Using Blackberry for HA

[hucker]

I have a new blackberry curve with the Hot-Spot@Home stuff. This allows the phone to use a local wireless router to bypass the cellular network and get 'free' minutes -- for 20 bucks a month. For me this is crucial since coverage at home ... sucks.

So now I want to use the blackberry to control 'stuff'. I was hoping I could use the blackberry to hit a webserver on MY wireless router. As far as I can tell it doesn't see the 192.168.xxx.xxx addresses, even though that is the connection that the blackberry is using. I can't be sure though because I can't find out what IP address it thinks it has (I can find mac addresses but no IP). It would appear that my only way to do this is to open a hole in my firewall (I don't want to do this).

Does anybody know how the network topology works with these Blackberries using a wireless home network? BTW I'm able to see the internet just fine, I can even cocoon on the darn thing!

 

[electron]

Your router should be able to show 'connected' devices. However, I am thinking that maybe it is sending all its web-based data through an internet based proxy (managed by the BB people) in order to optimize it for view on your blackberry, which would explain why local addresses don't work.

 

[hucker]

Your router should be able to show 'connected' devices. However, I am thinking that maybe it is sending all its web-based data through an internet based proxy (managed by the BB people) in order to optimize it for view on your blackberry, which would explain why local addresses don't work.

I looked for that and couldn't find it. This one of those ubiquitous linksys wireless routers, branded with tmobile. WRT54G-TM. For the life of me I can't find it. On my old wired linksys router there was a screen to click on that showed the connected devices... Argh. I thought this would be easy. I'll play a bit more but I might have to come in from the outside to make this work. Cool because I can 'see' from afar but I don't like a path into my house...

 

[electron]

There is no way of viewing the DHCP leases table? There has to be something like that there. If that doesn't work, then try something like Angry IP Scanner, and find your phone that way. Just scan the local subnet, and eliminate the IP addresses that look familiar.

 

[felixrosbergen]

I thought i read somewhere that the blackberries will also work with any other wireless router. Maybe try to swap/borrow a router somewhere and see how it does. Maybe the t-mobile one has some wacky software on it.

 

[sloop]

lotta info here for the 6800

http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/

not sure how the blackberry forums are

 

[kgingerich]

if none of the other easier solutions listed above work and you have a server at home you can try this... start up a web server on a local pc and enable logging, then hit that web server with your blackberry and check the logs to see what ip just hit it.

viewing dhcp lease table would be easiest though.

 

[hucker]

if none of the other easier solutions listed above work and you have a server at home you can try this... start up a web server on a local pc and enable logging, then hit that web server with your blackberry and check the logs to see what ip just hit it.

viewing dhcp lease table would be easiest though.

I was able to find the IP that the blackberry takes. I can see ping's hitting the blackberry. A packet sniffer on my webserver does NOT see packets from the blackberry. It would appear that the blackberries web 'stuff' is tunneling out. That sort of makes sense but since I haven't found it in writing anywhere I'm not sure...hoping to find a checkbox that says 'Enable local networking' .

I like the angry scanner.

Trying to configure ddns this am before the kids get up.

Chuck

 

[electron]

If you have a hub laying around, you could plug in the wireless router into it, and your desktop/laptop, then run a sniffer to see the actual traffic. The router is just a basic linksys router, you didn't even have to get the T-mobile version.

 

[hucker]

If you have a hub laying around, you could plug in the wireless router into it, and your desktop/laptop, then run a sniffer to see the actual traffic. The router is just a basic linksys router, you didn't even have to get the T-mobile version.

Can a network guy explain the following:

1) I have a webserver on my local net at 192.168.1.2
2) I have ddns setup route external http requests to this address (say IP = 68.45.45.32)
3) If I surf from work to this address (or via ddns) I see the web page
4) If I surf from behind the router to this address I don't see the web page.
5) Obviously if I surf from behind the router to the local IP (192.168.1.2) I see the page.

This implies that my firewall/router cannot route a packet from behind the router, see the destination IP *is* the router and push the packet back into the local net. What is supposed to happen? Is there term for this? I can't seem to find anything.

 

[electron]

This is normal NAT behavior. If you want to access your server using a name, add it to your c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file using the domain.of.server 192.168.1.2 format. Here is more information:

http://www.dyndns.com/support/kb/loopback_connections.html

 

[hucker]

This is normal NAT behavior. If you want to access your server using a name, add it to your c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file using the domain.of.server 192.168.1.2 format. Here is more information:

http://www.dyndns.com/support/kb/loopback_connections.html

Thanks that is what I was looking for the term is a loopback connection. I will check if my firewall (sonicwall) can do a loopback connect. And yes I know about the hosts file (I'm that old). The host file feels like cheating to me, I don't want to maintain host files any more than I have to.

That link says "in most cases this will fail". It seems like this would be a common problem, it seems easy for the router to figure out the packet needs to be looped back. With all the stuff my router can do that seems trivial...

 

[electron]

I have only seen a few routers do this I don't remember my SonicWall SOHO2 supporting this, but maybe newer devices do.

 

[hucker]

I have only seen a few routers do this I don't remember my SonicWall SOHO2 supporting this, but maybe newer devices do.

My sonic wall doesn't seem to have this option... but I did manage to get everything setup with DDNS and turn on a light with my blackberry. The fun begins...

 

[electron]

Cool. I am wondering if there is a way of directly connecting to your inside webserver (not comfortable with the idea of sending HA related commands through a 3rd party proxy). There has to be a way. Maybe a different browser will work (Opera?).