Accessing my home from the Net

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iandoug

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Hi

Once upon a time, after I got fibre, I was able to access my security cameras while out, via the cellphone app.

Now I'm trying to set up a video conferencing facility, but it seems I can no longer access my IP address directly from the net... pings fail, and traceroutes, fail, somewhere on Afrihost's network. Right here:
4 102.67.176.75 (102.67.176.75) 20.083 ms 20.125 ms 20.117 ms
5 169-1-21-0.ip.afrihost.co.za (169.1.21.0) 23.816 ms 23.768 ms 23.819 ms
6 169-1-2-117.ip.afrihost.capetown (169.1.2.117) 38.675 ms 37.661 ms
37.479 ms
7 * * *
8 * * *

The helpdesk started off my talking about "VPNs" but I'm not using a VPN and things went downhill from there, still no sane response despite telling them to refer my query to Level 3 support. (Wish that was the default for me... helpdesk jockeys usually copy-paste the closest canned reply they can find, which is of course the wrong answer).

Anyway, is this "the new normal" or is there some other issue that is preventing me from seeing my own IP directly from the Net?

thanks, Ian
 
iandoug said:
Hi

Once upon a time, after I got fibre, I was able to access my security cameras while out, via the cellphone app.

Now I'm trying to set up a video conferencing facility, but it seems I can no longer access my IP address directly from the net... pings fail, and traceroutes, fail, somewhere on Afrihost's network. Right here:
4 102.67.176.75 (102.67.176.75) 20.083 ms 20.125 ms 20.117 ms
5 169-1-21-0.ip.afrihost.co.za (169.1.21.0) 23.816 ms 23.768 ms 23.819 ms
6 169-1-2-117.ip.afrihost.capetown (169.1.2.117) 38.675 ms 37.661 ms
37.479 ms
7 * * *
8 * * *

The helpdesk started off my talking about "VPNs" but I'm not using a VPN and things went downhill from there, still no sane response despite telling them to refer my query to Level 3 support. (Wish that was the default for me... helpdesk jockeys usually copy-paste the closest canned reply they can find, which is of course the wrong answer).

Anyway, is this "the new normal" or is there some other issue that is preventing me from seeing my own IP directly from the Net?

thanks, Ian
Click to expand...

Did you check the IP that you are doing a trace route to is actually the WAN ip you get in your router? If that is the case then the trace above seem to stop at the router as the router is likely configured to block ICMP packets hence the time out.

I'm not sure if you are aware but Afrihost includes a free DDNS service which updates automatically as your IP changes. You can use that by accessing username.ip.afrihost.co.za where username is the fibre username you can find under the clientzone.

No other configurations are required and it's managed on the network side which is very nice so you can setup all your apps like CCTV with that fixed hostname and if the ip changes it will always work.

Opera Snapshot_2020-05-11_132533_clientzone.afrihost.com.png
 
@cavedog: Thanks.

I eventually got it sorted ... the router needed a box ticked to say "reply to pings", and the firewall needed me to NOT specify the incoming port, just the destination port (which is counter-intuitive but works). Then finally managed to get OpenMeetings to work today ... their docs need work.

Good to hear about the free DDNS service ... I never got that memo. I have already set an A record on one of my little-used domains to point to my IP address, which has been stable ever since I got fibre so I guess it will stay stable. If it does change it's not a train smash.

Thanks, Ian
 
@cavedog:

"Afrihost includes a free DDNS" ... can you maybe explain that again? The only "username" thing I see on the fibre package is an email address at afrihost, and can't use @ sign in domain names... I tried the part before the @ but nslookup keeps saying NXDOMAIN.

thanks, Ian
 
iandoug said:
@cavedog: Thanks.
the firewall needed me to NOT specify the incoming port, just the destination port (which is counter-intuitive but works).
Click to expand...

It might seem counter-intuitive but it's actually how it works
The client opens a random port to connect to the destination port,rather than locking ports 1:1 between client and server
 
iandoug said:
@cavedog:

"Afrihost includes a free DDNS" ... can you maybe explain that again? The only "username" thing I see on the fibre package is an email address at afrihost, and can't use @ sign in domain names... I tried the part before the @ but nslookup keeps saying NXDOMAIN.

thanks, Ian
Click to expand...

Yes so whatever is if front of the @ is the username. xxxx.ip.afrihost.co.za
 
cavedog said:
I'm not sure if you are aware but Afrihost includes a free DDNS service which updates automatically as your IP changes. You can use that by accessing username.ip.afrihost.co.za where username is the fibre username you can find under the clientzone.
Click to expand...
say whaat? when did they start that?
 
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