No waterfall running SmartSDR 1.8 via VPN

KC9NRN

I configured my Netgear R7000 with OpenVPN which works much better than expected, 12ms access times and I'm averaging about 10mbps which is close to my upload bandwidth from Comcast.

I removed 1.7, installed 1.8 and everything installed fine, however when I connect to the Flex 6300 I get no waterfall.

Is there an option to check that I'm missing? I ran the default install which included CAT and DAX and both load up fine.

I'm a newb with this radio so I'm sure it's something simple I missed.

EA4GLI

My first guess would be the firewall blocking the new smartsdr executable.

KC9NRN

SmartSDR is working fine, everything works but there is no waterfall, I'll run a port scan and see.

EA4GLI

Second guess antivirus rule for the new SmartSDR executable

Walt - KZ1F

Well, the waterfall data comes through the same udp port as the spectrum data and meter data. So I don't think firewall is the issue. If you suspect antivirus, select the executable in Windows Explorer, right click, and select run antivirus or whatever the verbiage is for that 'check the file for virus' function is.

KC9NRN

If the AV software had an issue with the exe it wouldn't be particular with what part of the program ran. For giggles I turned off the Firewall and AV software and have the same issue. The OpenVPN tunnel works, it's encrypted so all traffic between the radio and this laptop should flow and looks like it does.

Yet, no waterfall.

EA4GLI

Try something, turn off DAX completely or stop the DAX streaming

KC9NRN

Trying that I get a frozen spectrum and no waterfall, I can hear audio however and scroll through the band and switch bands. 

EDIT: It took a few moments, the spectrum is now working on and off, I have excellent connection through the network. Latency is 12ms.

KC9NRN

Here is a screenshot, with DAX running but RX streams turned off I get fluid spectrum, no waterfall and no waterfall with RX Streams on either.

Dudley-WA5QPZ

If you are having trouble getting you display through the pipe, try slowing your Display rate down from 25 FPS to maybe 7 or so,  just to easy up on the through put.  Also unless you need DAX and SmartCAT running on the remote computer,  stop both ,  this will ease up some  bandwidth also .

Just a couple of thoughts.

KC9NRN

Bandwidth hasn't been an issue, latency is low as well, my problem is, under ideal conditions no matter what I try I get no waterfall. This is only while on the VPN, the firewall is off, it's going through an encrypted tunnel so all traffic is allowed through.

So, I'm baffled why it works on the wireless at home but not on a good bandwidth connection away from home. I'm looking to see if the VPN isn't allowing something but everything looks good.

KC9NRN

I'm trying to remember, the icon I believe shows green when it's available at home, it's showing a bluish color here, does that mean something or am I imagining things?

KC9NRN

Well, by zooming in and out  I managed to get it to kind of show something, it's slowly showing a little more. I'm going to let it sit and see what happens in the background.

 

EA4GLI

Imagining things

KC9NRN

Whew, it's getting to the point I'm looking into everything.

EA4GLI

How many ports do you open for VPN?

EDIT. Now that I am looking for it I don't find it. But there was a setting on Softether VPN that allowed you to set the number of connections opened by the VPn connection... maybe several are needed to have smooth waterfall.

spopiela

I'm also using an R7000 netgear router with openvpn. I just got back from vacation after using my laptop to tunnel into my 6500 radio at home for a full week with no issues. Radio and power supply were turned on remotely using wifi wall switches and relay. I had little to no issues with bandwidth or waterfall display. I haven't updated SSDR software , since maestro was released.

KC9NRN

I'm using OpenVPN, it's an encrypted connection so all traffic is allowed through the tunnel.

KC9NRN

I didn't know you could remotely power on the radio? I'm on it right now and don't see this option. How much bandwidth do you have where you were at? At work, I have 50 meg fiber, 15 megs upload from home, no waterfall, I must be doing something wrong.

KC9NRN

Well this is strange, on my MiFi connection out in the sticks with poor connectivity, I get one red bar, audio drop outs and waterfall, not good waterfall, it's not flowing smoothly but it showed right up on a very poor connection so I remoted into my work computer and tried it there, very fast connection and no waterfall. Ah well, time to go outside and have some fun.

KC9NRN

I just re-read, I see you're running an older version, which one?

spopiela

I believe that I have the last version before the first maestro compatible version hit the street. The version is 1.6.21.

KC9NRN

Thanks, I'm going set that up on mine and see how it goes, or go back to 1.7 and test that first.

spopiela

I typically run "speedtest" with 50M down and 10M up. Even if it slows down, the waterfall does not disappear. I learned a lot from this blog and it has helped me immensely. I am also a newbie and have gotten thru the prelim radio setup questions. My current setup includes a fast windows 10 laptop (I7 processor with 8 meg). I can use it in the shack or use another PC that I run with windows 10 at home. The laptop and headset come with me on trips and I have the horsepower to to run all my software remotely and securely into my home network drives. . I think that the R7000 router has been a key to my success both running the radio on my LAN Wifi or remotely through Open VPN and tunneling into my network. . I have lots of cameras and home automation tied to the R7000. The OpenVPN runs flawlessly, but I had to carefully set it up using the Netgear procedure. I have only run sideband radio using the tunnel . I have used DAX and digital modes on the LAN but remote digital is next to try. To turn on the radio in remote mode, there is a setting in the radio setup screens that you activate to allow this to happen. With that activated, then you have to ground a connection in the back of the radio to turn the radio on. ( You'll find it in the radio manual) I purchased a relay and a Ankuo NEO Wifi smart swith on Amazon to accomplish this. I leave the radio power supply switch in the on position and switch the AC to the power supply using a second NEO switch. The AC/DC Power relay is made by DIgital loggers.com. Both the power supply and the relay are turned on with my Iphone over the Internet. I picked up all of this great info on this Blog.

KC9NRN

Agreed, I love how well OpenVPN works via the R7000, since I have a server at home I no longer use Hamachi VPN. I use iSmartAlarm smart witches but worried that using that to power on the power supply, if transmitting used more amps than the smart switch is designed to handle, I'll check into that, I'll also read the manual to configure the radio for remote power on, thanks for the info!

KC9NRN

Newbie mistake, when I configured OpenVPN I configured it UDP instead of TCP, made the switch and everything is working perfectly.

It was staring me in the face the whole time.

Walt - KZ1F

The waterfall data comes through via UDP. I did see the waterfall in your screen shot...go to display and select auto. TCP is only used for command and command reply. All VITA-49 data is via UDP.

KC9NRN

TCP and UDP use the transport layer. I configured the VPN incorrectly, the waterfall you saw was barely functioning using UDP as the protocol for the OpenVPN. Correctly setting it as TCP has everything RX wise working perfectly, it's like being at the station. I'll try TX next.

Here I'm listening to some crazy CB'ers talking so weird I couldn't understand a word they said. This was from work (I stayed late).



Jay -- N0FB

which ports did you switch to TCP?  I'm having the same trouble.

KC9NRN

Jay,

I didn't switch ports, I changed the VPN type from UDP to TCP, no port changes were made in my R7000. I'm using the Netgear R7000 OpenVPN TCP config.

X's are used in this client side config as I changed the default NETGEAR-VPN to another of my choosing and also the remote for obvious reasons.

If you have yours configured as UDP, change it to TCP in the router and then change the config file to reflect that change at the line that says "proto" and then save it. You don't need to download a new config file.

clientdev tap
proto tcp
dev-node XXXXXX-VPN
remote XXXXXXXXX.mynetgear.com XXXXX
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert client.crt
key client.key
cipher AES-128-CBC
comp-lzo
verb 5

KC9NRN

Here is a current shot on 20m at work, latency is good, everything is working nicely.