connecting away from home.

[genob]

I have SmartLinc 2412N & various switches & plug-ins.
Everything works beautifully at home, Mobilinc controlling everything.

I cannot connect "anymore" away from home. (At one time it did work, and it was great. I do not know what if anything changed)

I have the IP address of SMartLinc controller, & it is correct for local.
I am using IP address for my router & it is correct for external.
I have completely reinstalled Mobilinc, and it assigns a strange IP address like 76.202.253.41 I can not even enter that address in my router's configuration panel, so I changed it to the router's IP, per instructions here on forum.
I changed both ports to 8080, and forwarded traffic to the controllers IP address & port.
Connect method is Auto, and does recognize when I am home or away. But I have also tried this manually.
I can connect & control lights from the website, both by saying I am at home, and not at home. Both work.

Away from home, Mobilinc just spins & then says no connection, check settings.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Gene B.

[AdminWes]

Hi Gene,

That IP address that MobiLinc detected is odd. I would have thought it would have been a 10.x.x.x or 192.x.x.x number. When you use the SmartHome website to connect to your SmartLinc what does the website report for the IP address? Is it the same? MobiLinc uses the SmartHome website to auto-discover your SmartLinc settings. I would try unplugging the SmartLinc and wait 30 seconds before plugging it back in.

Now at this point, the SmartLinc is rebooting and getting a new IP address from your router and informing the SmartHome website about the new IP address. This can take a while for the SmartHome website to refresh with the latest SmartLinc IP info.

To address some of the other items, if you click on I'm at home or I'm away from home on the SmartHome's website and you are on your home computer, this doesn't test what you think it might test. If you are on your home computer the router is likely bouncing the traffic right back at your network and not engaging the port forwarding rules. Whereas MobiLinc (over 3G) is forced to go through your firewall/router.

I suspect that the problem lies in the odd IP address you identified. Can you confirm that previously the IP address was a 10.x.x.x or a 192.x.x.x number? If so, we need to figure out how to get the SmartLinc to get an IP renewed from your router correctly, and then setup the port forward rules to use this new (and correctly assigned) IP address.

Wes

[genob]

Hi Wes,

>>That IP address that MobiLinc detected is odd. I would have thought it would have been a 10.x.x.x or 192.x.x.x number. When you use the SmartHome website to connect to your SmartLinc what does the website report for the IP address?<<

Both times when I installed Mobilinc (clean install) the IP assigned to "External" began with 75.59.XXX.XX

I connect to my SmartLinc by entering it's IP address http://192.XXX.XX.XX:XXXX (port) What do you mean by the IP address website reports ? I go to general settings, but the two IP addresses are that of the controller and the router.
I unplugged , waited, & replugged in the controller, but didn't see any changes to the website addresses.

>>To address some of the other items, if you click on I'm at home or I'm away from home on the SmartHome's website and you are on your home computer, this doesn't test what you think it might test. If you are on your home computer the router <<

I neglected to say that this connection was 3G using my iPhone.

I agree the issues are probably the IP address I am using. But per instructions on the forum, it said if no IP address was assigned, I should use the address of my router, which I did. That did not work either.

Thanks.

Gene

[genob]

Hi Wes,

I think by the website you were telling me to go to you were meaning the smartlink.smarthome site.

This is what came up: ( the "x's" are mine)

SmartLinc has been found on your network
Click on the Link Below to access SmartLinc
http://192.xxx.x.xx:xxxx
This is your SmartLinc's internal IP

Other Info
Your Internet IP: 75.57.xxx.xxx
Your SmartLinc's MAC Address: 00:0E:xx:xx:xx:xx
Your SmartLinc's INSTEON ID 16.xx.xx

Thanks again,

Gene

[AdminWes]

Hi Gene,

OK, your IPs makes sense to me. So let's reset and check your settings.

First verify on your iPhone and safari that over wifi you can connect to your SL using the 192.x IP. If that works verify on your iPhone and safari over 3G that you can connect to your SL using the 75.x IP.

If both of those tests work, then there isn't a reason MobiLinc wouldn't work as well. Check the settings in MobiLinc and verify that the 192.x IP is set for the Internal IP as well as the port used in your safari test. Verify that the 75.x IP is entered into the external IP address as well as the port used in your safari test. Tap Sync and verify that MobiLinc can sync with your SL over internal and external connections.

If you still have connection issues maybe try emailing me directly with all your settings, SL settings, MobiLinc settings, and router settings (IP and Port info) and I can help.

Wes

[genob]

Hi Wes,

Well....for whatever reason, it appears to be working now. I wish I could pinpoint the fix, for future reference. My guess is that other times I did not allow the "web site" sufficient time to locate the external IP address it assigned, but I don't know.

I still don't understand the port forwarding. I have it set to forward the port to the controller IP address, both local & external, but that doesn't seem correct.

In any case, it is all working now, so I will call it fixed. Thanks for your help. I am really enjoying the app.

Gene

[AdminWes]

Hi Gene,

Well, I won't argue with success. Let me know if your setup has issues in the future and you can't determine what's going on with the port forwarding, etc. and I can help you out.

Wes