Boxee Box “Can’t connect to internet” fix, cloned Boxee services

The Boxee Box was a short lived but powerful set top box by D-link that was released 2010 and discontinued 2012.

All Boxee Boxes relied on an application server hosted by D-link at boxee.tv for periodic phone-home calls and service endpoints.

In June 2019 these application servers went down, resulting in all Boxee Boxes still in operation throwing “Can’t connect to internet” errors and all user profiles and apps going offline.

In August 2019 I released a small python Flask app, boxee-server-light, to replace the downed boxee.tv servers. This code was created by referencing an existing project by Jimmy Conner (cigamit, boxeed.in forums).

To use it, you’ll need to add DNS entries for all boxee application urls, pointing to the boxee-server-light application.

For example:

18.211.111.89 app.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 api.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 dir.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 s3.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 t.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 res.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 0.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 1.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 2.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 3.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 4.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 5.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 6.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 7.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 8.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 9.ping.boxee.tv 18.211.111.89 dl.boxee.tv

… where the IP is the address of the Flask application.

For those who are unable to run their own DNS or this application, I am hosting a public version of this code. You can add my public DNS server to your router config, or set it as custom DNS on your Boxee Box in network settings. You can also point directly to my public application server using your own DNS.

My public DNS server is by whitelist only, so please email me (I don’t check comments often) if you would like access.

Public DNS server address: 18.211.111.89
Public application server address: 18.213.38.199 18.211.111.89 (also)

For more up to date info and discussion, check out my Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/boxee/comments/ci4ugj/boxee_cloned_server_updates_working_server/

 

FAQ:

Do I need a static IP address from my ISP to use the public DNS?
Yes. I’ll need to whitelist your IP address. If you get a new one every day this won’t work.

I run my own local DNS. Do I need to be whitelisted to use your application server?
No. Map the boxee domains to my public app server as shown above. No whitelist required.

I’m logged out of my boxee box. How do I log back in while using this app?
Any username and password combo will work to log you back in.

I reset my boxee box. What firmware do I need to be using to use your public servers?
1.5.1 (latest) seems to work best. If you can’t find this firmware, email me.

Do apps work with this project?
I don’t have any apps connected yet. PRs welcome. I’m not 100% sure if app downloading will work without some additional code.