HomeGenie Forum

General Category => Troubleshooting and Support => Topic started by: gustavoringler on February 27, 2014, 04:46:56 AM

Title: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: gustavoringler on February 27, 2014, 04:46:56 AM
I installed HG v336 in my Windows 7 desktop computer... I can access the control interface via http:\localhost....  this desktop PC is in my home network, IP 192.168.1.102

I installed the Windows Phone 8 app ... the W8 phone is connected via WiFi to my home network... however, when I try to connect to the home genie service, I get an error ("failed to connect to home genie")...

The info I'm providing in the "settings" in the phone is just the IP address of the computer running HG (192.168.1.102)...username & password are blank, as I am not using username & password in HG in the desktop computer either...

Any ideas or suggestions on what can be preventing the WPhone8 app to connect ?

Thanks!!
Gus
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: nolio on February 27, 2014, 02:50:59 PM
Hi,
Are you sure HG listen on your IP 192.168.1.102 ?
You can use the following command line to know :
netstat
Could you please paste the result of this command please ?

Bye
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: dani on February 27, 2014, 03:32:10 PM
Hi,

Can you try to connect to HG PC by another browser in your network ?
Perhaps the Windows 8 firewall blocks http access of your PC.

Cheers
Dani
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: Gene on February 27, 2014, 07:20:32 PM
The new WP app release is needed (1.0.0.28) with hg >= r336. It is waiting for certification from WP Store.
I had to resubmit it today, hopefully it will be available next week.

g.
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: nolio on February 28, 2014, 01:51:51 PM
Hi gustavoringler,

To wait the windows phone application, you can connect to HG on your windows phone by the url :
http://192.168.1.102

Bye
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: gustavoringler on February 28, 2014, 02:55:00 PM
Hi Nolio,

Thanks for your answer !

What you said is true...however, it only works if I turn off the Windows Firewall...If I keep the firewall on, unfortunately it doesn't work...
I did check, and I have HG declared as one of the apps that can go through the firewall... but for whatever reason, as I mentioned, I cannot connect to HG from any device in the network unless the firewall if off...
And I would like to avoid turning the firewall off if possible...

Thoughts ?
Regards,
Gus
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: dani on February 28, 2014, 02:58:56 PM
Has I thought,

You have to open the port for HomeGenie in your firewall

Cheers
Dani
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: nolio on February 28, 2014, 09:13:40 PM

You have to configure the firewall to authorize the port 80 like something like that :
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-open-a-port-in-the-windows-7-firewall.html
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: Britton on July 30, 2014, 05:46:48 AM
I've had the same problem.  Using Windows 7 Home Premium on a network with wired connections and Wifi to the Windows phone (Nokia lumia 928.)  I can get the phone to connect using a service address of 192.168.0.12 (which is the same address of Homegenie on the desktop computer.) This works only when the desktop Windows firewall is turned off.  Putting the various Homegenie programs into the firewall settings still does not allow for connection with the firewall on.  Not good.

I would like to make the phone connection though the internet instead of through my home network.  Can anyone steer me in the right direction to do this with Windows 7 Home Premium?

Will appreciate any help.
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: Britton on July 31, 2014, 08:35:36 PM
In regard to my prior post, I am now able to connect my Windows Phone with the Windows 7 firewall turned on.  It required opening TCP port 80 in all profiles.  I still need to figure out how to connect the phone with a connection through the Internet.  Any help appreciated.
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: bkenobi on August 01, 2014, 05:40:36 PM
In order to connect to your computer from the internet, you need to point the phone to the computer's IP.  But, since you are probably behind a router, you need to redirect traffic from your external internet IP to your internal intranet IP through port forwarding.  This is router specific, but basically you will change the port forwarding option for port 80 (for instance) on your router to port 80 on your computer.  There's lots of guides out there on how to do this, so I won't try to give that kind of detail (and likely get it wrong).
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: Britton on August 02, 2014, 02:43:17 AM
Hi bkenobi,

Thanks for the help.  Now I know it's possible and will keep trying.
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: Britton on August 04, 2014, 06:51:38 PM
To follow up, I now have my Windows Phone connected to Home Genie on my Windows 7 computer through the Internet.  This thanks to the help of  bkenobi and others here on this forum. 

To do this:

I put my computer external IP address into the phone settings.  (This was obtained at:  http://www.whatsmyip.org (http://www.whatsmyip.org) )

Configured my router to forward port 80 to the computer internal IP address (192.168.0.12).

Configured the Window 7 firewall to pass port 80 to all programs and services.  I am worried that this will affect the security of my computer but it is the only way I could find that would allow the firewall to pass port 80.

Other than the security issue, the Windows Phone app seems to work great. 
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: bkenobi on August 04, 2014, 08:39:05 PM
Any time you put a computer on the internet, there is a security concern (even when you are behind a router and use Windows firewall).  This risk is very small generally unless you are a target for some reason (government, fortune 500 business, etc).  An individual user has much less to worry about, but should always do the minimum steps to keep casual hacking attempts at bay (no one can really stop a dedicated hacking organization).

That being said, if you are concerned about security (or just want to know more) there are some good resources that you could check out.  I'd just go to Google and put in "computer security" or "Windows security" for starters.  I wouldn't lose sleep over it unless you rely on the system for your livelihood or you keep critical documents on the system without a backup.  But, fire or home invasions have similar risks.
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: dutchie on August 04, 2014, 10:24:46 PM
My internetprovider doesn't allow portforwarding in any way   :'(
Been trying redirecting ports but it resulted in a slow and instable connection.

But I also noticed that when I put the IPaddress/port directly in the browser of my WP8.0 Phone I get a message this isn't supported  :o >:(
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: bkenobi on August 07, 2014, 04:50:41 PM
I've never heard of a provider specifically precluding port forwarding before.  When I was at school, we were directly on the internet and were not permitted to set up a router, to connect more than one machine but that's as close as I've experienced.  If you have your own router that you administrate, you should be able to set up port forwarding and the provider would have no knowledge about it (nor would they need to since it's a standard operation that happens behind the scenes).

Assuming you are using your own router, you would just log into it, go to the port forwarding settings, and add an entry for external (internet/WAN side) port 80 to go to your HG machine port 80 (intranet/LAN side).  This is not anything that would violate a typical EULA since it's a typical thing for a reasonable person to do.  UNLESS of course your ISP has some reason to ban hosting web sites.  If that's the case, then you would technically be violating that restriction.  It's a personal site for your use only, but it is a web site none the less.

Either way, I can't see this as a problem for the ISP but if they have a rule against it, then that's how it is.
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: dutchie on August 08, 2014, 01:19:37 AM
Installed other firmware for router, finally portmapping is back.
Now only getting it fixed........
Title: Re: Windows Phone App / Not connecting ?
Post by: bkenobi on August 08, 2014, 03:00:53 PM
Router model, firmware?