FAQs: Uniphy Remote Management Service
What methods are available to remotely manage my controller?
Managing your controller is done via existing Ethernet IP based networking technologies. The most common methods available are as follows:
- Proliphix Remote Management Service (free public server)
- Proliphix UniVista Enterprise Management System
- Private routed network
- VPN
- Direct IP access
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How can I access my controller via the Proliphix Remote Management Service?
From an overview perspective, you need to do the following:
1. Manage the controller locally via the web pages
2. Register for a remote management account at www.proliphix.com under the link Customer Login. After registering, we will provide you will your account login information as well as a unique customer ID.
3. Create a Port Forward entry in your router to allow two way communications with your controller.
4. Insert the customer ID on the Remote Access page of the controller.
5. Click the Discover Now button on the Remote Access.
6. Log into your server account and you should now have a clickable link to your controller.
See the following questions for more information on this subject.
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What is the Proliphix Remote Management Service?
The Proliphix Remote Management Server is a server operated by Proliphix that allows you to securely manage your controllers from anywhere you have a valid connection to the Internet. You can access your controller by using a unique login and password to view and manage your controllers.
You are not required to use the Proliphix Server, but it is provided as a free service as part of purchasing our product. You do not need to use the server if you are going to be managing your controllers either locally, via a VPN or within a private network.
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How do I get a remote access account?
You should go to www.proliphix.com and select the Customer Login option then click on the Register link. There you will fill out your contact information and a unique customer ID will be generated automatically and emailed to you.
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What is a Customer ID?
The customer ID is a unique label assigned to a customer which allows the Proliphix Remote Management Server to group controllers under one customer name.
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How do I setup my router to allow remote access to the controller?
To allow your controller to communicate with the Proliphix Remote Management Server, you typically will have to enable the port forwarding option for your specific IP address and port that the controller is using.
Please refer to your router documentation for specific information on configuring port forwarding. There is also a very good website with port forwarding information for a large number of routers at www.portforward.com .
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What is Port Forwarding?
Port forwarding refers to configuring a router to let traffic sent to specific IP address and port to pass through to the destination. Think of a port as a specifically numbered door into your network. In this example of an IP address with a specified port (192.168.111.100:8081). 8081 is the port number. Your router’s job is to keep out unsolicited traffic from the Internet from reaching your network.
To manage the Proliphix family of controller from the Proliphix Remote Management Server, the server is going to send ip packets to the controller. Typically theses packets would be stopped at the router and never passed on to the controller since the port used by the controller is closed.
If you tell the router to allow ip packets through the router to the controller by configuring (opening) the ip address and port, then the controller can be successfully managed by the server.
Opening a port in the router is known as port forwarding. There is a good resource for residential routers and how to configure port forward entries at www.portforward.com.
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How does the controller communicate to the Proliphix server?
The controller will “call home” to the Proliphix server on a periodic basis as defined on the Remote Access page of the controller. That page also has the ip address and port of our server (207.58.145.109, port 80).
When you click the Discover Now button, the controller will contact our server and identify itself. After a number of seconds, the server will try to contact the controller to verify that a two way path between the server and the controller is open.
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Why are there no controllers listed under my account?
Verify that the Customer ID has been entered correctly on the Remote Access page of the controller. This is the field that is used to associate your controller to your account.
Also ensure that the remote access function is enabled and not disabled. Once you verify those items, click on the Discover Now button, wait about 30 seconds and then check on the remote server to see if your controller is now listed.
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Why is my controller link red?
When your controller link is showing as red, the server has marked that entry as unreachable. This means that the server has not heard from the controller within the expected time frame.
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Why is my controller link orange?
When your controller link is showing as orange, the server has marked that entry as firewalled. This means that traffic originated from the server is not reaching the controller and is being blocked by a firewall of some sort.
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How can I tell the status of the communication between the controller and the server?
Once you log into the server, click on the stats icon on the right side of the web page for the statistics of the controller that you want to see.
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What is a private routed network?
A private routed network is a number of separate networks that are able to function as a single larger network due to the use of routers. A router is a specialized device that knows where to forward traffic when the destination address is not on the same network.
In this example, the controller has an address of 192.168.111.100 but your pc has an address of 192.168.55.100. When the pc tries to communicate with the controller, the router will forward traffic for devices not on the same network, in this case from the pc to the network where the controller resides.
For the controller to accept the Ethernet packet from another subnet, you need to turn off the access filter function found on the Network Settings page by un-checking the “local subnet” checkbox.
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What is a VPN?
VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network. It is a technology that allows you to connect to your destination from a remote site typically traveling across a public network (the Internet) using encryption and other security measure to ensure proper authorized access. The key difference with VPN’s is that your remote pc will look like it is residing on the same network as the device you are controlling.
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What is external direct IP access?
You can access the controller directly if you know the WAN (Wide Area Network) address and port number of the controller, your firewall is properly configured and the access filter is turned off in the Network Settings page of the controller.
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Can I use your remote server if my Internet service is via a satellite provider?
At this point we have seen Hughes user be able to connect only if the subscribe to an account with a static address. Hughes manipulates their traffic so the outbound traffic and the inbound traffic never user the same wan address. Due to that model, your controller will show up as firewalled because our server expects to use the same address it calls home with. To reach your controller you have to type in your static address supplied from Hughes along with the port number.
We have had a customers connect with the default level of service from WildBlue.
Overall, satellite is not the best choice, go with dsl, cable, fiber or even wireless based Internet providers if they are available over a satellite solution.
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What address format do I use to send text messages to my cell phone?
This is a list of common cellular carries in the U.S. The 10digitphonenumber is your mobile phone number (for example: 8885551234@vtext.com).
|
Verizon |
10digitphonenumber@vtext.com |
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Former AT&T customers |
10digitphonenumber@mmode.com |
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Sprint |
10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com |
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T-Mobile |
10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net |
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Nextel |
10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com |
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Cingular |
10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com |
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Virgin Mobile |
10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com |
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Alltel |
10digitphonenumber@alltelmessage.com OR
10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com |
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CellularOne |
10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com |
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Omnipoint |
10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com |
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Qwest |
10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com |
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How do the network port settings on your controller work?
There are two port entries on the Network Settings page of the controller. The first one listed is the Firewall Settings Inbound Port. This port is what the Proliphix Remote Management Server will use when trying to initiate contact with the controller. This port is also known as the public port in many routers port forwarding terminology.
The second port listed is the Web Server HTTP port. This is the actual port that the web server is running on in the controller. This port is also known as the private port in port forwarding terminology. If you are on the same local network as the controller, use this port to contact the web server running on the controller. We default to port 80 as HTTP uses port 80 and it is assumed when typing in a standard web (url) address.
If you change the Web Server HTTP port to something other then 80, you will need to specifiy that port as part of your web address. For example if you set the HTTP port to 8081 for a device at 192.168.1.50, then you would type 192.168.1.50:8081
Some routers do not have public and private ports as fields in the port forwarding tables (most Linksys routers for example), so you have to use the same port number on both the controller's Firewall Inbound Port and the HTTP Web Server Port.
As a side note, we typically do not recommend using 80 as the public port as some ISP block incoming traffic on port 80 as their terms of agreement may not allow users to host their own web servers. For our controllers typically this is easily addressed by using ports in the 80xx range (or any other range not blocked by your ISP).
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How do "Ports" work?
Ports are used to identify unique sessions to a program or device. Here is a link with a nice explaination:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_port
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