Remote connect Tablo if I lose contact without being on LAN?

General Discussion
1

A few weeks ago my Android Tablo app lost remote connection to my Tablo. Luckily I was only a few miles away for an hour or so. Just wanted to watch the local news while I ate breakfast. Have no idea why the connection was lost. Once I went home on LAN reconnecting was a snap.

I have set permanent LAN IP to the Tablo and also manually have the router forwarded to the needed two ports. Ports and LAN IP are always the same even if I lose power and then the house comes back on. Remote connecting works perfectly every single time but this one instance.

Question: I am going away for a few weeks in Sept and should this happen again for some reason, will I be able to reconnect remotely? I have saved the Tablo serial, lan ip, and the needed correct ports into my password manager? Is it possible to re-enter those into my Tablo app since the app itself has been “verified” via my LAN already? Always wondered about this.

I might purposefully “lose” the remote function on my Android and test this but I also was curious to hear what others here might have experienced. I did not attempt to reconnect the Tablo while at breakfast that day since I was going home in an hour or so. I wish I had now, but life keeps me busy.

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Have you tried searching here for remote connect? You’ll easily find those answers.

There is no way to “manually” configure your device/app… where do you believe you’ll enter the Tablo serial? or lan ip and ports?

Searching… those come from a network pseudo-discovery URL query via https://api.tablotv.com/assocserver/getipinfo/ your app/device sends something along with that query and it returns data in JSON form containing (in part)…

"serverid": "SID_1234567890",
  "host": "gii",
  "name": "tablo_name",
  "board": "gii",
  "server_version": "2.2.firmware-version",
  "public_ip": "WAN_PI",
  "private_ip": "LAN_IP",
  "http": OneOfTHeOpenPorts,
  "ssl": 0,
  "slip": OtherOpenPort,
 ...and then some....

There are many discussion around this topic. Many have no problems, while others find no peace with it.

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You can loose your connection if your router gets a new WAN IP, among other things.

The only way to “reconnect” if remote is if you have a VPN server at your house so you can do a VPN connection to the house LAN. Then you can reconnect then disconnect the LAN.

You can’t re-enter the remote connection info unless on the local LAN. Just doesn’t work. The Tablo has to “see” you on it’s local LAN to enable remote connections.

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Look into this solution works great with the fire stick. https://www.homingsystems.com/

5

Thank you guys for trying to help. The only thing I can think of is that “maybe” when the internet in the whole neighborhood was down for 4 hours, due to a landscaper’s ditch witch cutting the main coming in, my ISP sent a new WAN IP when the hood came back up. That is a thought. I didn’t record the WAN IP before to be able to verify if that was the case.

I am going to record my current WAN IP so I will be able to verify if it changes next time I have any remote connect issues. I don’t remember the exact day the main cable was broken but I seem to remember it was about a month ago, and that is about the time my remote connect was lost.

Also, I might put a UPS on the modem and router just in case I have a power loss while I am out of town. Its rare to have a power loss that last over 30 minutes and a router plus modem should easily run for 30 on a UPS if they are the only items connected to it. So busy I bet I don’t get to it before this trip, Ughhhhhh!

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I don’t have time before my trip, but I am going to setup a VPN when I get back. The limitations Tablo has forcing LAN to re-establish remote connect can only be resolved to my satisfaction by simply creating a private VPN. Guess I’ll just cross my fingers that IP’s and such won’t change for while I am traveling this month.

I hope to log in here and do some reading while I am traveling. I spent a few hours reading about raspberry-pi’s and they look great and very easy to configure via raspberry-pi-vpn-server software. I know how to customize stuff on my Debian systems so this should be in my wheelhouse. The gen 4 2 Gig models are running 50 to 70 bucks. I have the other needed supplies in my storage boxes, LOL!! I am go to read and don’t need to be spoon feed but I was curious what you guys thought about RAM needs for simply using this device as my local VPN for a Tablo and a couple of Androids wandering around my city? I already use several commercial VPN’s for my privacy needs!

7

You can setup some routers to have a VPN. You may not need the RPi.

I have used a RPi with OpenVPN before. It was a 1GB RAM RPi3. The issue I had was my ISP upload speed if trying to move files or such. If just sending network commands like rebooting equipment it was fine.

8

My ISP upload speed is 500 meg so I am good on that one! 500 meg down too! My concern about using a router is that unless I want to buy a very expensive one the processors on most are crap for encrypting/decrypting tunnel flow through the device. I am most considering a RPi4 with 2 Gig of DDR4 and a decent processor comes on that board.

BTW — thank you for your response!

9

I went ahead and setup up a VPN on my router. It took about 10-15 minutes and it works flawlessly.

I would encourage anybody reading through this thread to take the time to learn how to setup a VPN. The simple router solution is all you will ever need to re-establish remote connect with the Tablo on your home LAN. This solution actually places you ON your home LAN, which is why it works so well. Plus, no-ip makes DDNS super easy too.

I only lost remote connect once but it really bothered me. I decided never again on my watch if I can help it. Just write down the correct two ports (yours will be unique) to simplify the restore. ---- > (e.g. not actual- 21350 8887 and 21351 80) and you can reenter them as needed to restore remote connect. Really easy!

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10

I’m hoping someone here can break this down for me. I bought the Tablo to enable me to watch local news/ recorded programs while at the lake, or travelling in the RV. I’ve had a slingplayer and have really enjoyed the ability to watch my cable DVR from anywhere I went utilizing a firestick on the remote TVs.
I am very disappointed to learn that with the Tablo:
A. I have to round up the firesticks used from my remote locations, bring them home, and then hook them up to my local wifi, and only then will they be able to “see” my Tablo.
B. Then I have to be concerned about losing power, updates to devices/tablo/firestick which apparently will break that Tablo connection requiring me to round up once again the remote firesticks and reattach them on local wifi to restore connection.
This is obviously not going to work for me, and I am sending the tablo back, unless I can find a rock solid work around.
So, here is my question for those of you that are smarter about this than I am (at least currently)
Will setting up a VPN or alternately the product mentioned above (homingsystems) allow me to address the disconnection issue remotely? Can I set up remote firesticks without having to bring them home. How does a VPN (or homingsystems) work with a firestick, as my main desire is to utilize the remote firestick with the tablo. How do you get the firestick to be on your home LAN thru a vpn? I have a recast, but it is unusable unless on local network. Will the VPN make that a usable option for viewing on the firesticks remotely?
Will I have to enable port forwarding for the Tablo in addition to setting up a VPN to insure I can keep connected remotely, or will simply adding a VPN make port forwarding not necassary?
I have about 20 days before my return window closes… hopefully someone can answer these questions for me before then.

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MO, would it be possible to explain how you go about restoring your remote connection thru the VPN? Why do you need the port numbers? I’m not computer illiterate, but you seem to have solved my potential issue and I’d rather not go thru all the trial and error to get educated if I don’t have to!

12

I have to restore my Tablo Connect through a VPN connection about once a month. I have an Asus router that has a PPTP VPN built in, along with Asus DDNS service.

I connect to the VPN using an Android phone, using the IP address assigned by the Asus DDNS service. I don’t need any port numbers.

Iphones will not connect to a PPTP VPN due to low security of those connections. Windows computers used to work, but mine quit working several months ago.

Once I’ve connected, I open the Tablo app and uncheck then recheck Tablo Connect. I use UPnP on the router, and I think the Tablo is not requesting the ports after a power failure. I should hard code the forwarded ports rather than relying on UPnP.

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PPTP is literally the worst VPN protocol I’m aware of. I recommend you try open VPN. Asus routers support it and I’ve been using it for many years. It works great!

I disabled UPnP years ago it’s a horrible protocol that’s always being exploited. I’d definitely hard code those ports. One thing I have heard though is that if you disable remote access and enable it again that may change the ports. Something to look out for although I see no reason you would have to do that if you port forward. Simply opening the app with the VPN on should do it.

Here is a Google result for new articles talking about UPnP. Give the headlines a scan or read a few articles. It’s almost all bad. Even printers are getting hacked because of UPnP. It just lets any device that want to open a port do it. Helpful for those that don’t know how to open ports but you seem to know what you are doing enough to handle it manually.
https://www.google.com/search?q=upnp&client=firefox-b-1-d&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ALiCzsYigCxn8KLtkQam6G0NVEMGiwNgRQ:1663366295212&ei=l_QkY8jCDN-YptQPsvy16AQ&start=10&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwiI6qCpqpr6AhVfjIkEHTJ-DU0Q8NMDegQIARBM&biw=1376&bih=633&dpr=1.4

15

I just got back from my trip so I am sorry to be so late on the response here. There are actually two things to make sure you are capable of handling. First; are you familiar with setting up and maintaining a VPN connection to your router.? Many if not most modern routers make setting up a VPN connection pretty simple. By connecting to your router via a VPN your home network will see you on LAN as if you are actually sitting in your home on its network connection. Tablo can only configure “remote connect” while on LAN. Once your device is configured and setup you don’t need to be on LAN/VPN, just to establish remote connect.

Second, as an example here. Lets say you want to connect to your home Tablo on an Android/etc… that has never seen the Tablo app OR your VPN client key. The VPN client device key has the needed code to establish your VPN connection. You would simply install the key (super easy if you save it while creating the VPN connection intially). Great; the key is installed and you are on your home LAN in a few seconds. Picture yourself sitting in your home because that is where your router thinks you are!

Now you install the Tablo app and configure the settings just as if you are in your home while doing so. My router has the ports manually saved, along with a fixed LAN IP address for the Tablo so it never changes during any power cycles, etc… Since my ports are saved and therefore fixed IF I need to establish Tablo remotely because something broke I simply configure the exact same ports in the app to match those that are set on my router and are known to work perfectly with MY Tablo. Hope this makes sense. Trust me this is not tough stuff, just a few hours of learning curve with setting DDNS and so on in order that your router can always be found remotely. Even if your ISP changes your IP DDNS will still allow your VPN to find your home network. I don’t want to get too technical here but if you need more just ask.

1 Like
16

That makes things a little clearer… I’ve decided I’m going to keep the tablo, and deal with the remote issues should they arise… I’ve set up a vpn wireless router at the lake where I primarily would use tablo, so I can go there if need be. I really do appreciate the help. I may touch base when and if I have an issue, many thanks

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