APEX internet setup (outside source)

[CristianD]

I've been trying to setup my apex to be accessed from outside my network but with no luck. I know that you need to get a static address with your own host name. Does anybody know where i can do that. I've tried a few sites but not working (or at least i can't figure it out).

I currently have an ethernet cable running down from my wireless router (hooked up to modem) to the basement where the tank is. This cable is hooked up to a second wireless router (linksys. wireless turned off) and then another ethernet cable is hooked up to the APEX. The reason i have a second router is because there are other things in the basement hooked up to it. The two modems have different IP addresses.

The apex works fine as long as i'm connected to my home network (from computer or iPhone) however haven't been able to set it up to work from outside. I've done some research and read about port forwarding and all of that but no luck when i tried it. If anybody has any experience or knows how i can set this up i would greatly appreciate it. I would like to be able to check my tank parameters through out the day when i'm not home (it would make me feel better lol). anyway again any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[allenjj]

Two routers working off of the same IP address wont allow port forwarding to work unless they are intelligent routers that are managed together.

 

[CristianD]

Two routers working off of the same IP address wont allow port forwarding to work unless they are intelligent routers that are managed together.

i'm sorry not so knowleageble about routers. I changed the ip address on the second one so even though they are connected together the have diff IP addresses. R u saying that in order for port forwarding to work i need to hook up the APEX directly to the main router?

 

[Widdy]

How is the 2nd router connected to the 1st router? If you're just using LAN ports on Router 2, that's fine; Router 2 is just a glorified switch at the point.

 

[CristianD]

How is the 2nd router connected to the 1st router? If you're just using LAN ports on Router 2, that's fine; Router 2 is just a glorified switch at the point.

yea it's connected through the LAN ports (like one of the 4 in the back). so i assumed that the second router is just there to pretty much allow for more connections. the wireless is turned off on it

 

[btldreef]

I would also recommend a dynDns. I use changeip.com
There I got a domain name and and a program to make sure that when my ip changes it doesn't kick my controller offline. It's 15- for the year and works great so far.
You will also have to log in to your routers settings.
Label your Apex make its port something high like 9000 so nothing interferes and change the last digit of the ip to anything less then 100.
Make sure your turn off DHCP off through your display in net settings.

 

[Widdy]

yea it's connected through the LAN ports (like one of the 4 in the back). so i assumed that the second router is just there to pretty much allow for more connections. the wireless is turned off on it

Correct. You can turn the wireless on if you like, but then you'll be juggling 2 wifi in the same house; not necessarily a bad thing especially if you need wifi at location 2.

With that understanding, I assume your Apex is connected to Router 2 via LAN Port 1-4. All your port forwarding will be done off Router 1 as that is where your NAT/Firewall function is occurring.

 

[CristianD]

Correct. You can turn the wireless on if you like, but then you'll be juggling 2 wifi in the same house; not necessarily a bad thing especially if you need wifi at location 2.

With that understanding, I assume your Apex is connected to Router 2 via LAN Port 1-4. All your port forwarding will be done off Router 1 as that is where your NAT/Firewall function is occurring.

Yea apex connected through LAN 1 on second router. So I would have the port forwarding thru router one? Does it matter that the apex is connect it to router to and do I need to port forward on router 2 as well? Next step would be to get a dyndns I assume

Thanks for the help all

 

[reefs4life]

Just a wild guess but I would assume that since you're doing port forwarding on just router 1 that will just allow you to get to the specific port of the Apex but I'm guess you would access it through the IP of router 2

 

[CristianD]

That's what I was confused about. I would access my network thru my "main" IP I assume then forward router 1 to the apex port

 

[Widdy]

Yea apex connected through LAN 1 on second router. So I would have the port forwarding thru router one? Does it matter that the apex is connect it to router to and do I need to port forward on router 2 as well? Next step would be to get a dyndns I assume

Thanks for the help all

To confirm, from Router 1 to Router 2, cable is connected using LAN ports on both routers, correct? It's not going into the Internet/WAN port on Router 2, correct?

if so, the way you have it connected, router 2 isn't performing any NAT/Routing/Network Address Translation functions, it's just a switch. All the port forwarding should be done on Router 1.

Assign a static IP to your Apex (assuming 192.168.x.x) if you like, some/most people change the port in the scenario where your Internet provider might be blocking port 80 inbound, or if you already have an appliance on port 80 (ie. webserver). I would leave it on 80 (default) for now, and see how far you get. ** Refer to page 23 of http://reeftech.webs.com/

Go to your router 1 config; I don't know which make/model you have so I can post an example, but most of them are similar. Create a port forward for the IP you entered above. Open browser to http://www.whatismyip.com/ and note the IP displayed, this is your external (Internet) facing IP. Open browser to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (replace xxx with IP from whatismyip.com and see if you see your Apex. If you had changed the port of the Apex from its default of port 80, you'll have to open the webpage to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyyy (yyyy = port you changed it to, note the colon [:] separator). Establish external connectivity first, then move on to Dynamic DNS solutions which only simplifies life, but doesn't make it work. Hope this helps.

 

[CristianD]

To confirm, from Router 1 to Router 2, cable is connected using LAN ports on both routers, correct? It's not going into the Internet/WAN port on Router 2, correct?

if so, the way you have it connected, router 2 isn't performing any NAT/Routing/Network Address Translation functions, it's just a switch. All the port forwarding should be done on Router 1.

Assign a static IP to your Apex (assuming 192.168.x.x) if you like, some/most people change the port in the scenario where your Internet provider might be blocking port 80 inbound, or if you already have an appliance on port 80 (ie. webserver). I would leave it on 80 (default) for now, and see how far you get. ** Refer to page 23 of http://reeftech.webs.com/

Go to your router 1 config; I don't know which make/model you have so I can post an example, but most of them are similar. Create a port forward for the IP you entered above. Open browser to http://www.whatismyip.com/ and note the IP displayed, this is your external (Internet) facing IP. Open browser to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (replace xxx with IP from whatismyip.com and see if you see your Apex. If you had changed the port of the Apex from its default of port 80, you'll have to open the webpage to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyyy (yyyy = port you changed it to, note the colon [:] separator). Establish external connectivity first, then move on to Dynamic DNS solutions which only simplifies life, but doesn't make it work. Hope this helps.

Wow thank you. Now it makes sense. And no I didn't have router 2 connected to router 1 thru LAN. Wire form LAN port on router 1 connected to Internet/WAN on router 2 (makes sense why they behaved as two separate routers). I didn't know u can connect it straight to a LAN port on router 2 and still have Internet access. I will switch it tom to the LAN port.
I'm using a cisco router (1) so just to double check I assume I'd go into the port forwarding tab of the router settings, name the apex, then choose external and internal port as 80 (default) and enter the ip address of the apex? There's also a tab for TCP, UDP or both. Which one should I select?
Again thank you for clarifying it. I will switch the router tom and see if ur suggestion helped. Thank you again

 

[Widdy]

Wow thank you. Now it makes sense. And no I didn't have router 2 connected to router 1 thru LAN. Wire form LAN port on router 1 connected to Internet/WAN on router 2 (makes sense why they behaved as two separate routers). I didn't know u can connect it straight to a LAN port on router 2 and still have Internet access. I will switch it tom to the LAN port.
I'm using a cisco router (1) so just to double check I assume I'd go into the port forwarding tab of the router settings, name the apex, then choose external and internal port as 80 (default) and enter the ip address of the apex? There's also a tab for TCP, UDP or both. Which one should I select?
Again thank you for clarifying it. I will switch the router tom and see if ur suggestion helped. Thank you again

Yes, if LAN port to LAN port, you're just extending your single segment network. If LAN port to WAN port, you've created a separate segment (network). For example, Router 1 will be 192.168.1.xxx and Router 2 will be 192.168.2.xxx.

According to the Apex Unofficial Guide, you'll need to forward both UDP/TCP, so select both.

Keep us posted on your progress, good luck!

 

[CristianD]

Yes, if LAN port to LAN port, you're just extending your single segment network. If LAN port to WAN port, you've created a separate segment (network). For example, Router 1 will be 192.168.1.xxx and Router 2 will be 192.168.2.xxx.

According to the Apex Unofficial Guide, you'll need to forward both UDP/TCP, so select both.

Keep us posted on your progress, good luck!

yeaaaa. got it working. connected router 2 to router 1 via LAN ports. DHCP on apex disabled. when i first tried to "log" using default port 80 it wouldn't work. it just kept timing out and saying server was lost or something. after double checking everything and realizing that i hadn't made a mistake i figured that the default port (80) was being block. Changed the port and it worked. thank you again for your help.

one more favor... what's a good dyndns service to use? are there any free ones? someone recommended changeip.com. i'm content just using my current ip now since it's entered in my apex iPhone app and all i have to do is access the apex using the app, however i know that dynamic IPs change from time to time and I assume i will just have to find out what the new one will be and enter it.

 

[Widdy]

yeaaaa. got it working. connected router 2 to router 1 via LAN ports. DHCP on apex disabled. when i first tried to "log" using default port 80 it wouldn't work. it just kept timing out and saying server was lost or something. after double checking everything and realizing that i hadn't made a mistake i figured that the default port (80) was being block. Changed the port and it worked. thank you again for your help.

one more favor... what's a good dyndns service to use? are there any free ones? someone recommended changeip.com. i'm content just using my current ip now since it's entered in my apex iPhone app and all i have to do is access the apex using the app, however i know that dynamic IPs change from time to time and I assume i will just have to find out what the new one will be and enter it.

My pleasure. Check http://www.no-ip.com/ it's free for 3 hosts, but if you're just using it for the Apex, that's only 1. There's quite a few domains you can choose from. Also, download their client application that will update the (A) records should your IP changes.

 

[CristianD]

My pleasure. Check http://www.no-ip.com/ it's free for 3 hosts, but if you're just using it for the Apex, that's only 1. There's quite a few Top Level Domains you can choose from. Also, download their client application that will update the (A) records should your IP changes.

Awesome. thanks again. I feel much better knowing that i can make sure everything ok with the tank. i'm sure you've invested plenty of time in yours too and don't want anything to happen. I'll check out that site and take it from there.

 

[Widdy]

Awesome. thanks again. I feel much better knowing that i can make sure everything ok with the tank. i'm sure you've invested plenty of time in yours too and don't want anything to happen. I'll check out that site and take it from there.

Sounds like a plan! There's quite a bit of redundancy you can implement with the Apex. The programming side of it is pretty flexible if you get the hang of the programming statements. Google for it. I don't own one, it's what I've gathered from all the reading.

 

[20gallonreefer]

Didn't read anyone else's post so not sure if it was answered yet, just saw some things about having two routers. In order to get it through two routers you ned to forward the port on the router it is directly connected to. so the apex ip address is forwarded on the router that it is connected to. Then the router that it is connected to has to be forwarded to the second router. so the port of the apex gets forwarded but the ip is the one of the router for example, say the apex is 10.0.1.2, router 1 is 192.168.1.5, router 2, is 192.168.1.1. the port is 140(just and example)

Apex is set to the ip address 10.0.1.2 and port 140
router 1 has port 140 forwarded to the ip address 10.0.1.2
router 2 has port 140 forwarded to the ip address 192.168.1.5

Hope this helps

 

[Widdy]

Didn't read anyone else's post so not sure if it was answered yet, just saw some things about having two routers. In order to get it through two routers you ned to forward the port on the router it is directly connected to. so the apex ip address is forwarded on the router that it is connected to. Then the router that it is connected to has to be forwarded to the second router. so the port of the apex gets forwarded but the ip is the one of the router for example, say the apex is 10.0.1.2, router 1 is 192.168.1.5, router 2, is 192.168.1.1. the port is 140(just and example)

Apex is set to the ip address 10.0.1.2 and port 140
router 1 has port 140 forwarded to the ip address 10.0.1.2
router 2 has port 140 forwarded to the ip address 192.168.1.5

Hope this helps

Interesting. Why would the 2 routers be Class C but have the Apex as Class A?

 

[reefman]

y would port forward be needed on the 2nd router if only the 1st one is being use nat/routing...
it would not matter which router apex is physically connected to.