New iPhone... Can't Use iLinc Outside of Home WiFi

[NewTech]

I am hoping someone out there can assist me with this. I have a new iPhone and I downloaded the iLinc application to the phone. The iLinc works like a charm when I am at home over my home WiFi network but I CANNOT get it to work over the 3G network. It seems I don't know where to find the correct IP address to enter into the iPhone. I am unable to enable Internet access on my ISY so I don't know what my IP address should be.

 

I have successfully enabled port 443 for port forwarding on my Westell router (exact model number: A90-327W60-06) because Port Forwarding's PFPortChecker indicates the port is open.

 

One of the biggest reasons I want the iLinc app. is because we do a lot of camping and many times we aren't near a WiFi hot spot out in the middle of a campground. I want to be able to control the lights when I am connected only to the 3G network.

 

Can anyone help get me set up on this cool app?????

 

Thanks so much,

[markens]

I use iLinc in this situation, so I'll give you some troubleshooting ideas...

 

I am unable to enable Internet access on my ISY so I don't know what my IP address should be.

The "enable internet access" option on the ISY uses PnP (plug 'n play) with the router to attempt to set up port forwarding. From what you said in the other forum, your router almost certainly does not support PnP configuration. Therefore, this option can safely be ignored, since you already enabled port forwarding manually on your router:

 

I have successfully enabled port 443 for port forwarding on my Westell router (exact model number: A90-327W60-06) because Port Forwarding's PFPortChecker indicates the port is open.

 

Just to make sure we're talking the same language: You set up your router so that a request arriving on port 443 to your public ip address (obtained by visiting http://www.myipaddress.com for example) gets forwarded to port 443 of your ISY, at its IP address on your home network. Correct?

 

Note that you may or may not be able to test this from inside your home network, depending on whether your router forwards requests to your "public" address back to the internal network. Some do, some don't. To test this, try connecting to the following from a browser. Replace 11.22.33.44 with your own public ip address. Do not change https or :443.

https://11.22.33.44:443

 

If it works, great. If not, don't worry yet.

 

Now set up iLinc:

 

Go to My Settings. Select the following options:

 

- Connect Method: HTTPS

- Host: https://11.22.33.44 (again, replace with your own public ip addr)

- Port: 443

- User Name & Password as appropriate

- Host Type: ISY

 

If your browser test above worked from inside your network, then iLinc should too. Otherwise, you'll need to "Sync" from outside your network.

 

I hope this helps!

 

--Mark

[NewTech]

 

Just to make sure we're talking the same language: You set up your router so that a request arriving on port 443 to your public ip address (obtained by visiting http://www.myipaddress.com'>http://www.myipaddress.com for example) gets forwarded to port 443 of your ISY, at its IP address on your home network. Correct?

 

IP address is all new to me which I'm sure is the reason it isn't working! Let me further clarify: When I go to http://www.myipaddress.com and get my IP address is that my public IP address? And, I believe that each of our computers have a different IP address when I go to http://www.myipaddress.com. Is this correct??? When setting up port forwarding on this crazy router I have (thanks, Cincinnati Bell!!) I am given the opportunity to enter an IP address OR select from my home network or any of the three computers on our network. What should I select or enter? Is the IP address that appears when I log into the website and then displayed on my computer the one I enter into my iPhone? If so I've tried that but it keeps timing out!!

 

Second... After I set up port forwarding on my router, PFChecker (from Port Forwarding) says to enter the port number you want to forward to an IP address that is already pre-entered into the PFChecker window however it is NOT an address I entered or recognise.

 

I appreciate your willingness to figure this out and I know that sooner or later I'll get it working!

 

Thank you,

[InsteonNut]

Hi Mike,

 

Here are some more ideas to help you diagnose the problem.

 

From a top level view here's how the IP traffic needs to be configured:

 

3G network -> (Router IP Address from http://www.myipaddress.com'>http://www.myipaddress.com) -> (Router Port Forward on port 443 to internal ISY IP address)

 

From your description it sounded like each of your computers report a different IP address when you visit http://www.myipaddress.com. This indicates that your router is requesting a seperate public IP address for each of your computers. Most ISPs don't allow this (or you have to request -and pay- for this feature). In most cases your router is the only device exposed to the public and http://www.myipaddress.com shows what your public IP address is. Please confirm that each computer behind the router gives a different public IP address. That will change how we fix the problem.

 

I'll assume the normal case and that you only have the one public IP address.

 

In iLinc go to My Settings and write down the IP address in the Host field. This is the internal ISY IP address as detected by iLinc on your internal network.

 

Take this IP address and use it in your router to port forward port 443 to the internal ISY IP address.

 

In iLinc, go to My Settings and configure as follows:

 

- Connect Method: HTTPS

- Host: https://11.22.33.44 (replace with your own public ip addr)

- Port: 443

- User Name & Password as appropriate

- Host Type: ISY (Select Custom ISY from the options list)

 

Tap the Sync button and verify that iLinc syncs with your ISY over the public IP address.

 

The downside with this method is that the router could assign your ISY a different IP address in the future which would break this chain. If that happens you'll need to go into the router settings and port forward 443 to the new ISY IP address.

 

I hope this helps,

Wes

[NewTech]

Hi Mike,

 

 

From your description it sounded like each of your computers report a different IP address when you visit http://www.myipaddress.com.'>http://www.myipaddress.com. This indicates that your router is requesting a seperate public IP address for each of your computers. Most ISPs don't allow this (or you have to request -and pay- for this feature). In most cases your router is the only device exposed to the public and http://www.myipaddress.com shows what your public IP address is. Please confirm that each computer behind the router gives a different public IP address. That will change how we fix the problem.

 

I hope this helps,

Wes

 

Hi, Wes!

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I called home (I'm at work right now) and had my wife check the IP address on each of our three computers- 2 laptops using WiFi and 1 desktop plugged directly into the router's port #1. Each computer reported a different IP address. I sure hope we are not paying extra for this feature because we didn't request it. But, then again, Cincinnati Bell may have sold this feature to us with me not really know what I was being sold!

 

With this said (and, thanks to your detailed explanation I think I'm beginning to understand this whole IP thingy!!!) how do I find out what my public IP address is?

[markens]

I called home (I'm at work right now) and had my wife check the IP address on each of our three computers- 2 laptops using WiFi and 1 desktop plugged directly into the router's port #1. Each computer reported a different IP address. I sure hope we are not paying extra for this feature because we didn't request it. But, then again, Cincinnati Bell may have sold this feature to us with me not really know what I was being sold!

 

Again, just to be sure: is the IP address your wife saw on each computer from the results of going to www.myipaddress.com on that computer, or looking on the computer itself? This is an important distinction.

 

I can tell much from the actual ip addresses. Would you mind sending them to me in a private message (use the following link)? Please verify exactly how the addresses were determined for each computer.

http://forum.universal-devices.com/priv ... ost&u=1079

 

Also, it would be useful to know what the ISY says its ip address is. Wes mentioned a method to determine it from iLinc. Another way is via the ISY admin console: go to Help->About and the local ip address will be listed after My URL. Please include this in your PM as well.

 

 

With this said (and, thanks to your detailed explanation I think I'm beginning to understand this whole IP thingy!!!) how do I find out what my public IP address is?

Your public ip address is what is displayed when you browse to www.myipaddress.com (or http://www.whatismyip.com/ or http://whatismyipaddress.com/ etc). This is the address on the ISP side of your router. Your router takes care of knowing which computer to route traffic to from the outside. In general, the "inside" addresses are private, known only to your router.

 

But if, as Wes mentioned, each of your computers actually does have a public address, then we must approach this problem very differently. The first step is to make absolutely sure that this is the case.

 

--Mark

[markens]

One more comment I meant to make in the previous post: It is possible that the browsers on your computers are configured to use a proxy. If this is the case, then results from "whats my ip address" sites will not return correct info. This is the main reason I want to know what the actual IP addresses are.

 

Hang in there - we'll get this sorted out.

 

--Mark

[NewTech]

One more comment I meant to make in the previous post: It is possible that the browsers on your computers are configured to use a proxy. If this is the case, then results from "whats my ip address" sites will not return correct info. This is the main reason I want to know what the actual IP addresses are.

 

Hang in there - we'll get this sorted out.

 

--Mark

 

Mark,

 

Thanks for taking the time to assist me with this. I am still at work but will check this out tonight and PM you. I can tell you that all three IP addresses were found using the MyIPAddress.com website. Interesting: I am a teacher and I logged onto several different computers in my room and, using the MyIPAddress.com website, EVERY computer came back with the same IP address!

[NewTech]

Mark,

 

I just sent you a PM but for some reason it is still in my outbox and not in my sent box.

[NewTech]

All,

 

Praise God! It is now working!!!! I was able to successfully set up iLinc to control my ISY from my 3G network.

 

Thank you, to each of you, who assisted me with this! The cool thing is that I even remember the steps I took and the correct IP addresses to do the configuration so if I need to I can do it again!

[markens]

Mike,

 

Yay, good to hear it's working now. I did get your PM, although I guess now I don't need to reply to it.

 

I want to mention a couple things from your PM here in the forum to close the loop for anybody following along:

 

- The multiple "public" IP addresses were due to attaching to neighboring wifi hotspots. The 208.xx.xx.181 address is indeed the single public address for your router, and what you config iLInc for.

 

- The ISY's address of 192.168.xx.253 is indeed a private address, nonroutable from the internet and accessible only from the router and internal computers.

 

- Yes, the router needs to be set up to forward port 443 received from the internet to port 443 on internal address 192.168.xx.253 (the ISY). This step evidently works for you now!

 

--Mark

[NewTech]

Mike,

 

Yay, good to hear it's working now. I did get your PM, although I guess now I don't need to reply to it.

 

I want to mention a couple things from your PM here in the forum to close the loop for anybody following along:

 

- The multiple "public" IP addresses were due to attaching to neighboring wifi hotspots. The 208.xx.xx.181 address is indeed the single public address for your router, and what you config iLInc for.

 

- The ISY's address of 192.168.xx.253 is indeed a private address, nonroutable from the internet and accessible only from the router and internal computers.

 

- Yes, the router needs to be set up to forward port 443 received from the internet to port 443 on internal address 192.168.xx.253 (the ISY). This step evidently works for you now!

 

--Mark

 

Thanks for your time and dedication. I am so glad that it is now working. Now I can continue to drive my wife crazy!!

 

One additional question: After realizing that I can log into our neighbor's routers I noticed on our router that there is a place where I can choose to "hide" my SSID. Currently it is disabled. If I enable it will our SSID no longer appear on anyone's computer as a wireless network thus preventing anyone not authorized from connecting to our router? If so, how do I log back in to our router's SSID should I need to so?

[ResIpsa]

I believe what you're talking about is the "broadcast" option for the SSID. Now that your iPhone knows your wireless network is there, you can go ahead and disable broadcasting, or "hide" your router; your iPhone will still know the network is there and should automatically reconnect whenever it's in range. Enabling the broadcast feature makes it easier to setup up new wireless devices to access the network, and disabling it helps prevent unwanted visitors on your network. Just be aware that even with your router "hidden," it's still wireless and therefore vulnerable to intrusion.

 

One additional question: After realizing that I can log into our neighbor's routers I noticed on our router that there is a place where I can choose to "hide" my SSID. Currently it is disabled. If I enable it will our SSID no longer appear on anyone's computer as a wireless network thus preventing anyone not authorized from connecting to our router? If so, how do I log back in to our router's SSID should I need to so?

[InsteonNut]

Hi Mike,

 

Glad to hear you've got it all worked out! Thanks Mark for all your help.

 

Good pratice and SSID info: Good WiFi router pratice is to disable the broadcast of the SSID. This, however, only keeps the honest people out of your WiFi network. If you need to attach another wireless device to your network you can type in the SSID of your router into the wireless device or just enable SSID broadcast until your new device is configured.

 

Better pratice: Disable SSID broadcast AND enable some form of WiFi encryption. This takes a bit more configuration on the part of all your wireless devices, but it secures your traffic from prying eyes or logging into your WiFi network.

 

Wes

[NewTech]

Thanks for the info on hiding our router. We live in a condo community where our neighbors are rather close and we back up to a golf course so I am suspecting that we have had many people log into our router. Hiding our SSID is just one way of creating a very weak security measure.