Since the debut of SlingPlayer 2.0, the forums have been buzzing with controversy surrounding what, on the surface anyway, seems like a relatively useful change to the way Sling Media helps their customers connect to and manage their Slingboxes - Sling Accounts. With so many Slingers concerned about what Sling Accounts are for, I thought it high time to take some of these concerns to the source and finally get the facts and debunk the myths.

For those new to the Slingbox experience, a little insight as to how the controversy started may be in order. For that, we'll need a bit of Slingbox history to see how the evolution of accounts came to be.

The History of the SlingFinder Service

I remember standing in front of a tiny booth during the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show, where newcomer Sling Media was showing off their invention - the Slingbox. I wasn't new to the concept of place-shifting; Sony had tried something similar called Location Free TV. The solutions were different, but the end goal of being able to watch a home video source from anywhere was definitely a cool thing.

One of the first questions I asked was how Sling Media planned on making remote connections easy for the consumer. Discovery and connection over a private network doesn't pose any real challenge, but remote connections simply aren't as simple.  The problem is that most consumers don't get a fixed IP address from their Internet Service Provider, which means the IP address that identifies your router on the Internet can change at any time. Making a remote connection to a Slingbox would require the user to know their WAN IP address, but since many don't know what a WAN IP is, I saw this as a major hurdle to Sling's plan.

They knew it, too. Fortunately, they were already ahead of the game. To counter the problem of ever changing IP addresses, Sling devised a clever system called the "SlingFinder Service." For those who want to know how it works, each Slingbox is issued a unique, mega-long hexadecimal value known as the "SlingFinder ID." At frequent intervals, the Slingbox, when connected to the user's home network, would communicate with a server at Sling Media that would log the current WAN IP address and port number to your SlingFinder ID. You enter your SlingFinder ID into the SlingPlayer application, and upon your desire to connect to your Slingbox, it would look up your current WAN IP and port number as last communicated by the Slingbox.

To put it simply, the SlingFinder Service worries about where the Slingbox is, so that way you don't have to. Sure, there are other ways to accomplish this, like buying a fixed IP from your ISP or getting your own domain name and setting up Dynamic DNS, but for those who just want to watch TV from a remote laptop, the SlingFinder Service is the simplest solution.

Fast forward to today and the Finder Service that helps you find your Slingbox on the vast ocean that is the Internet has undergone some changes. The SlingFinder Service itself still works pretty much the same way, but the way users manage their Slingboxes using the SlingFinder Service is what has changed.

Why change what was already working?

It's not that the SlingFinder Service didn't work, but it had some problems in certain situations. Prior to SlingPlayer 2.0, the Slingbox directory (think of it as a file that has all your SlingFinder IDs in it) was stored locally with SlingPlayer on any given computer or device. When you first set up your client, one of two things would happen:

1. If setting up your client on the same network as the Slingbox, the SlingPlayer would discover any Slingboxes and save the SlingFinder IDs to a local directory. With these values saved, you could take your client device and connect to it from outside of the network.


2. If setting up your client remotely, you'd need to know and enter the SlingFinder ID of the Slingbox you wish to connect to before you'll be able to watch your home TV. Once the SlingFinder ID had been entered, you'd be able to find your Slingbox from anywhere.

#2 had been the Achilles heel of the SlingFinder Service as it stood. Say you're spending time with family, and there's something on your TiVo you just HAVE to show them. You, of course, didn't bring your laptop or your flash drive because you didn't think you'd need it. Unless you have your Finder ID memorized (unlikely), you can't simply install SlingPlayer on their computer and connect to your Slingbox.

Slingers are smart people, and many had come up with solutions to work around a remote setup limitation. For example, many would e-mail themselves their SlingFinder ID to an online accessible e-mail account, so they would have it in a pinch.

Another problem with the 'old way' is when you have several Slingboxes and several devices you want to Sling to. If all you ever use is a laptop that's ALWAYS with you, then it's not really a big deal when you add a new Slingbox in your home. But, if you have to update the Sling directory on five or six different devices that you and your family use, it starts to become a real headache.

To further illustrate, I'll also share a story about something that happened to me some time ago. I remember setting up my Slingbox PRO right before I was about to head out shopping with my fiance (now my wife). Since I first got my Slingbox and SlingPlayer Mobile, I haven't minded clothes shopping with the Mrs; I sit in the "man chair" and watch the Cubs game or whatever while she shops, yet I still get brownie points for "being there." It's a win-win.

Now, I just set up the Slingbox PRO and got it all configured and streaming from my desktop. It worked like a dream, so I dashed out the door and into the car. As I sunk into the lone man chair in the middle of Old Navy it hit me... I FORGOT to sync my phone before I left. Since my other Slingbox was disconnected, I was out of luck. Not only did I miss the Cubs game, but I had to endure severe boredom as we went from store to store. 

I could go into some other examples of problem areas with the old way the SlingFinder Service was implemented, but I think you get the drift.

Let's face it; any workaround is merely a band-aid to a problem. The problem being that the SlingFinder Service isn't exactly 'friendly' or convenient in certain situations. I know it, and others do, too. For years, Slingers on this forum have been clamoring for a better solution, and that solution came in the form of Sling Accounts introduced with SlingPlayer 2.0.

What's a Sling Account?

A Sling Account is a new way to manage your Slingbox directory, which changes how we find and connect to our Slingboxes. The SlingFinder Service is still there, humming along as it always has, but Sling Accounts adds a second super-convenient layer to it.

For starters, instead of storing the Slingbox directory locally on the device, it's now stored remotely within a personal Sling Account. The account is created with a personal e-mail address and password either online or during your initial Slingbox setup. Once the account is created, you only need to add future Slingboxes to your account, not on each individual device you own.

Finding your Slingbox, anytime or anywhere, now becomes simple. All you need to remember is your e-mail address and a password, not a long hexadecimal string. Sit down at any SlingPlayer client that supports Accounts, and log in. Your Sling Account will retrieve your Slingbox directory, favorites, and guide information automatically and let you watch your home TV. It's the same experience no matter what you use to log in, and finally makes setting up favorites useful across all devices.

Finally, when you're done all you have to do is log out. Sling Accounts is ideal for when you're using a client that doesn't belong to you, or a computer that's used by several people in the family. Finally, my wife and I can have our own favorites list on the same computer.

Sling Accounts even goes beyond the day-to-day usage of Sling products.

"There are other areas where Sling Accounts are being used, such as support," says MegaZone, Sr. Project Manager for Sling Media. "In the support area of our website there is a widget on the right-hand side which allows users to chat with support, but you have to sign in to your Sling Account to use it. This improves support in a number of ways:  the support tech can see your account info so they know what Slingbox(es) you have, the support ticket is associated with your account so if you need to call in or chat again they can see what's been done and pick up from there, the support history is tied to your account so they can see if you have some kind of recurring problem, we can readily check on the warranty status for the boxes, etc. It really improves CRM and we hope it'll allow us to provide better support to our users."  Continued on page 2 >>

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