SmartLink Login Persistence Issues

CharlieW

@aa3ssradio

You have said that before, several times.

Alan

I have the same issue with my John Deere tractor......I can buy and install new parts, but then I must pay John Deere to re-program the tractor with the new part's serial number....or whatever they only can do to make my tractor run again.

My point is, we are all loosing control of almost all of our devices, thanks to imbedded software.

Only real solution is to go back to vacuum tubes. I love vacuum tube radios....for what they are.

Let's stop the Flex Bashing. If you prefer another brand, fine, then to to that brand's community forum instead of taking up bandwidth here. Each brand has its plus and minus. It's an individual choice for each of us. Let's not bash the choice of others.

Why do you stay on the Flex Forum if you hate the Flex Radio so much? ....seems like a contradiction to me. You should spend time on the brand forum you prefer to learn as much as possible about that brand.

Alan

WA9WUD

EA7JQA

I am a flex user. Is this forum made to talk only well about Flex? I chose Flex because it was the best option for me, but they have been negligent in dealing with their clients. Flex does not give me the equipment and for that reason they have to be willing to accept complaints from their customers when they fail. I think it is my right as a Flex customer, don't you think?

Alan

Agree.

However, I prefer to use the forum to share solutions and share knowledge with one another. If you have a complaint with Flex, send the complaint to Flex in private....all good and expected. Or call up your buddy and tell him/her.

I have several issues with Flex and have shared my issues with them in private responses. No need to expand my issues with Flex on the public forum.

Is there a level of personal satisfaction in making public displays downgrading Flex Employees and their willingness to help? Doing so is just "wrong" and may **** off the golden goose. Why would anyone go where they most likely will be shamed in the public square.

If I want Flex solutions and knowledge, I go to the Flex Forum, and there is a good chance a Flex Employee will respond. I hope that continues.

If I want Elecraft solutions and knowledge, I go to the Elecraft Forum

Flex will be the first to know if they are loosing sales and need to change their ways......no need to announce a departure to another brand on the Flex Forum. Doing so is just "letting off steam" and uses much needed bandwidth for other's productive use of the forum.

Speaking of "letting off steam", I apologize for doing so and am done using up bandwidth doing so.

Alan

WA9WUD

EA7JQA

Sorry Alan, it was not me who opened the thread in this place of the problem they have generated, they were themselves. And the situation is serious within the context in which we are. Let's see where we are ...
And this is positive, not all is negative, they have opened a "Discusion" about that and this is positive, but....

Ha Gei

@EA7JQA

don´t even think abouT Y and that Interface.. read the forums before you get even more in pain...

I have my 101DX on remoteham and that works..but a 590 works the same over remoteham..except for the receiver properties.

Still far away from SSDR , when it works . Similar thing i have heard about RS-BA2 .. seems not as easy peasy too..

Flexradio has to get that back on Air soon. We are preparing a VPN solution for the club here now, if that work bye bye smartlink

Harry

( owning BOTH a 6400 and a FTDX101D )

Wolfgang

YAESU is no choice for me. I'm looking for Elecraft K4HD. Eric promised to come with a multiuser remote software solution. I hope he is aware of this current flexradio remote blackout. In these days a radio must be controlled peer-peer remotely without any third party service. 73 HB9RYZ, Wolfgang

EA7JQA

A VPN can be a backup solution, which I will study. Before installing Flex, I saw that remoterig worked fine. But in March 2020 during the hard confinement in Spain, a friend bought version 3 of Smartlink and shared his Flex 6500 with me. So I opted for Flex without hesitation, it was spectacular, I hope it continues to be so. And from there, I remotely put my entire station, rotor, linear amplifier, on and off devices, all made by myself with a raspberry pi, various relay boards, and some other system to control the amp. It was really nice to do everything and see how it worked.
Now I am **** off, because I had asked for a few days off from my work to dedicate them to the radio, to a cw contest that is taking place this weekend in Spain, and I have been left hanging behind this keyboard and this forum waiting. a solution to a problem that could have been avoided a long time ago, now we have no other option, in addition, the solution requires time, which they have had to spare

Wolfgang

Yes, and now the 6m season starts and we are off-line now with our new OptiBeam for 6m at 1'660m in the Swiss Alps. We just heard the first 6m signal from Canada and then the blackout 😳

We will install end of May a VPN Server at our remote site. We have a fiber-optic Internet access at our remote site, so no issues with netwok bandwidth and latency.

73 de HB9RYZ, Wolfgang

Mike-VA3MW

@Wolfgang

When installing a VPN, make sure your VPN will relay the broadcast Layer 2 packets from the radio. Most VPN's do not.

Mike-VA3MW

If you want some shortcuts on doing your own VPN, follow @Ria guidance.

https://github.com/rjairam/softether-scripts?fbclid=IwAR3aEqXN3jWEwOjkqoYpKg7FNUOn6CYLFsF6AR8fBlUixhbPbJbLwLK17TI

Wolfgang

@Mike va3mw

Thanks for the VPN Tip 👍

73 Wolfgang

EA7JQA

Good morning, Sunday morning in Spain, EU, we are still among the horns of the Cow. The new information is appreciated and honors you, but when you read it, you realize that FlexRadio has not done its homework well with its clients ... They have been taken by the cow ...
A VPN is not a solution for me, my station is in a place where fiber optic internet does not reach. I'm going to the limit with an adsl now ... I have to reduce the speed of the waterfall a bit.

https://www.qrz.com/db/ea7jqa

Francesco Doenz

Here in Switzerland early afternoon and also waiting to get it working...many thanks in advance and looking forward to hear from the Flex team!

Francesco HB9GUO

W3FRG

The FRS world is on edge awaiting the release and final go ahead.
Hopefully, the QA Team is working hard at breaking it before release.
Tom W3FRG

N4ZAX - PAT

Flex Support: I have not been ABLE to use SmartLink since May 11th, How about an Monday morning Update for ALL OF US ? I have an $11K investment in Flex Equipment Parked Remotley , when do you think we can be back ON LINE ? I been trying to use my Maestro to connect remote. It has WORKED 100% for the past Two Years.

Adde Tjernberg

This is bad in so many ways. I really hope Flex will enable Remote control without Smartlink. Smartlink is easy and nice when it work as intended. This is not the first time the Smartlink servers are down and not the last either.

Steven Lott Smith

Does anyone know where there is a simple to follow Step by Step guide on how to implement VPN with SofTether?

CQWW is this coming weekend, maybe this will be fixed by then, maybe NOT

I need my second op that joins in as a BIC via Remote

Steve KG5VK

Ron Koenig

In light of the recent events. The ability to use Smartlink by entering an IP for an un brokered connection must be the #1 priority @ FRS. This will give users with large monetary investments into FRS equipment the freedom needed to truly own their radios. It will give the more tech advanced / Contest stations the ability to better utilize the equipment for their intended purpose without cumbersome and problematic VPN's and the like. It would, for most users, have also prevented this current situation from being at the severity level is it.

Ron, WV4P

Ken Hansen

Steve,

This might be a place to start - apparently Windows 10 includes VPN functionality, but this article/ends ends just as the connection is established, you'd need someone to fill in the steps to actually operate SSDR across the VPN.

https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/how-to-set-up-the-windows-10-built-in-vpn-service/

David Decoons, wo2x

The #1 problem with some VPNs is the inability to pass the UDP broadcast packets from the radio across the VPN tunnel.

Whichever VPN you decide to go with make sure it can do that, otherwise you will not see the radio.

Dave wo2x

Ha Gei

HI all,

i managed softethernet. Just google for "flexradio softethernet" and find ..as well as linked here earlier.. different tutorials on how to do that. We set up the server for IPSEC tunnels and use the plain windows VPN client. Just as in the tutorials.

No Problems, works much better than smartlink ! We have far better latency with that ( using a 25$ orangepipc with rasbian ) as the vpn server.

Just beware, that anyone who is in your VPN is IN YOUR NETWORK , this is the negative point. The good point is, that 3rd Party Software , not aware of smartlink, works now.

Wes

Yes, it is unfortunate that SmatrLink is having issues due to the third-party company that changed their security protocols. I am confident there will be a solution soon. Be glad this only affects the remote capabilities of your radio. You can still run it on-site. Just look what Microsoft does to your Windoze machines on a monthly basis. I can assure you it's far worse. You have to admit the Maestro is an awesome option as well for people like myself who like knobs to play with. Where else can you get a portable "radio in a box "solution? I regret selling mine and I am looking for another one. BTW you people that are jumping up and down saying your going to sell your Flex rigs because of a Smart link hiccup, I'd be interested to hear which manufacturer you are going to go with that offers the same capabilities without the need for a pc at the site location running a buggy server app to get the job done. I've had them all. What, Icoms antiquated RS-BA1? Good luck with that! And no I don't work for flex. I'll admit I too was mad as **** at first, however I like the capabilities of my Flex and will just be happy when it's fixed...

EA7JQA

Sorry Wes, but it's not the provider's fault for this, he changed the security protocols, warned Flex several times to adapt, and Flex didn't check if the changes were working. Now we are all trapped, there are people who have been able to work with VPNs, but many others cannot go to the place where the station is, and we are still caught.

SM3RAB

> @"Ron Koenig" said:
> In light of the recent events. The ability to use Smartlink by entering an IP for an un brokered connection must be the #1 priority @ FRS. This will give users with large monetary investments into FRS equipment the freedom needed to truly own their radios. It will give the more tech advanced / Contest stations the ability to better utilize the equipment for their intended purpose without cumbersome and problematic VPN's and the like. It would, for most users, have also prevented this current situation from being at the severity level is it.
>
> Ron, WV4P

Could not have said it better myself. What´s wrong with a direct connection such as the case with Remote Rig equipment? That works always. VPN is NOT needed for ham radio communications...

Wolfgang

Hi all

I agree on the statements above. It would be great to have an intelligent remote software to control the flexradios without to install a VPN. At least some UDP or TCP ports to open on the firewall will be ok. As Icom is doing this with their remote software. Such a new "Multiuser remote Flex Software" would be great.

73 de HB9RYZ, Wolfgang

N5NHJ

Unfortunately, VPN is not an option for a complex corporate or professional network, where the network configuration management is centralized and strictly ruled. NATing some strictly controlled ports is still acceptable (barely), playing around with the DHCP is on the edge, create a VPN is definitely not practical.

Let's hope for a direct connection to the radio.

Mike-VA3MW

@N5NHJ

You can do a direct connection today with the SmartSDR for MAC and iOS, something I have not yet tested.

As for SmartSDR, there are no plans to do a direct IP connection at this time. Could that change in the future, it is possible and it will come up for discussion.

With many feature requests like this, the easy part is 'just doing it'. However, Economics comes around pretty quickly when hams who do not understand direct IP connections want to make it work and are not able to. Then, it becomes a support ticket and that actually costs money to staff. That is the part that makes it 'not so easy' to do and actually fund.

BTW, if you are on a corporate network and if SmartLink actually works connecting outbound on a UPD and TCP port, odds are that SoftEther will as well as the concept is 100% the same unless your IT people only lock down outbound connections on ports 80, 443 and a few others (which is not uncommon on well run commercial network). You could do the same with a SoftEther outbound on 443 to your VPN at the radio and 'boom', you see the radio. You might want to give it a try. (And, this is from my personal experience working at numerous Fortune 500 companies). It might fail if they do deep packet inspection, then then a SmartLink connection to your radio will fail as well as they will see it as a streaming service and shut it down pretty quickly.

Let us know how you make out trying it.

73

Ron Koenig

> You can do a direct connection today with the SmartSDR for MAC and iOS, something I have not yet tested.
> As for SmartSDR, there are no plans to do a direct IP connection at this time. Could that change in the future, it is possible and it will come up for discussion.
> With many feature requests like this, the easy part is 'just doing it'. However, Economics comes around pretty quickly when hams who do not understand direct IP connections want to make it work and are not able to. Then, it becomes a support ticket and that actually costs money to staff. That is the part that makes it 'not so easy' to do and actually fund.

This is very discouraging, especially with your recent postings about how incompetent most FRS customers are in the eyes of FRS. So, tell me, how many support tickets have been handled because the Mac version allows Direct Connection ?

This "Feature" should be a no brainer and if it was not at the top of the list before it should be #1 now. Your customers are not as **** as you may think... I suspect Marcus could knock this out in a few hours, but he does not suffer from the "Dumb it down for the customers so we don't have to work" thought process."

Ron, WV4P

Ted S

Thank you for this information, the quote below is very enlightening:

> With many feature requests like this, the easy part is 'just doing it'. However, Economics comes around pretty quickly when hams who do not understand direct IP connections want to make it work and are not able to. Then, it becomes a support ticket and that actually costs money to staff. That is the part that makes it 'not so easy' to do and actually fund.

It is interesting to note the fact that you are providing platinum level software support for free is such a factor in deciding which features to include (Profile Autosave comes to mind). Given one of you primary competitors provides no software support and no software, rather requiring the user community to write there own software (a substantial amount which was originally written by Flex) makes for some interesting business decisions.

I don't know the answer, but it does seem to make it hard to keep up with the latest and greatest features like "Pure Signal". I love my Flex, and I don't really need all the hand holding, and if I did I would be happy to pay for it. It is a price I am willing to pay in order to access new features more quickly.

Whichever path you take I whish you continued success.

Ted, WR4T