What settings in Home Fusion Router or Antenna to allow Internet access to LAN
Bret-OH
Enthusiast - Level 2

I have tried til I'm beyond frustration to make the settings in my Home Fusion that will allow me access to my home LAN from the WAN or Internet.  I would like to be able to access the GUI of the HF Router as well as my home Foscam cameras and my camera application, which is BlueIris.  Blue Iris is resident on my Desktop Computer which is connected via Ethernet to the HFR (Home Fusion Router).  My Foscams are connected to the HFR via wireless and can easily be accessed using their own application on the desktop machine as well as with Blue Iris.

My DYNS provider is No-IP.com, but no matter what I try I cannot get access to my LAN from the Internet using either my IP in numbers format (72.***.***.***:85 or 86 or 8080) or using my No-Ip Hostname (myname.noip.org).  I am using whatsmyip.org to find my public IP address and plugging that into my No-IP account and selecting the Port Forwarding option.  I have my Router IP forwarded to port 8080 for access to the HFR GUI, and each of my Foscams forwarded to Ports 85 and 86 using the same IP address as my HBR.  I have made the settings in the GUI of the HFR/HFA that I think are correct to allow WAN access to the HFR and the Foscams but without success. 

The Cradlepoint MBR95 router using a Sprint CDMA Aircard that I was using before I switched to the Home Fusion worked well, and access to the Cradlepoints GUI and my Foscams was easily achieved, but this Home Fusion System is KICKING MY BUTT!  The PDF version of the Home Fusion Manual seems to be written for an IT Engineer, which I am not, and has been little help with determining what exact settings need be made to achieve what I want.  Can someone that has accomplished what I am attempting please lend me guidance as to the exact settings I need to make in the HFR or the HFA (Antenna) to allow access from the Internet?  Also, exactly what settings are required in the Home Fusion System to allow it to update my No-Ip account with its most current Dynamic Public IP?

Thanks in advance for any help you care to offer.

Access to the Internet using the Home Fusion System is lightning fast and much better than the Aircard I was using and I am fairly pleased with it's performance.  I have however noticed times the past couple of weeks when the system was non responsive and seemed to be down and not working to access the Internet.  One time during Labor Day weekend I could not gain access at all for most of a day, and lately the problem is more intermittent.  It's frustrating but at this point tolerable, if I could just get the WAN access figured out.

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Re: What settings in Home Fusion Router or Antenna to allow Internet access to LAN
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

Hello,

Public access to any LAN devices from a remote connection is not possible on VZW's 4G LTE Network.  All public IP address information and traffic is blocked by VZW's new NAT firewall.  No amount of configuration on the 4G LTE router or any other VZW device is possible to work around this network limitation.  Back on the old VZW 3G only network it was possible to setup the environment that you want, but not on the new SIM card 4G LTE network.  This has been a known limitation ever since the launch of the new network and VZW has no intention to change it. 

All that said, you can still get your webcams and personal devices through the NAT firewall.  The current solutions are as follows:

1. Purchase a public/static IP address from VZW for a few hundered dollars

2. Set up a VPN and connect all your LAN devices to it

3. Leave VZW and pursue another service provider that allows open/public WAN communication to LAN devices

The best solution for most users is to pursue a VPN environment.  Accessing personal computers is simple enough since there are many VPN clients that can be downloaded and installed on them.  Accessing Webcams is a little more tricky.  To do this you must either USB connect them to a PC that is on the VPN - or - set up a router that automatically connects to a VPN and connect all your webcams to that device.  With a VPN set  up, any time you want to access your LAN equipment from a remote location simply sign into the same VPN and access them without restrictions.

Let me know if you need any more information on anything posted here.

Re: What settings in Home Fusion Router or Antenna to allow Internet access to LAN
Bret-OH
Enthusiast - Level 2

John,

Thank you so much for your response, your advise was very helpful.  I will take your advice and pursue the VPN path and see where that takes me.

I must say though that the sales person at the Verizon store where I purchased the system assured me that it would do what I wanted...oh well, its not the first time I've been disapointed by Verizon.

I am going to attempt to access my cameras not directly, but through the Blue Iris application on the Desktop.  I would think that that might work with the Foscams connected wirelessly through the HFR to the Desktop Application and then just access the Desktop machine using the VPN.  We'll see.

Thanks again!!

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Re: What settings in Home Fusion Router or Antenna to allow Internet access to LAN
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

You might have a problem with your plan if you implement it how you described above.  As soon as you VPN connect your PC at home, all the local network devices will no longer be visble to that machine.  This is because a VPN transports the connected users from there current location and virtually places them on a remote network somwhere else in the world.  Specifically, the VPN places you on another network where your local network devices do not exists, there is no way to communicate with them. 

USB connected cameras work around this limitation as they travel with the connected user to the VPN.  You can also work around this with the correct configuration but that will depend on the VPN options that are available to you.  There are featrues on some VPNs that allow for bridging of local networks to the VPN.  This ties both your LAN and VPN togeather onto a new hybrid network that should allow the communication to pass through correctly.

If USB or bridging the LAN with VPN is not an option then you will need to pursue the VPN router solution instead.  In most cases you can pick up one of these devices for around $100.00.

We hear the story about sales reps promising xyz to advanced users in your scenario all the time.  Truth is VZW sales reps are not tech savy in these areas.  I'm sure no one trains them on the subject and most would not have experience on the subject either.  The forums are going to be much more helpful for you on subjects like these in the future.

Re: What settings in Home Fusion Router or Antenna to allow Internet access to LAN
Bret-OH
Enthusiast - Level 2

I found a solution to my problem.  I researched the VPN Router solution that you mentioned and was almost ready to take that route until I discovered a different way to access my home computer from my Android device, Splashtop.  It is an app that you install on your Android from GooglePlay, and then once your account is set up you download a "Streamer" to any PC you want to access.  This allows you to connect directly to the PC, either wirelessly through the HF Router if at home, or over the internet through the Home Fusion Router if you are away.  It allows you Full Control of the PC from the Android as if you were in front of the PC, and makes available on the Android any program or file that is resident on the PC. 

The home site for the product is Splashtop.com.  There is what I consider a moderate charge for the ability to do what I described above, payable either monthly or yearly.  There may be other providers as well for this kind of service but this one is serving me very well so far.  It has a very good user interface and was very easy to set up and get working.  I can now access my Blue Iris software for my internet cameras as well as the underlying Foscam software.  It would best be used on a Tablet since it accesses the full screen of the PC and transmits it to the screen of the device, therefore the larger size of the Tablet makes for much better viewing, but it works well for me on my Samsung Galaxy Fascinate Phone.

Thanks again for your help!

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Re: What settings in Home Fusion Router or Antenna to allow Internet access to LAN
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

Glad to hear you found a solution you are happy with. 

I have not experimented with Splashtop before but I can recall it being mentioned before.  It looks like a remote control service that operates over RDP.  Not quite sure how that application is able to punch through the VZW firewall and allow incoming connections though.  Perhaps it has something to do with whatever is tied into that streaming client that you installed on your PC.

My only concern would be how that service is setup and run from the background.  If you are using thier VPN servers or services to stream the remote control session in between your local and remote devices then they may techincally own any data you pass across it.  Kinda like how Skype operates from Microsoft, it all goes through them and they own the data.