Remote Access Issue w/ External Address on AirPort Extreme

[KStevens]

Software: Trial Edition version 2.2. build 14470
OS: OSX 10.9.4.
Router: Apple AirPort Extreme (6th Generation), version 7.7.3

Issue: When enabling Remote Access, the Server starts and Local and Internal addresses are displayed and can be accessed. However, the External address shows "Attempting to connect..." and it never connects. Loading the external address on port 8080 in the browser times out.

Remote access port is set to 8080, admin user ID and password are set, "Open this port in my router" is checked, Server status shows "Running" and is verified to be running-Local address (127.0.0.1:8080) and Internal address (192.168.0.14:8080) load fine.

How do I fix this issue? I've tried to manually set Ports on the AirPort Extreme on the Network tab... an IPv4 Port Mapping from Public UDP/TCP Ports of 8080 to the private address 192.168.0.14 private UPD/TCP ports of 8080 but still does not work. Thanks.

[ryan]

As you set up port forwarding manually, have you tested connecting to your external IP at that port from outside your network? You can discover your external IP by visiting a site such as http://www.whatsmyip.org

At the moment Sighthound Video is only able to display the external address in the application if you have the "Open this port in my router" option checked, and the application was able to do so (your router supports automatic opening and there were no conflicts). If that is not the case remote access will still be functional, it just requires manual port forwarding and the app cannot show the address.

[KStevens]

Yes, I've tried connecting to the external IP as found from that site on port 8080... never connects. My question may be more specific to the AirPort Extreme, as I only attempted to manually open the ports when Sighthound didn't seem to automatically open it... is Sighthound able to open ports on the AirPort Extreme or is there something else going on here? Has SH been tested with this router? Has SH been tested with a manual configuration of the 8080 port and if so, what were the steps involved? Thanks.

[Behman]

I had a similar issue though on a non airport express. Spent a day setting up after changing internet service providers. Everything set up and appeared to work however no matter what I did I could not access remotely. Changed ports usernames etc etc, with no success. Eventually discovered that for some reason when connected via WIFI on same network it will not work. Shut off wifi on phone or accessed from another network and it works fine. No real solution yet just try your remote connection from an external source not the link in the software.

[KStevens]

I had a similar issue though on a non airport express. Spent a day setting up after changing internet service providers. Everything set up and appeared to work however no matter what I did I could not access remotely. Changed ports usernames etc etc, with no success. Eventually discovered that for some reason when connected via WIFI on same network it will not work. Shut off wifi on phone or accessed from another network and it works fine. No real solution yet just try your remote connection from an external source not the link in the software.

Thought of that and did shut off wifi on the phone to test from the cell network and same thing, no access. And tried from a remote location and nothing. Thanks for suggestion, though.

[ryan]

Thanks for the input Behman. To be able to connect to the external IP from a device on the internal network your router would need to support "NAT loopback". More details about what you saw can be found in this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_a ... T_loopback

KStevens - The airport extreme does not support automatic port opening, so you will need to do this yourself. As far as testing, SIghthound does not interact with routers other than if it attempts to open the port. It simply sees incoming traffic when your computer delivers it, so while we haven't tested with all routers it isn't necessary.

Are other devices on the local network able to connect over the internal IP? If not, it may be that something on your computer itself is blocking the traffic. If they can, it is instead likely that the router is still blocking the traffic to external requests. Here is a guide to port forwarding with the airport extreme which may help: http://inyago.com/faq/forward-a-port-on ... me-router/

[Richx76]

I had difficulty at first with my AirPort Extreme.

Here's the solution that worked for me:

Set a fixed IP address for your Computer using it's mac address.

Only put in the port number on Public and Private TCP in the AirPort Extreme. Forward that port to the fixed IP address for your computer (so 2 block will be blank on your settings).

Retry the allow port function in Sighthound...

Should work for you.

[melkins]

I have the exact same problem with my airport extreme, can see my camera on the local network and from other devices while I am on my network including my laptop and the iPhone app. Once I am off my local network I cannot access the camera. For the amount of money this program cost I am surprised that this program does not configure everything for you automatically. When I installed my logitech camera and used their Logitech Commander software on my iPhone it worked fine and i never had to configure anything on the phone.

Been working on this for over three months now. One of their suggestions is to go to port forward.com but they are no help either and their port forwarding software is only available for windows.

Update 7-15-16

I would like to see Sighthound offer remote dial in access, so you can fix some of the issues that people have. The software is simple enough but you need it to truly configure the remote access as this seems to be one of the biggest complaints. For example I see almost 3000 views on the topic of Remote Access Issue w/ External Address on Airport Extreme. This post has the largest views of any topic so that right there tells you there is a problem that the typical user cannot fix. If your support team could remote access our computers using Teamviewer or something similar and fixes these issues for us you would likely have more customers. I have two Cameras up and running but cannot remote access them, most people do not know how to open ports. I had to have Backstreetsurveillance open mine and I still cannot get remote access. I have to use Angelcam to see my cameras outside of my network. I can only give this program a 2 out of 10 rating due to this issue.

[tcesario]

I have the exact same problem with my airport extreme, can see my camera on the local network and from other devices while I am on my network including my laptop and the iPhone app. Once I am off my local network I cannot access the camera.

I am using an airport extreme without issues, so perhaps I can help you. Without knowing your skill level on such matters (so don't take offense), a couple of questions for you first:

1. Are you using your external IP address or your internal IP address? Do you know the difference?
2. What does your external IP address start with (don't post the whole IP address for your privacy)?
3. Have you identified your camera's internal IP address(es) on your network?
4. When you type that IP address in your browser when you are home do you get to your camera's log in or configuration page?
5. Have you set up your AE to port forward on these IP address(es)?

I'll try to take a photo of my AE setup screen and post it here for you soon.

-Tony

[gussent]

This thread was extremely helpful -- thanks to all who provided insights. I was having this same problem trying to access my camera feed through my iPhone 6. But I got it working tonight.

Here's basically what you have to do, if you're using a Mac (my network is Comcast modem to Airport Extreme for WiFi):

1) Set a static IP address for your Mac -- follow these instructions: http://www.macinstruct.com/node/550 -- let's call the static IP address: "10.0.1.130"

2) Hold on to that static IP address and then go to Airport Utility and select NETWORK, and then create a new Port entry. In the Description field, selected "Remote Login" from the dropdown menu.

3) Add the Port number (8848) to the Public and Private TCP Port fields *only*.

4) In the "Private IP Address" field, make sure you change the numbers to your static IP address: "10.0.1.130" Then hit "SAVE".

At this point, if you go back into Sighthound Preferences on your computer, the "External Address" will probably still say "Attempting to Connect..." But don't worry. Sighthound warned us this would happen.

5) Now open up the Sighthound iPhone app and in the first line, you have to type in your home network's "External IP Address"

Here is how you get the External IP address (as Ryan mentioned): go here: http://www.whatsmyip.org) and then plug that into the first line of the mobile app login screen, followed by the Port address (8848). So example: 74.213.239.105:8848

6) Next, type in the User ID and Login Password that you initially configured in the Sighthound app.

After constant testing and trouble-shooting, this worked for me.

I think Sighthound would do everyone a favor if they did a walkthrough blog post (with screenshots) of how to connect the iPhone app to the external IP address using an Airport Extreme. A lot of users (like me) bought the $60 software on the assumption I wouldn't be spending 3 days trying to get the app to work. I know you don't want to have to do these types of walkthroughs for all kinds of routers, but I'd imagine Sighthound is getting a ton of new Apple users who are accustomed to easy setup. You don't want to lose them.

EDIT: I just discovered that in order to be able to access the Sighthound video from the iPhone, your computer running the Sighthound software must be at least actively connected to the Internet and not in sleep mode. This seems to be the case when using the iPhone app to connect via the "internal" and "external" IP addresses. Kind-of a bummer.