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Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:53 am
by Reefology
Hi,

I finally got my wifi up and running (almost killed me...old guy not up to speed on the tech stuff :)) but now my portal says unreachable yet i can access and control via my ipad/iphone. how is this possible and how do i set up the portal?

Thanks

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:36 am
by rimai
You need to make sure to setup port forwarding in your router.
If your router is one of those provided by your internet provider, they can help you with that.
Or you can call the manufacturer of the router too.
All routers are set by default to block any incoming access and assume they are all malicious.
Port forwarding will tell the router that any traffic coming in a specific predefined port is not malicious and should be forwarded to your wifi attachment.
So, when you call them, make sure to tell them you want to setup port forwarding and this is what they will need:
Protocol: TCP
Port: 2000
IP Address: the same ip address you are using on your iphone/ipad.
While you are at it, ask them to setup a dhcp reservation by mac address on your router too to avoid the ip address to change.
This way, even if your router looses power, it will always assign the wifi attachment with the same ip address and you won't need to call them again to setup port forwarding again.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:48 am
by Reefology
thank you Roberto, i will call them.

Cheers

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:09 am
by Reefology
apparently, port forwarding is not an option with my service provider! is there an alternet method or am i out of luck?

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:20 am
by cosmith71
What kind of router?

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:45 am
by Reefology
not sure, its from my service provider and they aren't too helpful. I will poke around.

Thanks

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 12:37 pm
by cosmith71
Look on the bottom of the router. It should have a manufacturer and model #.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:00 pm
by Reefology
got it thanks!!!

Now id like to figure out how to add custom fields next to the ports on iphone app? Can you help with that Reef Angel gurus? :)

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 4:59 pm
by rimai
You can change them in the portal and download in the phone app.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:36 pm
by Reefology
thank you

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:03 am
by Reefology
Ok, I can access my controller remotely from the portal and, I can access it from my iphone when I'm at home via the app, but last night I tried my iphone app from outside my home and it wasn't working. I doubt I'll ever need to access my aquarium when I'm not home but just curious why that is? And wondering if something is setup incorrectly that may cause me problems down the road?

Thanks

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 7:18 am
by Sacohen
You need to have a static IP or setup a DNS name and configure port forwarding on your router.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 7:26 am
by cosmith71
What IP address are you using in the app? If it starts with 127 then it's the wrong one.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 7:59 am
by Reefology
It starts with 192...

I already set up port forwarding and it's up and running on the portal.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:51 am
by cosmith71
Ooops, I meant 192. :D

IP's that start with 192 are internal to your home network. They are assigned to your devices by your router. The outside world can't see them, hence when you're off of your WiFi you can't access the 192 address.

You also have an outside IP address that is assigned to your modem/router by your ISP. Your router takes the traffic coming into this IP address and "routes" it to all the 192 addresses on your home network. That's why port forwarding is important. That tells the router that everything coming in to your "outside" IP address for port 2000 needs to go to the Reef Angel.

If you load up the portal page and look near the top, under the banners and to the right of the Reef Angel logo, you'll see "Reef Angel wifi address: ". This is the address you need to put into the app on your phone. Leave off the :2000 and just make sure your app has port set to 2000.

This should get you working. Be aware that your outside IP address can change if your modem looses power. There's a way around this, but I need to look it up.

--Colin

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:11 am
by Sacohen
You can also set up a DNS name so when your IP changes the DNS gets the new IP address and you don't miss w step.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:21 am
by lnevo
Whatsmyip.org will show you your external address.. Also once your controller connects your ip will be logged by the portal and should stay connected.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:42 am
by cosmith71
Here's info on setting up the ReefAngel DDNS service. Just note that the "_" is now a "-".

http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4754

--Colin

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:07 am
by Reefology
there is a lot to digest here but going to try to sum it up and hope i have it right.

"if" I:

1. set up port forwarding
2. add a DDNS (reefology-tank.myreefangel.com) via the wizard
3. add DDNS to iphone app (or any 3rd party app) in the IP address field. this takes care of instances when ISP changes external IP

I will be good to go with remotely controlling my reef angel?

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:11 am
by cosmith71
Sounds right.

--Colin

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:59 am
by Reefology
phew...thanks Colin

Now i just have to wait for a response regarding controller settings password protection and ready to get to the wizard. eventually will get to custom code, but for now this will do very nicely!

Really want to mention how much i appreciate all the help I have been getting...Thank You All very much.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:23 pm
by lnevo
No problem! Sorry we're open source and don't have a full comprehensive documentation to give you. Thanks for your stick-to-it-iveness.

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:16 pm
by Reefology
cosmith71 wrote:
If you load up the portal page and look near the top, under the banners and to the right of the Reef Angel logo, you'll see "Reef Angel wifi address: ". This is the address you need to put into the app on your phone. Leave off the :2000 and just make sure your app has port set to 2000.

This should get you working. Be aware that your outside IP address can change if your modem looses power. There's a way around this, but I need to look it up.

--Colin
I did this and also setup DDNS from the wizard but must have done something wrong because I still can't access my controller from outside my home with the app? I can however with the portal???

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:37 pm
by lnevo
Are you able to control from the portal? update memory settings?

There are two modes that the portal has, one is read-only where it receives the data sent from your controller every 5 minutes and then where you update things and it sends back to your RA. It's easy to think the portal is working but yet only one mode is...

If both are working, then set your iphone app to use the IP address or DDNS name in the settings and make sure you're not using the internal IP (192.x.x.x)

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:01 pm
by Sacohen
When it is in the mode where it is actually seeing the controller it will say Displaying data from: Reef Angel Controller (live) in the upper right corner.

If the controller is down or the portal is not getting information it will say Displaying data from: Webanner (or something like that).

Re: Unreachable Address in Portal

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:57 pm
by Reefology
not sure what happened but it must be working now because i logged in on my phone app using DDNS and it reads Displaying data from: Reef Angel Controller (live) in the upper right corner in the portal.

thanks again everyone