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I am trying to figure out if it is possible in any way for me to remotely connect to a device on my home network, but remotely.

Scenario:

My entertainment system is connected to the home network, and every now and then when I'm at work (50 km away) I would like to activate it (usually because family doesn't know how to operate it) using the Android App the device maker has which I have installed on my phone.

Normally I would connect to Wi-Fi, and done app instantly connects to entertainment unit and starts operating.

But in this scenario would like to know how to achieve the same but from 50 km away not on same home WiFi connection.

I looked into DDNS but that didn't add up, as well as VPN but nothing adds up.

Keen to learn how to make the whole smart home work (all my electronic devices at home are connected to wireless network).

Router: Netgear D6400 Devices: AVR-x1100w, (i got couple controllers as well I'm going to be installing for light fixtures and air con). They all have web interface too.

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  • 1
    What router do you have at home? Model & Version
    – Helmar ♦
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 11:15
  • 3
    A complete answer depends on the specific device in the internal network.
    – Sean Houlihane
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 11:53
  • 'Nothing adds up' lands somewhere in the hinterland betwen 'I replicated everything flawlessly and it didn't work' and 'Egads that's a lot of acronyms - does not compute'. Did you try setting up DDNS and port forwarding, what did you do, what happened when you did it? We'd need specific error messages, logs, etc.
    – goobering
    Commented Jan 16, 2017 at 12:53
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    @goobering DDNS works, both router and DDNS provider synced. I setup port forwarding as well 45110 (TCP/UDP) as nothing was running on it. Checked using online port checkers and they are open. I'm going to try with another router soon if all else fails to make sure i eliminate faulty router possibility.
    – Aeseir
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 23:29
  • According to the protocol description here: github.com/jtangelder/denon-remote/blob/master/protocol.pdf the communication happens over the Telnet port, 23 (!!!). I don't think it's a good idea to port forward the telnet port through your firewall/router - it's very likely to attract a lot of attacks. I would be inclined to set up an SSH tunnel, forwarding port 23 on a machine at your work location to port 23 on your Denon system. However, if the Android app uses a LAN-based protocol for finding the server, you will have more work to do.
    – gbroiles
    Commented May 22, 2017 at 3:34

1 Answer 1

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There are two ways that you can achieve this unless the devices you have in-home are configured to access an external server specifically to provide this function (most are).

A VPN can be used to logically move your android device to inside your home network. It is possible (but unlikely) that your router provides this functionality. In practice, you need a device within your home network to act as a host for the VPN. I use a NAS device (which comes with the DNS features as well), but you could implement this yourself using a single board computer (such as a Raspberry Pi).

Router Port Forwarding This is technically possible, but less likely to work in your case. It would work if the device in your house has a web interface, but doesn't work so easily if you have an app which you need to redirect from an external network. You can configure your router to pass an HTTP access on a special port (public_ip:12380) to port 80 on your entertainment device (192.168.1.xx:80). This would be OK (and easy) if you have a device running Kodi for example, this had a web remote-control.

However, based on your asking the question, I'd say this is probably going to be very hard to set up, even using a NAS which supports a VPN isn't simple. It might be worth investigating if a device like Google-home can implement the link you need.

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  • HI mate, Tried port forwarding and UPNP but no avail. VPN is only thing I haven't tried yet. My router supports OpenVPN so i need to figure out if that will do the trick.
    – Aeseir
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 23:26
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    It's a little tricky without a unit to play with, but I'm reasonably sure that port forwarding with a DDNS should work - the manual suggests that the control panel is a web interface. I can't see any mention of an Android/iOS app.
    – goobering
    Commented Jan 16, 2017 at 12:42
  • @goobering yep, all that is working beautifully. Just figuring out the barrier between device and internet. Will work on it this weekend.
    – Aeseir
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 23:43
  • Forgot to respond to this. Router forwarding is best way. Make sure you don't make the same mistake i did. Each device has a specific port it uses, so router forwarding needs to take that into consideration.
    – Aeseir
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 2:20

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