"Failed to Connect to Server" message - Proxy server?

[Keith55]

Hi All, any help with this issue much appreciated. I've been livestreaming school graduation ceremonies for a couple of primary schools in Melbourne (Australia). I'm using an ATEM Mini+laptop + OBS + Youtube studio.

THE PROBLEM
The schools internet all go through education department proxy servers, and the school's IT support provide me the proxy settings to put in Windows Proxy Settings so I can access Youtube. All the Youtube web URLs and proxy server RTMP URLs have been white listed by the department.

Once I include the proxy settings, I get fast internet connections and can access youtube studio etc. BUT
As soon as I hit "start streaming' in OBS I get a message "Failed to connect to server" (as you can imagine the first time this happened I freaked out - 5 min prior to the ceremony starting) .

MY EMERGENCY FIX
I have been switching over to a mobile Telstra 4G dongle connection or using my mobile phone 5G connection instead, and this works. If the speeds aren't great I'll scale down to 720p and a lower bit rate. But still, it's risky and I have had drop outs.

ALTERNATIVES?
I read on another thread in this forum from 2017 that OBS won't work through a proxy server. Is that true? WHY? I find it hard to believe, surely this would come up all the time in the corporate world? Is there another encoder I need to use instead of OBS studio and can I be sure it'll work?

What also doesn't make sense is that I did it last year (2020) and it worked okay. Same set up except I was using Firefox instead of Chrome and maybe an earlier version of OBS I guess.

I'm a simple videographer, not an IT guru. If I've got a great internet connection able to access Youtube RTMP servers, surely that's all there is to it. What else does OBS need?

 

[koala]

There is no proxy support in OBS, so this cannot be done. If it worked for you in the past, it either worked without proxy or you used a different streaming software.

 

[Keith55]

There is no proxy support in OBS, so this cannot be done. If it worked for you in the past, it either worked without proxy or you used a different streaming software.

Thanks. Any suggestions what I should be using instead?

 

[Tomasz Góral]

The software doesn't matter, service matter.
http and https protocol via proxy (yt control), rtmp video protocol on white list directly connection.

 

[R1CH]

Youtube has an option for using HLS instead of RTMP, that might work through a restrictive firewall.

 

[koala]

Yes, but how would you make OBS actually use a proxy if you're using hls streaming? There is no option in OBS to tell any proxy, and even with activated hls streaming OBS will not respect the Windows system proxy settings.

 

[Keith55]

Yes, but how would you make OBS actually use a proxy if you're using hls streaming? There is no option in OBS to tell any proxy, and even with activated hls streaming OBS will not respect the Windows system proxy settings.

The software doesn't matter, service matter.
http and https protocol via proxy (yt control), rtmp video protocol on white list directly connection.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but the software (ie OBS) does matter if it won't stream through a proxy server setup

 

[Tomasz Góral]

Existing many different streaming software similary to OBS and stream via rtmp, it's 1935 port tcp. This port must be open to target server.
In simply version, to control YT use own phone (don't use school network), to stream use school network with open 1935 port tcp and add to white list yt servers.
In Poland school network on www ports is blocked (80 and 443) but port 1935 is open and I can stream.

 

[Keith55]

Thanks Tomasz, I'll give it a try.