Connecting Remoter to computer inside home LAN from Internet

[stilllearning]

raf,

I have read detailed instructions but, so far, no luck. Most likely, I must fix one or more setup errors with:

1) DynDNS & Updater
2) MacBook Pro (MBP)/ System Preferences / Sharing
3) FIOS Action Tec (ATEC) modem with wireless LAN disabled
4) Airport Express (AE) 802.11N Utility settings
5) Remoter settings on iPad2

I am pretty sure that I setup DynDNS & Updater and the MBP System Preferences correctly. Also, as you suggested in another post, the ATEC should be acting as a modem only . . . no port forwarding. This leaves the AE and Remoter settings. I would like to verify the Remoter settings first before double-checking AE settings as I followed the Mac 101 instruction carefully for AE.

Are these Remoter settings correct?

1) Basic Settings / Server Type: VNC
2) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Hostname: MBP private IP address (Info button for VNC Hostname: “The Hostname or IP Address of the VNC Server”)
3) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Port: 5900
4) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Username: Null
5) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Password: Matches MBP / System Preferences / Sharing / Screen Sharing / Computer Settings / VNC viewers password
6) General Advanced Settings / MAC Address: MBP MAC address
7) General Advanced Settings / Broadcast IP: ATEC public IP address

If these Remoter settings are correct, it is not clear to me how a connection request from my iPad2 / Remoter app, when Interneted and outside of my home LAN, makes it to my MBP, which is wireless to the AE, which hardwired to the ATEC.

iPad2/Remoter ===> Internet ===> ATEC ===> Airport Express ===> MBP

Would appreciate any advice.

[raf]

Hi stilllearning!

Following your steps, it should be like this:

Remoter settings:

1) Basic Settings / Server Type: VNC
2) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Hostname: Your external (public) IP address (or yout dyndns hostname)
3) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Port: 5900
4) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Username: yourusername (your Mac's username)
5) VNC Basic Settings / VNC Password: youruserpassword (your Mac's password)
These are optional, and only for WoL (Wake on LAN)
6) General Advanced Settings / MAC Address: MBP MAC address: This is only needed for WoL
7) General Advanced Settings / Broadcast IP: ATEC public IP address: Or your dyndns hostname, but this is for WoL


Raf.

[stilllearning]

Hello,

I am revisiting this topic because I never connected to my MBP from the Internet. First, below is my gear.

- MacBook Pro running Lion OS X 10.7.2
- Apple Time Capsule / Router 802.11N (less than 6 months old)
- Verizon FIOS Action Tec router (see Note 1 below)
- iPad 2 and iPhone 4s

Note 1: The Action Tec (AT) owns the public IP address and the Apple Time Capsule (ATC) is Ethernet-wired to a port on the AT. Because I backup to Time Capsule, my MBP is wireless to ATC, not the Action Tec.

I am trying to figure out if it is possible, using Remoter VNC, to connect to my MBP from the Internet when my SLEEPING MacBook Pro is connected WIRELESSLY to Time Capsule (not the Action Tec). Note that I can "wake up" and connect to my wireless MBP when operating within my local WiFi because Apple Time Capsule supports this feature. Apple calls this "Wireless Wake on Demand" (see link below to Apple Support article on this topic). My assumption is that I cannot do this with the Action Tec router because I don't think AT supports WW-on-D.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774

So, to summarize my objective: To connect to my wireless & sleeping MBP from the Internet when the MBP is connected via Apple Time Capsule.

Would appreciate any guidance.

[raf]

Hi stilllearning,

Please try the instructions for setting up WoL in the FAQ page.

Q: What do I need to do to be able to do WoL (Wake-on-LAN) from the internet?
A: On Remoter:
MAC address: The computer you want to wake up MAC
Broadcast IP: Your external IP address
On the Router:
Port forward UDP port 9 to IP address 192.168.0.255 (or 192.168.1.255, modify to your actual network mask)
(See here if your Router doesn’t allow .255: http://forums.remoterlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116&start=10#p1330)

[stilllearning]

Q: What do I need to do to be able to do WoL (Wake-on-LAN) from the internet?
A: On Remoter: MAC address: The computer you want to wake up MAC.

The Q & A above seems intended for a configuration where there is a computer hardwired to the router that owns the Broadcast IP / External IP address and where this hardwired computer sends the WoL packet to a wirelessly connected computer (in my case, a MacBook Pro). This is not my config or objective. I am trying to figure out if I can wake up my sleeping and wireless MacBook Pro over the the Internet with my iPhone via 3G without an intervening, wired computer.

iPhone >>>> Internet >>>> Action Tec router <====> Time Capsule (wirelessly) >>>> sleeping MacBook Pro.

I can wake up my sleeping and wireless MBP with either my iPhone or iPad within the Time Capsule WiFi but it is not clear to me if this is possible when outside of my WiFi.

[raf]

Hi stilllearning,

The instructions do apply. There is no intermediate computer required.
What you're doing by sending UDP 9 messages to 192.168.0.255 (or 192.168.1.255, or whatever) is sending them to the "broadcast address". This means all computers in the subnet receive the message.

Raf.

[stilllearning]

I installed Remoter Fusion on the MBP and tested connection using iPhone over 3G. I connect when the MBP is awake, but not when it sleeps. In fact, Remoter returned a message about its inability to connect because the MBP was sleeping or off-line. Somehow the "magic packet" is not making it to the Time Capsule. It is my understanding that Time Capsule is the Bonjour Sleep Proxy and is the only device that can wake up the MBP.

[raf]

I installed Remoter Fusion on the MBP and tested connection using iPhone over 3G. I connect when the MBP is awake, but not when it sleeps. In fact, Remoter returned a message about its inability to connect because the MBP was sleeping or off-line. Somehow the "magic packet" is not making it to the Time Capsule. It is my understanding that Time Capsule is the Bonjour Sleep Proxy and is the only device that can wake up the MBP.

I'm not sure how this Time Capsure sleep proxy process works. This is the first I hear of this. Can you point me towards some info/documentation on how this works. I would be happy to add support for this.

Thanks,
RAf.

[stilllearning]

Wiki has some good info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_Sleep_Proxy. It also cites the Apple article that I mention in this thread.

Per Wiki: "When the sleep proxy server sees a query which requires the low-power-mode device to wake up, the Sleep Proxy Server sends a special wake-up-packet ("magic packet") to the low-power-mode device. Finally, communication parameters are updated via Multicast DNS and normal communications proceed.[2]"

I am quite certain that Time Capsule is the Sleep Proxy Server in my particular case because I can, indeed, wake-up the MBP using Remoter an my iOS devices wirelessly as long as I operate within my Time Capsule WiFi. Doing so outside my WiFi is the problem.

I checked the ActionTec port forwarding table. Remoter Fusion added several entries but they all target the IP address and ports of the MBP. Furthermore, I see no reference to UDP, port 9. But, here is where I get confused. The MBP is wireless to Time Capsule with Time capsule hardwired via Ethernet to a port on the ActionTec. It would seem to me that the "query" (?? or Magic Packet ??) referenced by Wiki must pass the ActionTec firewall to Time Capsule (the Bonjour Sleep Proxy), which, in turn, either relays the wake-up-packet or initiates its own wake-up-packet to the MBP. The fact that I can connect when the MBP is awake proves that packets are passing the ActionTec firewall and reaching the Time Capsule, which is the only conduit to the MBP.

[raf]

The Time Capsule acts as a Access Point in your case; and as such knows little about the traffic. It's almost like a wifi network switch.
I'm going to look at the wiki and the other page. I'm not sure what kind of message the sleep proxy expects. Remoter sends a magic packet. If you set up your router to forward UDP port 9 to 192.168.0.255 then all devices in your network would get it, including both the time capsule and the mbp. So not sure why you would need a sleep proxy. The magic packet includes the MAC address of the machine to wake up as well, and that's how the correct destination machine knows to wake up.

Raf.

PS: Of course replace the 192.168.0. part of the address with the correct octets for your subnet (10.10.0., 192.168.1, etc)
PS2: I'm reading the apple.com doc. It mentions the following: "Wake on Demand requires an Apple AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule with firmware 7.4.2 or later installed. To use Wake on Demand wirelessly with a WPA or WPA2 network, the AirPort base station or Time Capsule must be hosting the network". This sounds like you need to set up your Time Capsule as the router. Maybe the sleep proxy doesn't work when in Access Point mode.
PS3: It also sounds like this is transparent to applications. So Remoter can simply attempt to connect to your MBP, and the sleep proxy will wake the MPB up, and handle the connection until the MBP is ready. This also sounds more plausible if the sleep proxy is in the router.
PS4: This page seems to have some good troubleshooting tips: http://stuartcheshire.org/SleepProxy/index.html