Offsite Remote Access to Vera

I haven’t tried connecting to Vera from outside my network yet, but I’m wondering what is required.

At the moment, my setup is like this:

  1. Shaw Cable Modem (plugs into my D-Link Router listed below)
  2. D-Link DGL-4300 Wireless-G 4 Port Gigabit Router: http://games.dlink.com/products/?pid=370&r=2#DGL-4300
  3. VERA (Wireless turned off and DHCP turned off)
  4. A few computers, printers and game systems connected to the D-Link Router and VERA
  5. Z-Wave products connected to VERA

My current D-Link Router says that it supports Virtual Private Network (VPN) pass-through to create a secure connection to office networks. Is it good enough to let me connect to VERA? Or would buying a product like this fulfill my need? For Home| D-Link

Thank you

Have you registered with findvera.com service? Using that should be quite secure and won’t require any extra hardware.

Or maybe I’m not understanding your question…

The way I understand it, when you register for findvera.com it sets up an SSL certificate between your router and the Vera server. Then, when you login to the findvera.com website I “believe” the previously setup secure connection is re-established. This tunnel is most likely SSH(port 22) and SSL (port 443). Can the MiCasaVerde enlighten us on this?

I am using untangle.com UTM and I have my firewall set to “block all” connections in and out by default. Therefore only ports that I specifically allow, will have traffic pass through my router. I only have the absolute necessary ports open ,such as port 80(http) 25(mail) 443 (SSL)For instance, Bittorrents have a helluva time getting through because they “hunt” for ports in the higher range. I would like MiCasaVerde to enlighten us on what ports they are using so “power users” can properly setup their firewalls.

MiCasa team can we get some enlightment? I’ll write a wiki for some answers ;D

Actually, it’s been explained before. Once you register for findvera.com service (and pay monthly fee after trial period is over :)), your Vera opens an SSH connection to ra1.findvera.com server and keeps it alive. It checks it every 60 seconds (if I remember correctly) and re-establishes it if the connection is down.

When you connect to findvera.com from your browser, you use secure connection (i.e. SSL) to connect to the ra1.findvera.com server, which keeps bunch of secure connections to people’s Vera boxes. Then once you login with your username/password, it redirects you to your Vera over its alive SSH connection.

As of ports, Vera connects to port 56861 at ra1.findvera.com, and not the standard port 22… So if you block outgoing ports, you may want to open this specific one.

[quote=“denix, post:2, topic:164273”]Have you registered with findvera.com service? Using that should be quite secure and won’t require any extra hardware.

Or maybe I’m not understanding your question…[/quote]

NO, I haven’t bothered registering with the Findvera service just yet. I got my unit back in November. I was just thinking of by passing the Vera monthly fees and also trying to figure out how to do a few things on my own like setting up video storage on a personal server and accessing my Vera box directly. That’s why I was wondering if someone has tried that yet.

A normal port forward in your router would do the trick, but you will lack the encryption part that MCV provides.

If you find out how to do Local video storage I would be interested to hear your solution!

Regards Anker

You can probably do secure login and forwarding, if you run Apache on your router. Obviously, not an option for SOHO routers…

hmmm… It seems like I might have to do a little more research into setting up networks which I don’t have that much time to do right now.

I did find this link to help me in making a secure connection to VERA. Windows help & learning

I’ll have to look around more. Once I get things running… I’ll post back here again, but it might be a while before I get to that.

Yes, you are correct. Vera makes an outgoing ssh connection to one of our secure gateways using port 56861. Most firewalls allow outgoing connections, and only block incoming ones. But, rarely, some firewalls block all outgoing connections too, and then the security level needs to be lowered or an exception put in for that port.

I have a silly little ‘webpage’ run off a pc.

So if i read this correctly- there’s no problem with me directing traffic on port 80 to that pc- as far as remote access via findvera is concerned?

[quote=“Kozanator, post:5, topic:164273”][quote=“denix, post:2, topic:164273”]Have you registered with findvera.com service? Using that should be quite secure and won’t require any extra hardware.

Or maybe I’m not understanding your question…[/quote]

I was just thinking of by passing the Vera monthly fees…[/quote]

The findvera.com service is FREE now, unless you want the added features, but secure access is free.