Need to control HE remotely (VPN, Port Forwarding?)

đź’¬ Lounge
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I need the option to access the HE at my home network remotely.
I use a Netgear Orbi mesh at home, I have Dynamic DNS enabled, and VPN as well. Those are both router services on the Orbi.

Can I access my Hubitat via VPN without having any computer at home running? If so, how?

Another question. My Orbi sits behind a modem/router provided by my ISP. The Orbi is connected via ethernet. The modem/router wifi is not broadcasting, only the Orbi wifi is.
However when I use my dynamic domain name, it will always take me to the modem/routers IP. How do I get from there to the Hubitat?

Thanks in advance for all good advice.

2

I'm using Teamviewer running on a Raspberry Pi. It's free and perfect so far. I was using VNC on a Pi beforehand but ran into some issues. You can use VPN of course instead and some routers support this directly. Others on the forum can help you with that, or take a search. There are many posts related to this subject.

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Thanks, I'm trying to avoid having additional devices running, especially when I'm not at home for longer periods.

4

Understood. VPN is the way to go then.

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6

Check here to set it up, although if you dont have a static IP, you will need some form of DNS. YouTube

And no need to port forward as you will be technically part of your own network, simply open the IP in the browser. I do this with my Unifi set up, works a treat.

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Does the orbi router support running a vpn server? If so, that’s the “computer” running at home, which allows you to connect to your hub with a web browser, as you usually do.

Many routers support vpn passthrough, which isn’t the same thing. That would allow you to connect to an outside VPN server while you’re at home, which won’t help with connecting to hubitat remotely.

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I do the exact same thing. Orbi system with Dynamic DNS and VPN services. You want to make sure the you have “All sites on the internet & Home Network” selected one the VPN options.

Once connected to the VPN, you can just browse to your home Hub IP address to access the hub.

Whatever you do, don’t do port forwarding to the hub to access it from the internet, it is highly insecure !

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9

Yes, the router does offer VPN service. I just don't know how to access my home network from outside. See my question #2.

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Thank you, I had "All sites on the internet & Home Network" indeed disabled so far. I'll give it a try right away.

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In that case, I believe you’d need to port forward the vpn connection from your ISP router to your orbi? That’s a more secure option than directly port forwarding internet traffic to the hubitat hub, I think. Though any port forwarding can theoretically be risky.

There are others who know more than me that can probably chime in :slight_smile:.

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What you can do here is setup a DMZ on the modem/router provided by the internet provider. What is your provider? Or what type of modem is it?

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LOL, my provider is TELMEX and the modem/router is a "HUAWEI Home Gateway HG659". Not sure if this information is of much help to you.

14

Ok, I found the following instructions:

Step 1 Log in to the web management page on your Huwaei Gateway
Step 2 In the navigation tree, choose Internet > Network Security.
Step 3 Click DMZ.
Step 4 In Host address, enter the WAN IP Address of your ORBI System
Step 5 Select Enable DMZ.
Step 6 Click Save to activate the DMZ host

I found them online so I hope they match what you see

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15

OK, so you mean open a port on the ISP router to the Orbi? But then the VPN wouldn't make much sense, would it?

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No, it still would. Your Hubitat is behind the Orbi.

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It does, the DMZ really will do it for you.

Right now, the Dynamic DNS ends on your Internet Provider Gateway and that gateway has no idea what to do with the incoming request as your ORBI system is really the intended target. You can either tell your Internet Provider Gateway to just forward all the VPN requests to ORBI (port forwarding) or setup a DMZ which tells the gateway to forward all external requests to your ORBI system.

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18

Tried it (set DMZ on ISP router to ORBI). But accessing it dowsn't work.
But that wouldn't make use of the VPN anyway, I guess?

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Your questions are actually answered by having VPN setup. When you connect to your VPN, if you have it configured properly, the device you connect from will be connected to your home network. To access Hubitat, you simply enter the IP address of your HE hub in a browser.

If you set things up properly, you should be using a VPN client or VPN app for the type of VPN you are running at home. I, for example, run Pi VPN on a Raspberry Pi. Pi VPN is essentially Open VPN running on a Pi. So, to connect remotely, I use the Open VPN app on my phone to connect to my home VPN. Once the app connects, I can hit any device on my local home network.

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Stupid question. Are you on your wifi trying to establish the VPN? That won't work. You need to try from somewhere else than your home network. I often use my phone for it and disconnect from the wifi while testing