French ISP Free provides TV multicast ("multiposte") on top of its own Freeplayer box as long as you use its box in router mode. Unfortunately the Freebox router itself is rather limited; I've got a DD -WRT router behind it and the Freebox is in bridge mode. To enable multicast, Freeplayer must be on both the local network and on a "private" network with the Freebox. This is done through VLAN tagging; Freebox and Freeplayer communicate through VLAN tag 100.
The schema looks like that:
Internet - - - - Freebox ADSL in bridge mode
| - - - - eth0 - DD - WRT - eth1
| - - - - LAN
| - - - - Freebox Player
However by default Freebox is not able to communicate directly with Freebox Player as DD -WRT sits between the two. This is where VLAN tagging and bridging saves the day.
Internet - - - - Freebox ADSL in bridge mode
| - - - - eth0 - DD - WRT - eth1
| - - - - LAN
| - - - - Freebox Player
| - - - - eth0.100 - DD -WRT bridge - eth1.100
Note this is done purely through configuration in DD -WRT GUI. No network changes required, no console needed:
- Under Setup, Network, VLAN Tagging
- Create VLAN interface eth1, tag number 100
- Create VLAN interface eth0, tag number 100
- Under Bridging
- Create bridge br1 (no IP nor netmask required)
- Under Bridge assignment
- Add br1, interface eth0.100
- Add br1, interface eth1.100
- Save & apply (for some reason my router needed a reboot after that)
- Check that everything is good under Bridge Table, you should see br1: eth0.100 eth1.100
Freebox Player works again although it's behind DD-WRT. It's also available on the local network. N.B.: you need to enable the "DHCP Client in Bridge Mode" option in the Freeplayer settings (screenshot attached).
Now, there is another issue that will be seen in another post: multicast is based on the RTSP protocol which needs dynamic port allocation. I just put a rusty range port forwarding in DD-WRT but this is only a crappy workaround.