Remote controlling your home
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5. If successful, go to www.asema.com and login.
5.2. Home firewall
Internet connections commonly employ security measures that prevent unauthorized access by
unwanted visitors. These protective measures are called firewalls. Firewalls are also a part of
nearly every Internet access point, including home WiFi access points. They are usually configured
automatically so most likely your Internet connection has one too, even if you have not set up one.
It protects your home web browsing.
The problem with firewalls is that as they block access, they also block your remote access when
you want to control your home from outside your home WiFi. To be able to have such remote
control, you need to open a gateway to the home for yourself. This is called opening a firewall port.
Asema E offers you three different methods to open firewall ports
1.
UPnP
. UPnP, or "Universal Plug and Play", is an automatic method for opening a firewall port
and the default method used by Asema E. UPnP is automatic, you don't need to do anything
and therefore it is the recommended method. Asema E will negotiate with your home WiFi a
secure passage trough the firewall when it boots up. UPnP does not however work for everyone.
You may have a home WiFi (such as Apple AirPort) which does not support UPnP. Alternatively
you may live in a building with a shared Internet connection. Usually such connections have a
separate firewall protecting the building network and UPnP cannot reach that firewall. If you
cannot get UPnP working, please try the other methods.
2.
Reverse tunnel
. The reverse tunnel is a method that opens a passage from the inside of the fire-
wall (i.e. your home) and lets traffic flow back from the outside. Because the connection comes
originally from the inside, not outside, firewalls let the connection through. To open a reverse
tunnel, simply choose it from the firewall traversal method selection and the tunnel opens au-
tomatically. Reverse tunneling usually works in every home. There are exceptions though in this
case too, especially if you try to use the Asema E from an office. Some corporate IT departments
and some Internet Service Providers want to block extra services from their networks. In these
cases you usually see the tunnel working for a while and then it is cut by the service provider.
3.
Manual
. If an automatic method does not work, you may try to open a port manually. In this
case, refer to the user manual of your WiFi access point and look for entries such as "NAT",
"Network Address Translation", "Port Forward" or "Applications". They usually mean the same.
Choose an external port to forward to your Asema E (the port on Asema E is 80). Then write
this port as the manual port to the firewall settings.
5.3. Accessing your home remotely with a smart-
phone
The standard view of asema.com is perfect when you use a PC or a tablet computer to control your
home. But when you are on the road, a more light-weight solution might come in handy, especially
if you just have a smartphone with you. The mobile interface of asema.com offers just that.
To access the mobile view of asema.com, open the web browser of your phone and append the
word "mobile" to the URL. That is use the address
http://www.asema.com/mobile
The mobile interface offers a limited set of features of asema.com on purpose. It is meant to be
as simple and straightforward as possible to make it fast for you to check that everything at home
is OK. So what you will see is buttons to switch your home appliances ON and OFF so you won't
have to worry about them while away. The mobile interface also displays your current electricity
consumption.