I hope someone can help. I am having an issue connecting to my Elk M1 remotely using ELK-RP and the virtual keypad. It is a vacation home and I want to control my aprilaire thermostats and lights. I can connect within the wireless network, but I cannot connect through the internet using ELK-RP. I port forwarded ports 80, 26 and 2601 on the Frontier DSL modem that I'm using. I am thinking that the modem is the problem and I might purchase my own DSL modem and try that. Anybody have any suggestions?
Best DSL modem for Elk M1
- Thread starter dgaulin
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I called Frontier earlier and told them I port forwarded the three ports and they didn't mention that they block any. He did say that I wouldn't be able to access the Elk M1XEP without programming in the WAN IP address, but I'm not sure that's correct. I don't see any place on the M1XEP setup page to enter that.
WayneW
Senior Member
I guess that depends upon what is meant by "programming". You will need to enter the external/WAN address of your vacation home into ElkRP or the virtual keypad (web browser) at your regular home.
Where would I enter the external/WAN address into ElkRP? Sorry, I'm a bit of a new learner.
apostolakisl
Senior Member
You might find it easier to do vpn between your home and vacation home. You will need a vpn router at both sites and you will need to shut off all routing on your dsl modem. In other words, the modem needs to just be a modem and the vpn router will do everything else.
With a vpn connection it will be as though your two homes are on the same LAN. This is how I have my office and home connected. Except for the slow speed of the internet as compared to the gigabit speed of the lan, being it home is just the same as being at the office.
But, to answer your question, the IP address goes into the very front page of the ELK RP over in the lower right area where it says "system url/ip". You probably have a dynamic ip address so, if you go with the non-vpn route, you should consider getting a dyndns.com account to keep track of your IP. In that case, you just put your dyndns domain name in the box like "joeblo.dyndns.biz"
With a vpn connection it will be as though your two homes are on the same LAN. This is how I have my office and home connected. Except for the slow speed of the internet as compared to the gigabit speed of the lan, being it home is just the same as being at the office.
But, to answer your question, the IP address goes into the very front page of the ELK RP over in the lower right area where it says "system url/ip". You probably have a dynamic ip address so, if you go with the non-vpn route, you should consider getting a dyndns.com account to keep track of your IP. In that case, you just put your dyndns domain name in the box like "joeblo.dyndns.biz"
I actually tried entering the external/WAN address into a web Browser and it started to connect, but then I recieved a "failed to connect" error. I attached a screenshot just in case anyone has encountered the same problem.
Attachments
Is ElkRP still running on a system? Not sure if it matters but I know when I connect via CQC, ElkRP cannot be open even though CQC uses the non secure port.
wuench
Senior Member
I just took a sniffer trace and this is the problem. The ElkRM will not work thorugh a firewall. When you connect to ElkRM you connect via HTTP port 80 to the WAN address. That then launches a JAVA applet that tries to connect to the M1 via 2601 over the internal address, not the WAN address. You can't hit that from outside your network. No amount of port forwarding etc, is going to fix that. The M1 needs to know the WAN address somehow and forward you to it.
So as far as I can tell, you must connect the M1 directly to the internet with no firewall in-between if you want it to work and configure it with it's own WAN address. That's the only way it is going to work. I don't see anywhere in ElkRP that you can configure a separate WAN address so it knows to foward you over, unless maybe it is done by enabling the DynDNS settings.
So as far as I can tell, you must connect the M1 directly to the internet with no firewall in-between if you want it to work and configure it with it's own WAN address. That's the only way it is going to work. I don't see anywhere in ElkRP that you can configure a separate WAN address so it knows to foward you over, unless maybe it is done by enabling the DynDNS settings.
I had it working yesterday using ELK-RP and the "virtual keypad". I'm not trying to connect using ELK-RM. ELK-RP is the remote programming software I'm trying to connect with. All of a sudden today, it's not connecting. I called Frontier and the WAN IP address changed. I tried logging on with ELK-RP and a web browser using the new WAN IP address, but it doesn't connect to my ELK system. I don't know what's up now. Pretty frustrating. All I want to do is be able to connect remotely to control my thermostats and insteon lighting. If anyone has any ideas, bring them on!
Why are you using ElkRP, and not the JAVA based virtual keypad, which you can connect to by going to http://your.wan.ip?
That said, the better (and safer) solution would be to create a VPN, or if you have a PC at your remote location, use something like Hamachi.
That said, the better (and safer) solution would be to create a VPN, or if you have a PC at your remote location, use something like Hamachi.
Dan,
I have been trying to do that, but I can't seem to access the virtual keypad using a web browser. I have the IP address for the M1XEP correct and the WAN IP that Frontier gave me, but my browser won't communicate with my system. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll check into a VPN.
Thanks.
Actually I think I figured out what happened. According to Frontier, my modem lost power yesterday briefly. My guess is that the modem went back to factory default settings and the ports are no longer open. Of course I called Frontier and they can't tell me if there are any open ports. I guess I'll have to wait until I can get up there and sign into the modem.
You haven't stated whether you have a static or dynamic IP address. Most likely, since it is residential DSL service, you have a dynamic IP address. A power failure could cause your DSL modem to obtain a new IP address. If this is the case, you'll need to setup some type of dynamic DNS service so you can access it whenever the IP changes. Many routers support this natively now.
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