Remote admin

My point

  1. I have c5 but not north America, so no use
  2. Exactly the same as what I can do now backing up a copy to local pc
  3. Yes extended warranty! But still have to build z-wave from scratch

$30 for a extended warranty that's all non North America gets

Someone with a C-7 would have a different perspective. But I can see why $30 for extended warranty may not be attractive for someone with a C-5.

I use a cellular internet connection. As such there is no external IP which is available to give me access to my VPN. So I can't use a VPN.

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Cellular internet still has an external IP. I VPN into sites with cellular connections all the time - literally dozens of times per week at work. Now, the IP may change regularly, but that is what a dynamic dns service is for.

Unless you are saying you use a cellular dongle to a computer, and it goes with you when remote (thus no internet at all when you're away from home)? Maybe I'm not understanding your specific situation.

Don’t some cell providers use carrier grade NAT? That could be a scenario where someone is using cellular internet and won’t have a public IP?

Probably. I don't claim to be an expert on ALL cellular connections. :slight_smile:

To your point, there could be scenarios where you can't GET TO the external IP easily. I hadn't considered that.

I don't really understand it. But I use a cellular modem. There is an internal IP and and External IP. Dynamic DNS is no good. The IP it comes up with is not the external. I've been through this before and with others on this forum. It's not possible in that manner.

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Not true. The fact is you get secure cloud backup and hub protection. It is your particular Z-Wave stick that has the limitation. For current owners of a Model C-7 hub outside NA, they will get the benefit of full migration when to another C-7. Hubitat would have liked to have offered the Z-Wave migration for every Z-Wave radio, but it wasn't technically possible.

Owners in Australia and New Zealand that received hubs with the zwave.me stick can also use the Z-Wave migration capability. So it's not ALL hubs outside North America.

https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Hub_Protect#Migrate

Again, just to be clear Z-Wave migration is supported for C-5 hubs in the US and Canada, and also hubs that shipped to AUZ/NZ with the ZWave.me dongle.

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Remote Admin is now available with a cellular dongle.

https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Networking#Cellular_Adapter_setup

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To get your true external IP, you can either go to google and type in "whats my ip" or use a site like https://ipchicken.com. Both those methods will provide your true external IP. May not help with automating the Dyn DNS, but you could do a manual update depending on how often it changes. Though your provider would have to allow the connections back to you.

Don't work that way. I can do a whats my ip, but even with that info there is no external access. It has something to do with the fact that the cellular system has 2 ip's, a public and a private and there is no way to bridge that.

Again I don't fully understand it but it is what it is. I have researched it throughly.

The only way to get remote access is to use an external VPN system for all my access. And it's not worth the price to do that.

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Don’t really need that. My home internet service is cellular. The HE remote access should and is,doing the job.

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Sorry, then I'm confused about the comment that you can't use a cellular dongle in the thread about Remote Admin.

This to me says you want admin access from a remote location. VPN isn't useful for anything else with the hub that I'm aware of.

I don’t think I said anything about using a cellular dongle. My home internet is cellular. Maybe I wasn’t clear, sorry about that.

I can’t use a vpn for access to my hub due to the lack of external access to my modem. Therefore the HE remote access works for me.

I think I need to backup hear and clear up what I thought I said, but probably wasn't saying what I meant to say.

There were some comments about access the hub via a VPN connection to the local network. I think that is probably the best option. But to do that you have to have a way to access the VPN server on the local network. I can't do that due to the cellular internet service I use. There is no public IP that gives me that access.

Therefore the HE Remote Admin is a good solution. The Hub as I understand it creates a tunnel that is accessible remotely. Whether it uses the users normal internet access or a cellular dongle. I have no need for a dongle, it wouldn't add anything to what I have.

Another method that people recommend is something like TeamViewer. But that requires a always on computer on the network. I also don't have that as I take mine when I travel.

Sorry if I confused anyone on what I was talking about.

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No worries. To be clear your setup with only having cellular internet is different than attaching a cellular adapter to the hub, which can only be used for Remote Admin at this time. It’s not intended to be used as a substitute for internet access like you are doing.

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Unfortunately where we live our internet options are limited. The cellular gives us the best bang for the buck, so to speak.

iirc, this is how StarLink works, and you can't set up port forwardings, so VPN wouldn't be feasible

Yes, actually most major US carriers: ATT, Verizon, and their MVNOs all use CGNAT and do not give you an external IP address. So Remote Admin is the only practical solution if you have cellular internet.