Server settings

How the server determines its network address, ports, and identity.

Most server settings are determined automatically at startup — the server detects your IP address, generates a UUID, and begins listening on fixed ports. The sections below describe each setting, where it comes from, and how to change it if needed.

Network address

The server detects its own IP address at startup by scanning your machine’s network interfaces (os.networkInterfaces()). It picks the first non-internal IPv4 address it finds. If no external interface is available, it falls back to 127.0.0.1.

src/constants/ip.ts

export default Object.values(os.networkInterfaces()).flat().find(networkInterface =>
  networkInterface.family === 'IPv4' && !networkInterface.internal
)?.address ?? '127.0.0.1';

This address is used in the device description XML and in all URLs the server advertises to clients.

If your machine has multiple active network interfaces (for example, both Ethernet and Wi-Fi), the server uses whichever external IPv4 address os.networkInterfaces() returns first. If you need to control which interface is used, you can edit src/constants/ip.ts to hardcode a specific address and rebuild with npm run build.

Ports

The server uses two fixed ports:

Service	Protocol	Port	Purpose
SOAP/HTTP	TCP	8080	Device description, ContentDirectory Browse, event subscriptions
SSDP	UDP	1900	UPnP multicast discovery (239.255.255.250)

Both ports are hardcoded in their respective source files (src/upnp/soap.ts for HTTP, src/upnp/ssdp.ts for SSDP). When the server starts, it logs:

Listening at soap://192.168.1.50:8080
Listening at ssdp://192.168.1.50:1900

Port 1900 is the standard SSDP port defined by the UPnP specification. Changing it would prevent DLNA clients from discovering the server automatically, since they send M-SEARCH multicast messages to 239.255.255.250:1900 by default.

Device UUID

The server generates a fresh UUID every time it starts using crypto.randomUUID():

src/constants/uuid.ts

export default crypto.randomUUID();

This UUID is included in SSDP advertisements and the device description XML so clients can distinguish this server from others on the network.

Because the UUID changes on every restart, some DLNA clients that cache device identifiers may display duplicate entries or take a moment to re-recognize the server. If this is disruptive, you can replace the crypto.randomUUID() call in src/constants/uuid.ts with a hardcoded UUID string and rebuild.

Friendly name

The name DLNA clients display in their device lists is set in src/router.ts:

src/router.ts

response.end(await edge.render('description', {
  uuid,
  ip,
  port: 8080,
  friendlyName: 'NodeJS Media Server',
  manufacturer: 'Mark Auger',
  manufacturerURL: 'https://swimauger.com'
}));

To change the name that appears in your DLNA clients, update the friendlyName value in this file.

Manufacturer info

The manufacturer and manufacturerURL fields in src/router.ts are included in the UPnP device description XML. Some clients display this information alongside the friendly name.

Field	Default value
manufacturer	'Mark Auger'
manufacturerURL	'https://swimauger.com'

To customize the server’s identity — friendly name, manufacturer, or manufacturer URL — edit the corresponding values in src/router.ts and rebuild:

npm run build

Restart the server after rebuilding for changes to take effect.