How to use the new enqueue over network feature?

Asked by Steve Holyer on 2009-11-20

I am glad to see the new feature to enqueue nzb files over the network. But I can't find out how to do this.

Can you offer a few quick tips?

Sorry if this question is covered somewhere obvious. I looked but didn't find an answer.


Question information

English Edit question
LottaNZB Edit question
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Severin Heiniger
Last query:
Last reply:
Severin Heiniger (severinh) said : #1

By "enqueue files over the network", we mean that you can actually add files to the queue when you monitor the downloads on another computer.

If you're already monitoring another computer (using the "remote front-end mode"), you can simply use the "File -> Add..." dialog as you're used to.

Or are you asking how to set up the remote front-end mode?

Steve Holyer (sholyer) said : #2

Thanks (again) for your quick response.

I have been using LottaNZB in standalone mode for so long, I forgot about remote front-end mode.

I have started using a mac mini as my desktop computer, so I moved my Ubuntu Desktop/File/Web-Server to the living room to become a media center/file/web-server. I was looking for a way to copy files from the mac to a remote computer on my Ubuntu server (running HellaNZB/LottaNZB) over the network and have them queued up. I thought the new feature might enable this.

If I understand other threads here, there is no lottaNZB build for the Mac, so that more or less rules out using remote front-end for me.

I can always remote login to the Ubuntu box to manage LottaNZB.

Other than that, I've copied nzb's over the network to the Hellanzb queue on the Ubuntu server and they've been picked up, but LottaNZB shows two queued files of the same name (one-prefixed by ".") for each NZB I drop directly in the HellaNZB queue. The downloads happen properly though. Perhaps reconfiguring the server so that LottaNZB is acting like a local front-end will take care of the extra file names in the queue. (On the other hand I like the convenience of allowing LottaNZB to control everything in standalone mode).

I've also been able to copy the NZBs over the network to a temp directory on the Ubuntu server and then used LottaNZB from the command line (in a remote shell) to place the files in the LottaNZB queue (then the files show up one time in the LottaNZB queue).

If you have any other hints for using LottaNZB in this type of scenario, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, you can mark the problem solved. The explanation/hint about remote front-end mode provided the information I needed.

Severin Heiniger (severinh) said : #3

It would theoretically be possible to run LottaNZB on a OS X machine, but it would require quite some work.

However, this doesn't prevent you from easily adding NZB files to the queue from your Mac, because there are various frontends for HellaNZB that run on OS X:

You'll need to edit the HellaNZB configuration file on the Ubuntu server (~/.config/lottanzb/hellanzb.conf) to allow connections from other computers (your Mac). You'll need to change Hellanzb.XMLRPC_SERVER_BIND to something like "" and may be change Hellanzb.XMLRPC_PASSWORD to something more secure. Then you should be able to connect your Mac OS X frontend to the HellaNZB daemon running on your Ubuntu machine.

I'm not aware of the "but LottaNZB shows two queued files of the same name" bug.

Best Severin Heiniger (severinh) said : #4

Well, it seems like there aren't that many front ends for Mac OS X after all. Another option would be to install a web interface on the Ubuntu server and access HellaNZB from your OS X web browser.

Steve Holyer (sholyer) said : #5

Thanks Severin Heiniger, that solved my question.