Questions about Ajaxamp/Ampwifi

[james301]

Hello, I have 'winamp' Ver. 5.9.2 build 10042, Ajaxamp and Ampwifi Version 3.4a. It's all set up and it works. I want to switch to WACUP version 1.99.20.199942. In searches it would seem like Ajaxamp and Ampwifi works with WACUP, but the post I found are rather old and AmpWifi was recently updated. For some reason I can not get WACUP to work with ampwifi.

I have tested Ajaxamp by using a browser and putting in the IP address and port number, and it is working on the PC. When I try to connect chrome on my android phone to the IP address it will not connect. when I run ampwifi it also fails to connect to WACUP, but it will connect with 'winamp'.

Questions:
1. Dose the upgraded ampwifi ver. 3.4a work with WACUP/ajaxamp?
2. Is it a conflict because I have Both Winamp and WACUP installed? (I really do not want to uninstall winamp untill Im 100% sure WACUP will work with ampwifi. Don't want to lose my settings.)
3. Are there other plugins/android apps that will do the same thing or better? (other then Homeseer/jon_00 plugin that costs $150)
4. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for any help.
-Jaz

[dro]

Updates to the app don't prevent things working locally & it's all down to having the ajaxamp plug-in correctly installed. Additionally it likely won't behave nicely if you're trying to have WACUP & winamp open at the same time unless changing the ports that the plug-in is using in one of the installs which would then need to be altered in the ampwifi setup iirc. With seemingly quite a few using the ajaxamp plug-in under WACUP it should just be a case of installing it into the WACUP install & then it just works.


The obvious thing is to check that ajaxamp plug-in was installed into the WACUP plugins folder which from a quick re-check requires changing the install path the ajaxamp plug-in installer shows to use (since it doesn't know about wacup & as I don't try to re-use the winamp uninstall registry as was done with much older wacup builds when 5.666 was all there was, its probably not being installed).

If you're certain it is being installed into the WACUP install, go to Preferences -> Plug-ins -> General -> see if gen_ajaxamp.dll is shown in the list & that it's not indicated as either being disabled &/or unable to be loaded. If there's no trace of it then copy the dll from the winamp install into the WACUP\Plugins folder & then check that prefs page again.

If it's showing but isn't showing as normally loaded, the most obvious thing is you're using the Portable install mode & that will disable any 3rd party plug-ins from being loaded by default (since more often than not I can't guarantee they'll actually follow the portable handling). If that is the case then Preferences -> Advanced -> Portable Mode -> there'll be an option to enable 3rd party plug-ins & it'll need to be checked followed by allowing WACUP to restart so it can then load the plug-in. If there's no sign of such an option then you've not got a portable install & I'd need to know what the loading error message is for the plug-in.

-dro

[james301]

I have 'winamp' Ver. 5.9.2 build 10042, Ajaxamp and Ampwifi Version 3.4a. It's all set up and it works.

I have the full version of WACUP version 1.99.20.199942 (not the Portable one.)
When I installed Ajaxamp I changed the install directory to reflect WACUP/Plugins/. I have verified that the gen_ajaxamp.dll files are in the Winamp/plugins AND in the WACUP/plugins/. I  have tested that Ajaxamp is working correctly by using chrome and putting the IP address and port number in address bar. But it would not connect to Ampwifi on my phone (Failed connection.). Then I turned off the firewall. PRESTO! it works.

One thing I hate is trying to set up, are rules for firewalls.
QUESTION: Is it safe to freely allow WACUP full internet access? Do I need to clamp down on it? What SHOULD be BLOCKED/ALLOWED to be safe?

One other thing that I found is even though the gen_ajaxamp.dll file is installed into winamp/plugins/ AND also installed into WACUP/Plugins/. They are somehow tied together. I wanted to use one port number for winamp and a different port number for WACUP. Then have 2 profiles in Ampwifi 1 for each program using different port numbers (Not running both winamp & WACUP at the same time, but just as an option). This dose NOT work. Some how they are tied together. If I open winamp and change a setting in Ajaxamp, save it and close winamp, open WACUP and go to the AJaxamp settings; the changes I made in winamp are also changed in the WACUP/ajaxamp settings. It also works the other way. If I change the Ajaxamp settings in WACUP, the same settings gets changed for the ajaxamp installed under winamp. Thus it is Impossible. to have multiple. installs of Ajaxamp Running on one PC using different settings ie. port numbers. At least thats what seems to be happening. If anyone has a workaround please let me know!

Thanks,
-JAz

[dro]

At least under older Windows installs, there'd be a dialog prompt the first time there was an attempt to make an outbound connection & what type of network / access is allowed. If that didn't appear with the WACUP instance then maybe Win11 either isn't showing such things or there's an OS / A/V setting that's defaulting to not allow it (based on the other post detailing more about the system's configuration).


So for that plug-in to be able to accessed you should only need to allow the specific port that's been configured to be used with it & not enabling full port access which shouldn't be needed & isn't something I'd ever recommend being done.

For WACUP's normal usage its typically only going to get streams its told to use or files from the WACUP site (e.g. version checking & get the internet radio updates). Since build 19994 it can also attempt to do web look-ups for lyrics & missing albumart (via the 3rd party sacad tool which needs its own access setup as applicable) but if those aren't wanted then Preferences -> General -> Internet | Online has options to control & turn them off.

The only other things typically done are the posting of the current albumart to the server if the Discord now playing option is enabled & trying to post crash reports to the site server if that happens. There is the streaming server mode but that has to be configured & enabled which is not on by default.


With the ajaxamp config problem, I'll have to see if I can figure out where the plug-in is storing its settings as I don't know if its storing things in the registry or a local file. From a quick look at the dll exports its more likely to be a local file & if I can hook the plug-in OS api calls then I might be able to apply a patch to it to be able to redirect where it saves things which would help in this instance & would help to make it be portable mode happy. As many winamp plug-ins weren't built to follow the settings folder apis (often due to pre-dating those 2.9x additions) nor accounting for multiple usage.

[edit]
Its using "%appdata%\gen_ajaxamp\gen_ajaxamp.ini" for its config file location & I seem to be able to hook the plug-in. With the next WACUP build I'll be looking to move a copy of that (if present) into %appdata%\wacup\ajaxamp.ini (assuming a default install or what equates to <wacup_settings_folder>\ajaxamp.ini) & then have things override the plug-in to look at the copy in the settings folder. That should then allow you to configure things separately & also helps to make the plug-in be portable mode friendly.

-dro