I've been in this category over the last few weeks and my Wireguard VPN has been a useful setup, plus accessing RPI's running Grafana, my Solar Edge reporting, Hue bridge.... oh, yeah... and HE hubs....
For those more well versed in travelling, how do you setup your smart home best for travelling....? For some this can also include setups while working in the office.... E.g.:
How do you connect back to home? VPN setups, data storage solutions accessible remotely, etc?
How do you manage notifications when remote?
Dashboards? Yes/No? Ok, maybe Yes or No is a bigger question, the how is more the point here....
Choices for how to tell those we love (plus anyone we live with ) that we are heading home
I think you get the idea.... How do you achieve similar features when away from home?
I bought a GL iNet AX 3000 Travel Router a couple of months ago. It's great so far! It connects to hotel's LAN or Wifi then all of my devices connect to the travel router's SSID/PW that is same no matter where I am. It also has option to be a Wireguard client.
I use the Away mode along with a vacation virtual switch to designate I am traveling. Then I have several rules setup that send me pushover notifications if my garage door opens or certain other contact sensors. These rules are restricted to only fire if vacation switch is on and in away mode.
For simple monitoring, my HomeKit dashboard. If i need to get into the hubs to do something (Not common, but has happened a few times), I use Wire guard. I'm looking at setting up twin gate, but so far, I'm not having a lot of luck there.
How do you connect back to home? VPN setups, data storage solutions accessible remotely, etc?
--Wireguard!! Best ever, always works, always fast connection (I stream Netflix, Hulu, etc., over it when remote), and full access to hubs & devices, apps, etc. Also have Grafana for detailed hub graphs if desired (rarely needed).
How do you manage notifications when remote?
--Everything already goes to my phone via Pushover...so no different then when I'm home, aside from fact I can't hear the Google Voice announcements that I get for some notifictions. Some GV are useful to wife (take out trash, laundry done, doors/windows open "too long") and the rest she ignores or doesn't hear from the office (where chatty smart hubs/screens are banned!)
Dashboards? Yes/No? Ok, maybe Yes or No or a bigger question, the how is more the point here....
--Not so much, just like at home. Typically use DBs for troubleshooting more than for HA control (everything is automated)
Choices for how to tell those we love (plus anyone we live with ) that we are heading home
--Why warn them!? Ha! I don't use presence or anything, because if my wife isn't w/me on the trip, she's is picking me up at the airport so she already knows I'm coming home/home.
I do the same. I use Firewalla Gold to host my wireguard. My GL Travel router has built in wireguard so all devices connected to it are connected to my VPN. I use the same SSID as my home router. I also use Tasker to automatically turn on my wireguard (android) when I am not on that SSID, or turn it off when I am on that SSID.
I get them the same as anywhere else (home or not). Not sure what you think should be different. If something is going on that I need to check on something, I phone the neighbor or my kids to go check it out.
I only actively use a few dashboards to begin with. Most of my stuff is fully automated. There are 3 dashboards I use from my phone ever. For those, I created shortcuts that just open those dashboards in a browser.
I don't do this. But, I do have an automation in Home Assistant that triggers my AC to resume schedule when me or my wife are both at work and one of us leaves our work boundary. I had to put a logic check to wait 15 minutes as we occaisionally drive by her work on the way to a store or visiting our kids, so HA would have thought we were there and then left. So I set a delay of 15 minutes for it to trigger "at work" and if that is not triggered, it will not trigger "left work." This seems to work well.
(I use HA for this because their presence allows multiple locations).
I also have one that we can turn on a "snow" or "dangerous" drive day such that when we are headed in in bad weather, it will send a notification when the car enters the work zone. Basically, the required expression is a switch to turn on the notification rule. Once we enter the area, it sends a notification that we made it and turns off the switch that causes the rule not to run again. This solves the, "you didn't let me know you made it safely" when there is six inches of snow on the ground. I run the rule in HE with a tie in to HA using the Home Assistant Device Bridge.
Oh yes, forgot to mention this one - I do something the same. Any time my wife or I connect our phones (Android, of course) to Wi-Fi networks that aren't on our known safe list (set in Tasker), Tasker automatically turns on WireGuard on the phone and we're connected to our home network. When we reconnect to a safe Wi-Fi network, or to mobile data, Tasker turns off Wireguard.
I just set up something similar using an iOS VPN on-demand profile. But here’s the kicker. My camper has the same SSID as my home network - and auto switches between a powerline connection to the home network when home/plugged in and a Verizon Mifi when away… so I had to add a check in my profile that confirms whether I’m actually on the home network or not before auto disconnecting from (or connecting to) VPN.
I must be a slacker, as I just look at the Hubitat dashboard when I think of it and call it a day. I do use Pushover for notifications such as the power going out (to make sure the generator started) and I have a few cameras to check in on things.
For remote access, we moved everything to a secure cloud storage site with MFA required years ago and have been very happy with it. I figure they’re better at security and storage than me. I use a VPN when away from our house or office and tell my Apple devices to use it when not on trusted networks. All seems to work.
That's a good point.... At least with my understanding of your situation. Local is great while you are physically local or have remote access to local devices, but if that cord is cut (or can be easily or readily cut) then a cloud option can have some benefits, if only for point-in-time status information.
Wireguard works really well. For anyone thinking about setting up a VPN, give it a shot. Easy to manage on a raspberry pi, and works well on all my apple stuff, iOS, iPadOS, MacOS. Might even work okay on Windoze.
As an extension to this thread, how can one handle the situation where the hub has an issue while both of you are traveling?
I have a UPS and logic for a graceful shutdown before the power runs out. Evidently that happened but the hub won't restart properly. How can I run diagnostics remotely?
[Edit] The home network is up and running, WiFi devices are responding to Google Home and Reolink cameras are live.
Do I need a VPN or RPi or both?
) that we are heading home
