Probably a dumb Nook / Calibre question...

[woodygirl]

I just bought a new Nook and I am wondering one thing...

What is the best way to use Calibre with my Nook?

I have about 2000 books on my home PC with everything entered the way I like (covers, tags, and metadata). I want to be able to browse through my Calibre from my Nook, for example, search for books by a certain tag or series. What is the easiest way to do this? I plan on getting a micro SD card so I can store all my books on my Nook, but I will also keep them on my desktop hard drive...if that makes a difference.

I have read different posts on people "softrooting" their Nook to do this...I have no clue how to do anything like that!
I just want to be able to sit on my couch with my Nook and browse through my library via Calibre

Thank You!

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by woodygirl

I just bought a new Nook and I am wondering one thing...

What is the best way to use Calibre with my Nook?



I have about 2000 books on my home PC with everything entered the way I like (covers, tags, and metadata). I want to be able to browse through my Calibre from my Nook, for example, search for books by a certain tag or series. What is the easiest way to do this? I plan on getting a micro SD card so I can store all my books on my Nook, but I will also keep them on my desktop hard drive...if that makes a difference.

I have read different posts on people "softrooting" their Nook to do this...I have no clue how to do anything like that!
I just want to be able to sit on my couch with my Nook and browse through my library via Calibre

Thank You!

This is from the FAQ section at the Calibre website:

Can I access my calibre books using the web browser in my Kindle or other reading device?¶

calibre has a Content Server that exports the books in calibre as a web page. You can turn it on under Preferences->Network->Sharing over the net. Then just point the web browser on your device to the computer running the Content Server and you will be able to browse your book collection. For example, if the computer running the server has IP address 63.45.128.5, in the browser, you would type:
http://63.45.128.5:8080
Some devices, like the Kindle (1/2/DX), do not allow you to access port 8080 (the default port on which the content server runs. In that case, change the port in the calibre Preferences to 80. (On some operating systems, you may not be able to run the server on a port number less than 1024 because of security settings. In this case the simplest solution is to adjust your router to forward requests on port 80 to port 8080).


I could not get it to work on my nook but then again I am no rocket scientologist.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

I could not get it to work on my nook but then again I am no rocket scientologist.

I have to ask this: What is a rocket scientologist? Is that something like Tom Cruise strapped to a Saturn V? (To the outside, of course. On the inside, there are astronauts.)

[Perkin]

Shouldn't that be 'astronuts'

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by Perkin

Shouldn't that be 'astronuts'

In the case of rocket scientologists, yes

[woodygirl]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

This is from the FAQ section at the Calibre website:

Can I access my calibre books using the web browser in my Kindle or other reading device?¶

calibre has a Content Server that exports the books in calibre as a web page. You can turn it on under Preferences->Network->Sharing over the net. Then just point the web browser on your device to the computer running the Content Server and you will be able to browse your book collection. For example, if the computer running the server has IP address 63.45.128.5, in the browser, you would type:
http://63.45.128.5:8080
Some devices, like the Kindle (1/2/DX), do not allow you to access port 8080 (the default port on which the content server runs. In that case, change the port in the calibre Preferences to 80. (On some operating systems, you may not be able to run the server on a port number less than 1024 because of security settings. In this case the simplest solution is to adjust your router to forward requests on port 80 to port 8080).


I could not get it to work on my nook but then again I am no rocket scientologist.

Ok, I tried this and couldn't get it to work either. I am not a computer genius and the whole networking thing is not my cup of tea, so I am not sure what to try. I made sure I had the content server running on Calibre. Then on the web browser on my Nook I typed in my IP addresses, ending it with :8080. And nothing Anyone have some ideas?

[ldolse]

You often need to go to the FIrewall settings on you machine. You didn't mention what OS you're using, but I'll hazard it's Windows, which has it's firewall enabled by default. You need to either open up port 8080 on the firewall or disable it altogether.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by woodygirl

Ok, I tried this and couldn't get it to work either. I am not a computer genius and the whole networking thing is not my cup of tea, so I am not sure what to try. I made sure I had the content server running on Calibre. Then on the web browser on my Nook I typed in my IP addresses, ending it with :8080. And nothing Anyone have some ideas?

It would be helpful if you provided more information about what 'nothing' means. Was there an error message? etc.

Are you on the same network as the machine running your content server?

Are you sure you have the right IP address? For example, it is *not* 127.0.0.1. Instead, it is something like 192.168.something.something.

Try adding /mobile on the end of the url (http://192.168.something.something:8080/mobile)

[woodygirl]

Sorry for the lack of info!
I am using Windows...and I did open up port 8080 on the firewall already. I am running on the same wireless network as the machine running the content server. And I am using the right IP address, it is a 216.something...number. What happens is it "tries" for a long time to open it...for at least 5 minutes it is attempting to open it. Then I get get an error page that just says
" Web Page Not Available"
Your nook's web brower could not load...

I just tried it with the /mobile on the end and it didn't work either, same result.

[varelov]

Originally Posted by Manichean

I have to ask this: What is a rocket scientologist? Is that something like Tom Cruise strapped to a Saturn V? (To the outside, of course. On the inside, there are astronauts.)

Cruise on a Saturn V is a contribution to humanity.
On a more serious note, woodygirl, if you copy your library to your microSD and insert it in nook, you'll have all your books with you wherever you go.

[woodygirl]

Originally Posted by varelov

On a more serious note, woodygirl, if you copy your library to your microSD and insert it in nook, you'll have all your books with you wherever you go.

I have done that, but the reason I wanted access to my Calibre was to see the descriptions/tags/series number for the books. So I am able to tell which book is next in the series or what book I want to read next.

[varelov]

Originally Posted by woodygirl

I have done that, but the reason I wanted access to my Calibre was to see the descriptions/tags/series number for the books. So I am able to tell which book is next in the series or what book I want to read next.

I'll assume you are running XP, click Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Local Area Connection -> the Support tab and take note of the IP address. You probably already enabled an exception for port 8080 when you pressed the Connect/Share button so typing the address (that you took note of before) in the format:
http://192.168.x.x:8080
should connect you. Your IP address would typically start with 192 and you should substitute x's with your own address.
That is of course if you have a wireless router at home and your cable modem is connected to the router so that all devices that connect to the network that the router is in will have internet connection.
I must admit that web browsing on nook is constrained and not very comfortable. But I am not aware of any way to check the information that you need to look up directly on nook.

[itimpi]

You need to be aware that there are other common applications that also try and use port 8080 (e.g. uTorrent) so you may want to avoid this port on Windows. I find that using something like port 8787 is more likely to work OK as a result.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by woodygirl

And I am using the right IP address, it is a 216.something...number.

Agreeing with varelov, that is almost certainly not the right IP address.

For 99.99% of home networks, there are two IP addresses of interest. The first is the one (sometimes two) that your ISP gives you. These are 'public' IP addresses, and are used on the outfacing (internet-facing) side of the router.

The second is a pool of addresses, used on the infacing side of the router. These are private IP addresses, and will start with one of 192.168, 172.16, or 10. Your router will act as a controller (called a DHCP server), allocating an address from the pool when a device connects to the network.

216... is a public IP address. Unless you are a business that is given a pool of public addresses or have an extremely strange setup, it is your outfacing address. Getting that address to work from inside your network requires admin voodoo of the highest order, and in many cases cannot be done. It might work from outside your network, if you have set up port forwarding in your router.

You need to track down the internal IP address of your server. Varelov suggested one way. Another is to open a command box (start, run, cmd), then type ipconfig at the prompt. Hit return, and you will see several lines of output. Buried in there will be information about the network connection. For example, on my machine, I see what is shown under the spoiler. I obfuscated the IP addresses for no particularly good reason other than paranoia.

Spoiler:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : xxxx::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx%xx
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.xxx.xxx
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.xxx.xxx

To finish, itimpi's advice is certainly good. Tracking down port conflicts can be frustrating. That said, start with finding the correct IP address of your content server.

[woodygirl]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
(Can you tell I got it to work???)
I had to do BOTH things you suggested...change the port and get my CORRECT IP address. I had just gone to a site that I googled that was supposed to give me my correct IP address, that's how I came up with the 216 number. When I did it the way you said, I got the 192 number and after changing the port, it worked!
Thanks again!