Will SmartLink require a public ip?

KG9DW

I'm double-nat'd through my internet provider. Does the SmartLink service require a public facing IP? 

Ken Hansen

I believe there will be a service in the middle, your radio registers with the service, the remote client registers with the service, and they establish a link that way. If your radio can find the service, it should work.

I defer to others for details, but as I read the available information it does not appear to require a 'static IP', which is what I assume you mean by 'public facingIP'.

K9DUR

The "service in the middle" is an authentication service.  Once the authentication is complete, the radio & the client communicate directly.

A static IP is not required, but UPnP needs to be enabled.

73, Ray, K9DUR

KG9DW

Public IP means an IP that is routeable. Something other than 192.168.x.x, 10.x, or 172.16.x. 

The internet side of my router has a 10.x address assigned from the internet provider. You can't get to any servers or services port forwarded off my router from the internet. 

UPnP only lets the router be configured on the fly. If the client needs to make a connection directly back to the radio you would need a publicly routeable IP. You may not necessarily need a static public IP, but definitely a public one. 

K9DUR

I am one of the alpha testers.  All I had to do was make certain that UPnp was enabled on my router & do the network setup through the SmartSDR client.

73, Ray, K9DUR

Tim - W4TME

I'm double-nat'd through my internet provider. Does the SmartLink service require a public facing IP? 

Yes for UPnP to work.  SmartLink will not work if the radio end of the connection is multi-NATed.

However, if you set up multiple port forwarding, it may work as long as the private IP of the radio does not change (static DHCP reservation) and you have access to both routers to do the port forwarding.

Ken Hansen

There are a few things going on, maybe this will clarify: Public IP - despite your router showing a 'non-routable' IP address in the 10.****.****.**** range, ultimately you are reaching the Internet with a public IP address, that is the address that shows when you point your web browser at showmip.gr - without a public IP you could not communicate with any public web servers. Static IP - is a fixed, public IP, and something not typically available to a residential customer. A Dynamic IP service can simulate a fixed IP address by giving you a domain name that always points to your host. You do not need either a static IP nor a static host name, as Ray describes the function. The authentication service does not need to find your radio, your radio finds it, and since the radio initiates contact from inside the NAT environment, the authentication service knows how to reach it. Port Forwarding, where your router takes certain incoming connections and routes the traffic to a certain computer based on the port associated with the traffic (FTP, WWW, email, telnet, SSH, etc. each have an associated Port, for example WWW traffic typically comes in on port 80 or 8080), is not needed, because as mentioned before, your radio reaches out to the authentication service, the connection originates inside your home LAN.

Tim - W4TME

Port Forwarding, where your router takes certain incoming connections and routes the traffic to a certain computer based on the port associated with the traffic (FTP, WWW, email, telnet, SSH, etc. each have an associated Port, for example WWW traffic typically comes in on port 80 or 8080), is not needed, because as mentioned before, your radio reaches out to the authentication service, the connection originates inside your home LAN.

This is incorrect for SmartLink.  While the authentication process is directed IP traffic and port forwarding is not required, the TCP control and status and the UDP audio and spectrum display channels are direct from the client to the radio and therefore an open port is required to connect to the radio.

Ken Hansen

I, of course, defer to Tim & Ray.

K9DUR

And I, of course, defer to Tim. -- 73, Ray, K9DUR

KG9DW

Ken, my scenario is that I appear to the internet to be behind a single IP. The endpoints I'm hitting all see this single IP address. It just so happens that IP address is the same for every other residential internet service customer in my area. If I want the endpoints to see a unique IP from just me, or if I want to be able to have connection requests inbound to me from outside of my provider, I need to upgrade my service to business class and pay more.

All this to say it's a perfectly valid design for SmartLink. It just means those of us on internet providers that do double NAT may need to upgrade our service. 

chuckchen

> @"Tim - W4TME" said:
> I'm double-nat'd through my internet provider. Does the SmartLink service require a public facing IP? 
>
> Yes for UPnP to work.  SmartLink will not work if the radio end of the connection is multi-NATed.
>
> However, if you set up multiple port forwarding, it may work as long as the private IP of the radio does not change (static DHCP reservation) and you have access to both routers to do the port forwarding.

hi，my home network is the multi NATED.I also configed the port forwarding in my router,but,the test button always RED. do you have any soultion?

Jeff_W4DD

You might want to contact your isp. Some have a pool of routable IPs and they can move you from using the private pool to the routable pool. I did this for a friend and it worked perfectly. There was no charge.

WX6P

Attempting to revive this conversation so I don’t have to start another one instead. I am trying to access my 6400 via SmartLink at a remote location where I only have 4G internet access. My router is a Huawei B311-221 which has uPnP but I cannot see an option to enable TCP or UDP ports. Reading more about these routers I came across a suggestion that a 4G internet connection will not allow port forwarding because you only get a private IP address. Apparently only fibre connections provide public IP addresses. Is there true in this claim and could SmartLink not work via a private IP address?

Mike-VA3MW

No, SmartLink requires a public IP on the radio end so that the client software can find it on the internet.

What you want to do can be done, but it requires a bit of VPN work. There is lots of discussion on possible ideas in the Remote Operating forum part.