Accessing sage from outside home network

[btrcp2000]

I used to have everything set up to be able to use the web interface from outside my home network, but let it all go when the free dyndns service went away. I'm playing with it now just using my ip address from whatismyip and it is working fine, thought I would just see how it goes for now since i have no idea how often my ISP changes my address.

Specifically, I have the mobile web site and the Android app workming now, but concerned about security, which I'm not too clear on. Should be be using SSL or https, or is my router still doing that job?

EDIT: I should add that my AmpedWireless router only wants TZO or dyndns, and this is not worth investing in a new one at the moment. Unless someone knows how I can jury-rig another free dns service to work with my router.

[Tiki]

If you leave your Sage Server PC running 24/7, you could use one of the other free DNS services without changing anything in your router. I use one called duckdns.org. You can install a service or run a script on your server PC to keep the address updated.

They have instructions for configuration with many different operating systems and routers:

http://www.duckdns.org/install.jsp

[wayner]

Some of the router makes, Asus is an example, provide a free Dyndns service.

If you want I can post some code that logs your external IP address to a file every day (or every hour even). This lets you see how often your ISP changes your IP. For me it is almost never unless I change my router.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

Some of the router makes, Asus is an example, provide a free Dyndns service.

If you want I can post some code that logs your external IP address to a file every day (or every hour even). This lets you see how often your ISP changes your IP. For me it is almost never unless I change my router.

That is cool... I have 2 asus routers and they both support this, but, I never knew it I have a grandfathered dyndns account, so I don't need it, but good to know just the same.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

That is cool... I have 2 asus routers and they both support this, but, I never knew it I have a grandfathered dyndns account, so I don't need it, but good to know just the same.

Who's your ISP? I have Rogers and you almost don't need this as your DNS rarely changes, unless you change your modem or router.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

Who's your ISP? I have Rogers and you almost don't need this as your DNS rarely changes, unless you change your modem or router.

I have rogers as well... but remembering my IP is harder than just remembering my hostname

[wayner]

True - but then you can hardcode it in a hosts file at computers you use away from home - assuming that you are allowed to edit a hosts file. Or bookmark it once and you are set.

But I agree with you which is why I actually pay $15/yr or whatever for DynDNS service.

[stanger89]

Is the SageTV locator service still running? Where you just enter the locator ID in placeshifter and it figures that all out for you?

[wayner]

Here is a bit of vbs code that logs your external IP to a file called ip.txt - I use a file on my OneDrive account so that it is accessible from anywhere. It scrapes a web page called http://checkip.dyndns.org. I run the script every 30 minutes using Windows' Task Scheduler. Save the code before as something like iplog.vbs and then run that from Task Scheduler on manually.

My IP last changed on Sep 14, 2014 around 10 am. If you wanted it to be a bit smarter you could have it email you every time there was a change so that you were alerted to that fact.

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForAppending = 8
Dim ipLog, objHTTP, strHTML, varStart
Dim varStop, strIP, strCurrIP, objFSO
Dim txtFile, strLine, objShell

' Log for tracking external IP addresses
ipLog = "C:\Users\wayne\SkyDrive\Ping Test\IP.txt"


' Get current external IP address from web
Set objHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
Call objHTTP.Open("GET", "http://checkip.dyndns.org", False)
objHTTP.Send()
strHTML = objHTTP.ResponseText

' Extarct IP from HTML if HTML was recieved
If strHTML <> "" Then
   varStart = InStr(1, strHTML, "Current IP Address:", vbTextCompare) + 19
   If varStart Then varStop = InStr(varStart, strHTML, "</body>", vbTextCompare)
   If varStart And varStop Then strIP = Mid(strHTML, varStart, varStop - varStart)
Else
   strIP = "Unavailable"
End If
' Remove preceeding or trailing spaces
strCurrIP = Trim(strIP)

' Check for log file and last log entry
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If Not (objFSO.FileExists(ipLog)) Then 
   ' If log file doesn't exist create it
   Set txtFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(ipLog, True)
   
End If



   ' If changed log to file and display IP
   Set txtFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(ipLog, ForAppending)
   txtFile.Write(Date+Time)
   txtFile.Write(" External IP is: "+strCurrIP& vbCrLf)
      txtFile.Close


' Clear variables
Set ipLog = Nothing
Set objHTTP = Nothing
Set strHTML = Nothing
Set varStart = Nothing
Set varStop = Nothing
Set strIP = Nothing
Set strCurrIP = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing
Set txtFile = Nothing
Set strLine = Nothing
Set objShell = Nothing

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Is the SageTV locator service still running? Where you just enter the locator ID in placeshifter and it figures that all out for you?

Yes it's still working, and works great. The limitation is that it's only really good for placeshifter, and not for the web UI. (to clarify, there are ways to make it work with other web services, but the url is a lot more complicated than just using a $15/year dyndns address.)

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yes it's still working, and works great. The limitation is that it's only really good for placeshifter, and not for the web UI. (to clarify, there are ways to make it work with other web services, but the url is a lot more complicated than just using a $15/year dyndns address.)

I use the locator ID in my myftp.org account, so when my IP address changes (it occasionally does), I'm still good. Works great