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I messed up: Need advice on bringing Trojan L16s back from near dead

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  • #16
    I can't really send you the steps, has most of them were relevant to my own infrastructure. Basically I establish a site-to-site VPN between my OpenWrt router (connected in the satellite modem) with my office's VPN server (all using OpenVPN - available under OpenWrt). Then using ssh (instead of toying with routes), I establish a reverse tunnel to my OpenWrt router from my office - al through the VPN tunnel.

    I can do whatever I want with the Combox at that point, it's just like if I was using it from my remote home.

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    • #17
      Originally posted by extrafu View Post
      I can't really send you the steps, has most of them were relevant to my own infrastructure. Basically I establish a site-to-site VPN between my OpenWrt router (connected in the satellite modem) with my office's VPN server (all using OpenVPN - available under OpenWrt). Then using ssh (instead of toying with routes), I establish a reverse tunnel to my OpenWrt router from my office - al through the VPN tunnel.

      I can do whatever I want with the Combox at that point, it's just like if I was using it from my remote home.
      I misspoke. I flashed my old Buffalo router to DDRWRT firmware. I've been reading up on OpenWRT though.

      Are you using Hughesnet. I've read nothing but problems trying to use VPN or RDP with Hughesnet. Part of me wants to just shell out $500 for the Conext Gatway and go that route. No guarantee that won't have it's headaches though. Plus my MEP-802a generator will soon have a WIFI AGS on it and I want to be able to VPN/RDP in to control/monitor it.

      So if you are on Hughesnet I won't give up up getting the Combox to work. Mind telling the Brand/model of your router?

      Thanks.



      PS: Is there no way to send Private Messages on this forum?
      Conext XW5548
      Conext MPPT60-150

      Comment


      • #18
        @hammick DD-WRT is dead, don't use it. I'm using Xplornet - same thing has Hughes Network (same satellite modem, same network). You won't be able to "VPN" to anything connected to a Hughes network modem. They are port-blocking everything. You have to use a *reverse tunnel* - meaning the connection needs go be established behind that mo-dumb and you use it it from the peer end.

        I was also tempted to purchased a Conext Gateway. The Combox does NOT work well with Insight on high-latency (read satellite) connections. It's just pure crap. Schneider sent me 3 free Combox to work our the issues with them - and they gave up at some point and released the Gateway. I honestly don't have too much fait in the Gateway about this, so I prefer my own solution which has been working well for many months now (VPN + reverse SSH tunnel).

        And btw, I use a Linksys WRT1900ACS as my WiFi router (flashed with OpenWRT).
        Last edited by extrafu; 02-12-2020, 08:38 PM.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by extrafu View Post
          @hammick DD-WRT is dead, don't use it. I'm using Xplornet - same thing has Hughes Network (same satellite modem, same network). You won't be able to "VPN" to anything connected to a Hughes network modem. They are port-blocking everything. You have to use a *reverse tunnel* - meaning the connection needs go be established behind that mo-dumb and you use it it from the peer end.

          I was also tempted to purchased a Conext Gateway. The Combox does NOT work well with Insight on high-latency (read satellite) connections. It's just pure crap. Schneider sent me 3 free Combox to work our the issues with them - and they gave up at some point and released the Gateway. I honestly don't have too much fait in the Gateway about this, so I prefer my own solution which has been working well for many months now (VPN + reverse SSH tunnel).

          And btw, I use a Linksys WRT1900ACS as my WiFi router (flashed with OpenWRT).
          Thanks for the great info Extrafu. So are you saying when you connect to your Combox using your VPN "reverse tunnel" that you don't have a bad experience (high-latency) when monitoring/configuring the Combox? Or maybe the latency is there but you just don't see it. I'm assuming DynamicDNS is not needed with the reverse tunnel?

          I am using two Cloud based products up there and they work great with Hughesnet. Blink XT2 cameras and the Insteon Hub for my Insteon light switches, motion detector, siren, etc.

          I believe with Cloud based stuff the latency is still obviously there you just don't see it on the client end.

          An idea I am kicking around is a Windows 10 Pro pc on a stick. The one I am looking at has both wifi and an ethernet port. I would load Teamviewer on it so I can RDC in. The Teamviewer server is free for personal use and I think it uses cloud based VPN so I might not see the latency.

          My Wifi AGS board on my generator is a direct wifi connection. You connect to the board with a phone, tablet or laptop and then type it's IP address into a browser. My hope is that bridging the pc ethernet connection to the Hughesnet router and it's wifi connection to my AGS will allow me to see the AGS Wifi board on my network. I not sure if that will work. Thankfully the AGS Wifi board also has a two wire start interface so I can always buy the Schneider Context AGS and Gateway and start my genset.

          Conext XW5548
          Conext MPPT60-150

          Comment


          • #20
            Extrafu the reverse ssh tunneling might be over my level. I have a buddy that works for Microsoft that probably knows all about it. Does the remote router with OpenVPN initiate the reverse tunnel on set intervals? Or once the tunnel is broken are you disconnected until you make the connection again from your remote place.

            Any reason I can't buy the router, flash Open VPN and have my buddy set it all up at my main home and then expect it to work when I take it to our place with Hughesnet?

            Once you have your reverse ssh tunnel active what do you use to tunnel back to the remote router? RDC or just the VPN client built into Windows 10?
            Conext XW5548
            Conext MPPT60-150

            Comment


            • #21
              No PM's on the forum anymore. Peddlers were abusing it to advertise their business, bypassing the forum advertising policy, so it was terminated. A couple rotten apples ruin it for all.
              Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
              || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
              || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

              solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
              gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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              • #22
                @hammick OpenVPN is installed on OpenWRT (so on your WiFi router) and establish a permanent VPN tunnel to somewhere - you need to have the server end for all of this to work. So it's like that:

                [laptop] <-> LAN <-> OpenVPN server <-> Internet/satellite <-> Hughes Network modem <-> WiFi router running OpenWRT and the OpenVPN client <-> Combox (connected in the WiFi router)

                If you toy around with routes on your LAN's router, you could simply connect to the Combox just like you were connected in the WiFi router directly. Personally I didn't set up routes because my VPN server is at the office. So what I do instead is whenever I am at the office, I establish a ssh tunnel. I basically port-forward a local port (2020) of my laptop to the Combox's IP + HTTP port 80. So then I access it from the office like http://localhost:2020/ - all over the SSH tunnel, which is all over the VPN tunnel.

                What I meant by the cloud part (Conext Insight) is that high-latency connections (satellite, about 600ms latency) don't work well with the built-in feature of to Combox to push monitoring data to their cloud-based portal. It works well for a few days and then it gets slowly out of sync and all is messed up after a little while. I'm quite confident the same problems will be there with the Conext Gateway. Unless I have a free unit to test it for a little while, I won't be replacing my Combox with it.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by Mike90250 View Post
                  No PM's on the forum anymore. Peddlers were abusing it to advertise their business, bypassing the forum advertising policy, so it was terminated. A couple rotten apples ruin it for all.
                  I'm very active on 4 other forums and not once have I ever been spammed through a PM message. What makes this site a target for spammers via PMs? I would ask this question off the forum but...well...you know.
                  Dave W. Gilbert AZ
                  6.63kW grid-tie owner

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by azdave View Post

                    I'm very active on 4 other forums and not once have I ever been spammed through a PM message. What makes this site a target for spammers via PMs? I would ask this question off the forum but...well...you know.
                    Hi Dave. For some reason all of your posts first go to moderation for approval. I have contacted Solar Pete and the IT group to find out why but until then please be patient as I will approve them as I get them.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Originally posted by extrafu View Post
                      @hammick OpenVPN is installed on OpenWRT (so on your WiFi router) and establish a permanent VPN tunnel to somewhere - you need to have the server end for all of this to work. So it's like that:

                      [laptop] <-> LAN <-> OpenVPN server <-> Internet/satellite <-> Hughes Network modem <-> WiFi router running OpenWRT and the OpenVPN client <-> Combox (connected in the WiFi router)

                      If you toy around with routes on your LAN's router, you could simply connect to the Combox just like you were connected in the WiFi router directly. Personally I didn't set up routes because my VPN server is at the office. So what I do instead is whenever I am at the office, I establish a ssh tunnel. I basically port-forward a local port (2020) of my laptop to the Combox's IP + HTTP port 80. So then I access it from the office like http://localhost:2020/ - all over the SSH tunnel, which is all over the VPN tunnel.

                      What I meant by the cloud part (Conext Insight) is that high-latency connections (satellite, about 600ms latency) don't work well with the built-in feature of to Combox to push monitoring data to their cloud-based portal. It works well for a few days and then it gets slowly out of sync and all is messed up after a little while. I'm quite confident the same problems will be there with the Conext Gateway. Unless I have a free unit to test it for a little while, I won't be replacing my Combox with it.
                      Thanks. That makes a lot of sense. If the reverse VPN tunnel is disconnected for any reason will it automatically reconnect? I'm assuming that I need a static IP or Dynamic DNS on the OpenVPN server side? I have Google Fiber at our main home where the server would be located.

                      I just bought two Asus RT-N66R routers (aka "Dark Night" routers). They have both OpenVPN server and client built in and I think also Asus dynamic DDS service. I'm hoping to establish the VPN connection from my Montana place with the solar (Hughesnet) to my main home in Kansas City (Google Fiber). The client router will be in Montana and the server router will be in Kansas City. Since I'm 1,200 miles away I'm hoping to set up a Microsoft RDP connection so I can make changes on the server router when I'm setting all of this up. Having these networks bridged would be ideal.

                      I hope it goes smoothly but from past experience it rarely does.

                      Thanks for all the great advice.
                      Last edited by hammick; 02-14-2020, 11:01 PM.
                      Conext XW5548
                      Conext MPPT60-150

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Yes, if the VPN gets disconnected or say the WiFi router reboots, everything will get re-established without a hiccup.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Originally posted by SunEagle View Post

                          Hi Dave. For some reason all of your posts first go to moderation for approval. I have contacted Solar Pete and the IT group to find out why but until then please be patient as I will approve them as I get them.
                          if I edit any of my posts they get flagged as spam and need approval.
                          Conext XW5548
                          Conext MPPT60-150

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Originally posted by hammick View Post

                            if I edit any of my posts they get flagged as spam and need approval.
                            I will pass this along. Thanks for the heads up.

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Originally posted by hammick View Post

                              if I edit any of my posts they get flagged as spam and need approval.
                              I looked at your previous post and it looked like it was edited three or four times. I think the forum flags a post with several edits for moderation. Not sure why, maybe it's something spammers do.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Originally posted by sdold View Post

                                I looked at your previous post and it looked like it was edited three or four times. I think the forum flags a post with several edits for moderation. Not sure why, maybe it's something spammers do.
                                That has happened to me, being more into correcting errors than able to get it right the first
                                time. It is PRETTY ANNOYING having to wait a day, when there were no links. Bruce Roe

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