem, many CDDB applications allow you to use CDDB over HTTP because HTTP is allowed through firewalls. However, this plug-in does NOT support this. Even if you try to type in the URL for a CDDB HTTP server, it will not connect to it. For now, you can at least disable the CDDB lookup by clearing the checkbox for "Use CDDB". If you want to spend some more time and possibly get this working, read on...

You MAY be able to get it to work if you modify your firewall to allow the CDDB protocol to pass through. There are many ways to do this, and it depends on the features supported by your firewall. If you're in a corporate environment, you probably don't have access to just go fiddle with the company firewall, so you'll have to contact an IT administrator to do this for you. Basically, tell them you need to connect to this particular server "cddb.cddb.com:8880" using a proprietary protocol. In most large companies, you have a snowball's chance in heck of getting them to say "yep, we're on it!", but in case you do...

If they agree to allow this, you may not have to change anything- the CDDB lookup will just start to work. However, again depending on the firewall you have, they may require you to change the address of the CDDB server you are connecting to. This is because they may require you to specify a "dummy" server which the firewall will map to the real CDDB server. You cannot change the CDDB server setting from the plug-in configuration screen. You have to go to the directory you installed Winamp and edit the WINAMP.INI file. Search through the file till you find the following section:

[CDDA/Line Input Driver]
sample=1
rt=8880
use_cddb=0
rver=cddb.cddb.com
er=winampuser@nullsoft.com

Change the 'rt' and 'rver' settings to whatever your IT guys say you should use. I know it looks like these lines are missing the first couple characters (shouldn't it be "port" and "server" instead of "rt" and "rver"?), but this is the way it is supposed to be. Odd but true. Once you finish making the changes, save the file and restart Winamp. The CDDB lookup should be working- if not, bug your IT guys because they goofed something up.

Some people have posted that using the CDReader plug-in instead of the Nullsoft plug-in will get around the problem. This is NOT true. The CDReader plug-in also does not support CDDB over HTTP, but it does make it easier to specify the address of the CDDB server to connect to. Obviously, just specifying another CDDB server won't solve the problem if you can't get outside your firewall.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?:

Nullsoft either needs to modify that plug-in so that it supports CDDB HTTP servers, or build CDDB HTTP server support into the core Winamp application.

-OR-

Some other plug-in developer needs to implement this. Unfortunately, it seems they would also have to implement the CD-player functionality as well, because these two seem tied together by the Winamp architecture (Winamp guys jump in and correct me if I'm wrong here).

UNTIL WE ARRIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND...:

You can just dis-associated Winamp with audio CDs in the Winamp preferences, and use some other player with CDDB HTTP server support as your audio CD player. For everything else (especially MP3s), stick with Winamp- it's still the best free player out there

Hope this helps,
pacopaco

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Registered: Dec 2000
From:

I thought I would NEVER find a straight answer to what the problem was. I kept looking and looking for a place to setup http. You are RULER of all CDDB.

Thanks!!!

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Registered: May 2000
From: Bel Air, Maryland, USA

pacopaco,
A very interesting report. I'm sure it will help lots of folks. I don't have a firewall problem, but I'm interested in a couple of things.

First, there is another CD input plugin available. Called CD Reader. The file for it is IN_CDREADER.DLL. Does this have the same problem as the Nullsoft plugin?

Second, it's fuzzy to me as to what's the proper server address to use. Either us.cddb.com or cddb.cddb.com. Both seem to work all right for me. But, according to some of the forum threads, for some people, one or the other will work, but not both.

As you've said, the cddb.cddb is associated with HTTP protocol. Per the CDDB website, us.cddb.com is the CDDB protocol server address, but for HTTP protocol (they say for use behind firewalls) they say to use us.cddb.com, ~cddb.cddb.cgi.

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Registered: Sep 2000
From:

Thank you for explaining this so dang straight forward!! I've used winamp for years, and asked how to setup proxy for cddb, and nobody ever gave me a straight answer. Thanx for explaining!

I strongly hope winamp does something about this. It's driven me nuts for years with the magic cddb pop-up box that doesn't work. I actually started using other players(which I really hate to do).

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Registered: Dec 2000
From:

Answers for Qaxa:

1. I mentioned CDReader in the post. Basically, it does not solve the problem. See my original post for details.

2. About which server to use. The host "us.cddb.com" supports both the CDDB protocol and HTTP access to CDDB. For CDDB protocol, you use port 8880. For HTTP support, you have to use the cgi-bin interface provided by the HTTP server.

Regarding "cddb.cddb.com", I believe this is a legacy address or a server-farm address for CDDB protocol support. It works, but it is not on the authoritative list of current CDDB sites, so I'm guessing (and it's just a guess) that it redirects to one of the other sites. The "cddb.cddb.com" site does not support HTTP access to CDDB at all though.

So when some users say that either works fine for them, if they're using the CDDB protocol then either will work. If you need HTTP access to CDDB, then "cddb.cddb.com" will not work. And if you have Winamp, you can't get HTTP access to any CDDB servers anyway so it's a moot point for those users.

hope that helps,
pacopaco

quote:

---

Originally posted by Qaxar

pacopaco,
A very interesting report. I'm sure it will help lots of folks. I don't have a firewall problem, but I'm interested in a couple of things.

First, there is another CD input plugin available. Called CD Reader. The file for it is IN_CDREADER.DLL. Does this have the same problem as the Nullsoft plugin?

Second, it's fuzzy to me as to what's the proper server address to use. Either us.cddb.com or cddb.cddb.com. Both seem to work all right for me. But, according to some of the forum threads, for some people, one or the other will work, but not both.

As you've said, the cddb.cddb is associated with HTTP protocol. Per the CDDB website, us.cddb.com is the CDDB protocol server address, but for HTTP protocol (they say for use behind firewalls) they say to use us.cddb.com, ~cddb.cddb.cgi.

---

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Registered: Dec 2000
From:

Also, to help add a sense of closure on this topic, I wanted to let you know that support for CDDB over HTTP has already been added to the "official" Winamp wish-list of new features.

If you want to see what else is on the list, look in the "Your Winamp Wishlist" forum in the "General discussions" category. This link should take you to the post:

URL submitted by user.

If it doesn't, just search that forum with the keywords "official wishlist".

later,
pacopaco

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Registered: May 2000
From: Bel Air, Maryland, USA

pacopaco,

Thanks. I think you've resolved the mystery for me. Especially the input that Winamp does not support the CDDB HTTP protocol. I have noticed that some other mp3 related programs that I use provide a second "HTTP" setup panel, for the .cgi part of the address. This does seem like an important requirement for a Winamp improvement.

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Registered: Jun 2000
From:

Are you sure you can't type in the http/cgi-bin address in the CDReader config?
I've no need to try it myself because I'm not behind any firewall, but I'm going to add this thread to the relative links in TSGH -> Useful Links to Common Problems thread.

It makes sense though re: requiring admin permissions.
Thankyou for your input, I'm sure it will prove very useful to some people.

Have you guys checked out all the other relative links in that thread too?
There's been many other suggestions, but not any confirmations whether they worked or not.

----------
DJ-Egg

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Registered: May 2000
From: Bel Air, Maryland, USA

DJ Egg,
The only CDDB configuration slot in CD Reader is labeled CDDB Server Address.

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Registered: Jan 2001
From:

Hey,
I have a 'related' request...
I am having trouble getting a connection to CDDB also. A workmate in my office (we're both on the same network) has no trouble connecting (he's running Win2k), but under WinNT 4.0 I am just can't seem to get there...
Any suggestions?

Dan

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Registered: Feb 2001
From:

I have successfully downloaded and installed the CD reader plug in and tried multiple different entries in the server field, all with no success.

Yes, I closed and restarted Winamp each time

Yes, I disabled the other CDDB .dll file

My PC is behind a Proxy server, no firewall. I have full control of the Proxy server. The WinSock Proxy is configured to allow everyone "Unlimited Access" to all protocols on all ports.
I also added a protocol called CDDB and set it to port 8880 and allowed everyone access.

When I type in http://us.cddb.com/~cddb/cddb.cgi in my Internet Explorer window, it says I have successfully connected to the CDDB server using HTTP protocol.
When I put the same address in the CDDB server settings box in Winamp, it still does not resolve CD info (error resolving name).

I installed Winamp on the Proxy server and it works properly using the default settings (port 8880 and all). The problem is obviously with the Proxy server.

While the previously hailed technical expert seemed to have a good grasp of the problem, is there an MCSE out there somewhere who can tell me what I need to do to my proxy server to make this work? I'm not very happy with having "Unlimited Access" granted for all users. If a real live Proxy administrator could tell me how to set mine to allow communication to/from CDDB I would be extremely grateful.

PS - The only reason I am forced to use Winamp instead of the perfectly good Windows Media Player (it works well with a Sound Blaster Live audio card) is that Winamp is the only software out there that will adjust CD audio volume separate from the .wav sound volume on a Windows 2000 PC volume control (this is a Windows 2000 issue, not a sound card or configuration problem, to be discussed in another forum).

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