Infinity Remote Access port forwarding?

[bertschb]

I have a Carrier Infinity thermostat with the Remote Access Module. I signed up with Carrier's Remote Access web site which allows me to control my furnace via their web site. It's very cool because this furnace is in our vacation home. But, I have two problems:

1- The Carrier remote access website is down more often than I would like (it's down right now)
2- It costs $100/year to use their web site to control my furnace

I can access my Infinity thermostat while I'm at my vacation home by entering the IP address (in my case it's 192.168.1.102). I've set the IP address as static. I used port forwarding on my router to set up a wireless web camera and it works great. I'm now trying to open up a port for the Infinity thermostat but I'm not able to access the thermostat using the same port forwarding technique. I'm a total novice with this network stuff and I know just enough to get things to work with no understanding of why it works.

Does anybody know if it's possible to control a Carrier Infinity Remote Access module using port forwarding on a router? If I can get this to work I won't need to rely on the Carrier website to control my thermostat (and I'll save $100/year).

Thanks for any help you can provide!
Brian

[bertschb]

Has anybody else tried port forwarding with the Infinity Remote Access Module?

[tedkidd]

I've sold 2 of these things and couldn't agree more, Carrier has dropped the ball with that crummy website. Who needs to see a huge picture of some random breakfast nook taking up 90% of the page (http://www.myinfinity.carrier.com/remoteaccess/Carrier/Main.aspx)!? The important data is so small you need a magnifying glass. Haven't updated the copyright since 2006!! Embarrassing!

They could data log and suddenly it would be worth the hundred a year. Page needs to be redesigned to at least show all zones at once.

[bertschb]

I finally figured it out. I used port 80 and it worked. No more $100/year to use the Carrier web site to remote control my furnace!

[tedkidd]

Sorry, that was all you needed? Port 80 is in the doc's. (and Local login interface is much nicer than web as I recall.)

But Then what? Do you have static IP? Getting in local isn't so challenging but how do you get in remotely?

Carrier seems to have it "check in" every 10-15 minutes. They must log the most recent address so they can get back there when you call for access. Way over my head!

[bertschb]

I never look at docs :-)

No, I actually have access via the internet, not just local. I used port forwarding on my router. I can enter the IP adress for my router then add the port number that I'm forwarding (80 in this case) to the end like this: http://999.99.999.999:80 (where the "9's" are the address for my router).

Yes, I set the Infinity remote access module up as static IP. I tried a bunch of different port numbers (since I didn't know it would be documented) before I landed on 80. Again, I'm totally clueless on this networking stuff.

The local login interface you refer to (the one presumably built into the remote access module) is actually very similar to the internet version they charge for. The difference is my local version won't go down and it's free!

[airproguyrick]

Does any one else feel really dumb besides me? There some geniuses here. That's why I subscribed, to learn. I'm way behind on the I.T. part of this trade. Impressive people on this site.:patriot:

[tedkidd]

So your ISP gives you static ip so you can 'get home'. That's not cheap here.

Sorry about that port thing, didn't occur to me that's all you needed.

The on line version is buggy, slow, doesn't 'confirm' it's taken a change (which 50% of the time it doesn't take), and is something You'd think the folks at Carrier would improve as it does bot reflect well on their ability to do elegant design (unlike the rest of the Infinity line).

It does notify me if one of my customers has a problem, even of their power goes out. The email notification is pretty cool.

[bertschb]

So your ISP gives you static ip so you can 'get home'.

No, I didn't have my ISP set up a static IP address. I set the Carrier Remote Access Module up as a static IP address. It's dynamic by default. You can change that in the network settings.

You are correct- the online version leaves a lot to be desired. I suspect they have one person supporting that web app and they are like me (don't really know what they are doing, had no training, etc). I'm sure they are doing the best they can with the resources they have. But, it's a poor design and doesn't work as well as it should. The email notification is cool (and easy to do).

Just being able to control my furnace remotely is VERY cool. Carrier has a great idea - it's just not well implemented. I think the only reason they get away with charging $100/year to access their site to control a furnace is because it IS such a handy feature.

[tedkidd]

No, I didn't have my ISP set up a static IP address. I set the Carrier Remote Access Module up as a static IP address. It's dynamic by default. You can change that in the network settings.



Why did you set the SAM as Static, and how did you get/chose that address? Doesn't port forwarding take you to it anyway?

If you don't have a static IP from your ISP I assume you somehow send your high-speed IP to iPhone or whatever you use to access the SAM.

What happens if your modem resets? Won't it randomly grab a new IP?
How will you access the thing if you can't find your house?

[bertschb]

Why did you set the SAM as Static, and how did you get/chose that address? Doesn't port forwarding take you to it anyway?

If you don't have a static IP from your ISP I assume you somehow send your high-speed IP to iPhone or whatever you use to access the SAM.

What happens if your modem resets? Won't it randomly grab a new IP?
How will you access the thing if you can't find your house?

I'll try to answer your questions but please remember I really have no idea what I'm doing. I don't want to lead anybody astray so take what I say with a grain of salt...

I'm not sure if I have a static or dynamic address for my modem/router. It hasn't changed since I set it up 5 months ago and I have reset the router and modem several times. BUT, if the IP address for the router DID change I wouldn't be able to access the control panel for the furnace over the internet using the IP address that I'm uisng now. If the IP address for my modem/router does change at some point, I will deal with that at that time. Baby steps for me since I'm clueless as it is.

I set the SAM to static because when you use port forwarding I'm pretty sure you have to use a static IP for the devices you are forwarding. With my router I have to enter the IP address of the device I'm forwarding as well as the port I want to forward it to (in my case port 80). This is all done in the router setup. If you don't use a static address for the SAM and the IP address for the SAM changes (which in my case it did many times before I changed it to static), the port forwarding would fail (I'm pretty sure).

As to how/why I chose the IP address for the SAM - I didn't chose the address. I just entered different IP addresses in my brower window until the SAM software interface popped up. There's probably an easier way to find the IP address but again, I don't really know what I'm doing. It's all trial and error for me.

Hope that helps!
Brian

[cglass]

I have installed the SYSTXCCRCT01 and made the connections to two Infinity Systems. While at home, I have no trouble connecting to the remote access module using the IP address assigned by my router (192.168.1.19). I then made this IP address static. The network settings page shows the "server port" to be 8080 but is greyed out. Each thermostat (SYSTXCCUIZ01-B) shows the port as 49152. I can change this port ONE DIGIT AT A TIME, so i'm hesitant to run it all the way down to 80 or so if this is not the solution. I'm pretty good with port forwarding, having done it successfully for a few other devices behind my router. But I can't seem to get this connection to work. Any ideas on what port i should be forwarding? Or what port i should set the stats with? Thx.

[bertschb]

I was only able to get port 80 to work. I tried a bunch of others to no avail.

[cglass]

So I should use one of the stats to set the remote access modules server port to 80. Is there any other way to set the port to 80 other than scrolling through 49092 ports? Seems like I should be able to set that from the the web interface.

Then forward that port and attempt an outside connection?

Thx
Carl

[bertschb]

All I did was set the thermostat to a static IP. I then went into my router software to set up port forwarding (and set the port for the stat in the router software to 80). I didn't change any ports in the stat software.

[cglass]

OK, thx. I'll give that a try.

By the way, some random comments. Wouldn't it be nice to set the time on the stats via the web interface? Also, I would like to pull more data from the systems, for example, current status like low/high, zone damper status, etc. I suppose I could attempt the RS232 communication but I'm not even sure that data is available.

Thx
Carl

[bertschb]

I agree it would be nice to have even more control over different options. But, I'm just REALLY glad I have what I've got!

[shenlung]

I do not have the remote module but since its using an embedded web server this is how you would set it up.

1. Set the carrier IP as static, an unused private IP that is on the same subnet as your internal network. In other words if your internal network is 192.168.1.XXX set it to 192.168.192.unusedIP, unusedIP is a number not allocated on your network. Normally you can set router to only allocate numbers via DHCP above/below a set number. This leaves the rest available for static. Set netmask to 255.255.255.0. If DNS is required set to router internal address typically 192.168.1.1

2. Set up port forwarding on your router, this is different for different routers. The bottom line is for standard http port its 80. So incoming connections on port 80 get forwarded to 192.168.1.unusedIP port 80. If your running another web server on port 80 on another internal computer change the incoming port number to something higher than 1024. Then when accessing from outside use xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:XXXX where XXXX is the alternate port number.

3. For dynamic IP the outside IP changes periodically. You either have to just check and remember, or better yet use a service such as dyndns.org This service allows you to map your dynamic IP to a name. Then from now on just use your name which is easy to remember.

Hope this helps
Thad

[tedkidd]

This is really nice information, thank you!!

I do not have the remote module but since its using an embedded web server this is how you would set it up.

1. Set the carrier IP as static, an unused private IP that is on the same subnet as your internal network. In other words if your internal network is 192.168.1.XXX set it to 192.168.192.unusedIP, unusedIP is a number not allocated on your network. Normally you can set router to only allocate numbers via DHCP above/below a set number. This leaves the rest available for static. Set netmask to 255.255.255.0. If DNS is required set to router internal address typically 192.168.1.1

2. Set up port forwarding on your router, this is different for different routers. The bottom line is for standard http port its 80. So incoming connections on port 80 get forwarded to 192.168.1.unusedIP port 80. If your running another web server on port 80 on another internal computer change the incoming port number to something higher than 1024. Then when accessing from outside use xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:XXXX where XXXX is the alternate port number.

3. For dynamic IP the outside IP changes periodically. You either have to just check and remember, or better yet use a service such as dyndns.org This service allows you to map your dynamic IP to a name. Then from now on just use your name which is easy to remember.

Hope this helps
Thad

[jmschick]

Most home users do not have a publicly assigned IP address as this service is expensive due to the dwindling amount of available public IP addresses left in the IPv4 pool.

In order to host a web page or service from your home you can either keep checking to see what public IP address the ISP (your internet provider) is assigning to you, this can change daily, or use a service like dyndns.org.

Dyndns.org is a free service (a paid version is also available but typically not required) and will keep track of your router on the Internet. That way every time you get a new IP address DYNDNS will track you to the new address and you can continue to use the webpage or service you are hosting without interruption.

The great thing is like DNS you no longer have to remember an IP address like 216.150.1.50, but instead have a host name or URL like myhome.dnydns.org.

Hopefully this helps with any of you who wish to attempt to connect directly to your Carrier system without going through the site.