Access for viewing time over Internet

[emtekaka]

The program is fantastic. Thank you very much for that.

In the present situation, a function that would allow us to view the clock on the mobile application or via the Internet, would be very useful. Maybe You could think of something like that?

Regards

[xeitu]

Hi Emtekaka,

Actually the app have and embbeded web server, that means that you can publish this web page from your PC, with a dynamic dns service and make it available by internet. Then you and the rest of the users can visit the page and see the current clock or countdown. I our case we have a windows virtual machine with onlyT app running then I open the port 8080 on my home router and redirect it to the internal IP of OnlyT virtual machine. I got a domain so its accesible through something like http://crono.domain1111.com:8080.

I you need further instructions I could send you a couple of screenshots.

Best Regards!

[bobdallama]

@xeitu if you could provide further instructions, I'd love to learn how to do this. Running onlyT locally is fine for me, but to be able to share with other brothers would be fantastic!

Thanks!

[emtekaka]

@xeitu Thank you for your message. The subject is well known to me. However the point is, that not everyone knows it. In our congregation, I am the only one who knows how to configure it. But if the program itself had this type of possibility, everyone would be able to take advantage of it :-)

[DavidIQ]

That would be next to impossible for the app alone to do. I would also not provide instructions either since there are security considerations to be had. If one really wants to do this I think they should go through the trouble of finding out for themselves how to open up router ports, get their internet IP address, add port forwarding, open up firewall, etc. so that they understand what consequences they may face doing all that.

[scottys94]

I found this video a brother created a while ago. See if this method will work for you:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dJQVvBe40Gdlv3mriPo9rkf5o_4C5nxr/view?usp=drivesdk https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dJQVvBe40Gdlv3mriPo9rkf5o_4C5nxr/view?usp=drivesdk

[impac1]

Great, thank you!

On Fri, Feb 12, 2021, 4:22 PM scottys94 notifications@github.com wrote:

I found this video a brother created a while ago. See if this method will work for you:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dJQVvBe40Gdlv3mriPo9rkf5o_4C5nxr/view?usp=drivesdk

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/AntonyCorbett/OnlyT/issues/415#issuecomment-778486982, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADGLT6I5KDQAFIBFHDH2CR3S6WS4DANCNFSM4UUER6EQ .

[xeitu]

Hi Everyone,

Maybe wil be usefull if I share our current setup to use onlyt thought internet.

Some aspects would requiere some technical expertice and as DavidIQ probably may involve some security issues. But let me explain how we can using onlyt.

I have a windows machine at home, in fact is a small virtual machine in my home server. Not my main computer. This small windows virtual machine works the same as a normal PC. In this one I have OnlyT software installed. The following screenshot show our configuration related to remote acces to the application:

As you can see the port of the OnlyT web access is 8100, so the web access URL is:

http://192.168.99.99:8100/index

but this URL is only accesible in the local network, so in order to make it accesible throught internet I must to configure my home router to make the port 8100 accesible from the internet.

lets say that my public IP is 222.222.222.222, so doing that configuration on my router when somebody access to the URL:

http://222.222.222.222:8100/index

my router gets this request and redirects it to my local machine with the IP 192.168.99.99

this is a screenshot of my router's NAT forwarding > Virtual servers, this naming may varies depending on the manufacturer:

With this anyone can acces with any browser and see the current timer but is only view mode. To remote control it you must to download the mobile app (we use it on apple IOS) and put the public IP 222.222.222.222 the port: 8100 and the access code configure on the OnlyT. With this you can start and stop timers.

As an extra in order to make it more user friendly I associate my public IP with a custom setup buyed on any internet name provider, lets say I have buyed the domain jwapps.com, so I have create the subdomain crono.jwapps.com and I configure the DNS of this subdomain to point to 222.222.222.222 Public IP address.

so when somebody want to use the OnlyT timer throuth internet they use the URL:

http://crono.jwapps.com:8100/index

As DavidIQ says this setup have the handicap that you must to open a port to internet and this may include some security risks, more if this is your main computer. An option could be to rent a windows VPS (virtual private server) the cheapest one you can find as OnlyT have low requirements. But this of course incurs in some expenses.

In the actual situation It would be great if OnlyT were a native linux software or webapp, hosting it would be easier and cheaper. But that probably involve to rewrite the software.

Anyways we have to thank to Anthony to all the well done hard work.

Greetings

[Pault2411]

struggling to get this to work. I have a sky router, I think i now have a public port, and ive set up the ip as public (I think) but its the same 192...# keep trialling my onlyT on web page via phone network, but can't seem to connect to it.. taking a lot of time.. losing the will to.. :) and I should be prepping for taking the group in the morning!

[Spenser715]

@Pault2411 it looks like you are trying to use your internal IP address outside your local network. The local 192.x.x.x IP address will only be reachable inside your network. if you google search "what's my IP?" it will show you your external IP. To access the webclock with this from outside your network use the external IP (lets say 22.22.22.22) followed by the port (8096) and the page direction. So with all that it should look something like this 22.22.22.22:8096/index

[emtekaka]

@Pault2411 You can check your public IP when you "go out" to the Internet at whatismyip.com Or go to canyouseeme.org and see if the port is available from the Internet. You can't make your IP public yourself Public IP usually has to be additionally purchased from an ISP alternatively, DynamcDNS can be used

[Pault2411]

Thanks Bros.. Well, in the SKY router tab, 'Advanced/WAN Setup' I've set up the default DMZ (IPv4) server as shown in 'canyouseeme' (thanks emtakaka) & in the Security/Services tab I've added some ports which I believe means they are port forwarded (?) but, as stated by emtekaka, I can't make it public myself. so, bit stuck, to make this work do i need to buy either a service or a domain? any other way? thanks

[Spenser715]

@Pault2411 You should not need to make any changes to your IP address on your router. you may need to add a port forward in your router settings, to check if you need to do this you can go to canyouseeme.org and it will automatically find your external IP, then in the port field type 8096 and check to see if it can see you. if it can then simply use the IP address it shows there in the format I mentioned in my last post. If it cannot see the port then you need to add the port forward in your router.

[emtekaka]

@Pault2411 It's a bad idea to add your computer to the DMZ. You should only forward the ports you need. But if you don't have a public IP behind NAT then canyouseeme sites and etc will show your ISP address and nothing will work. In this situation, you can: 1) Buy a public IP from your ISP 2) use the dynDNS service 3) buy the cheapest VPS on windows Or use https://cuckoo.team/ as a very simplified alternative I have no other ideas

[Pault2411]

thanks brothers.. appreciate your guidance there, I've deleted the DMZ part, but left forwarded ports, will have to look at it again when I have some time. thanks.

[xeitu]

Hi Brothers, just to update how I solve this problem. As I mention before, first I Install OnlyT in a computer at home (a virtual machine). But this requiere to keep the computer running all the time is needed and also to open an acces to internet to make onlyt available outside. At the present, we move all this setup to a cloud VM, So I does not have to keep a PC running al the time nor publishing ports from my home network. This service is cheap and reliable, and its already configured and running. We got an public URL so everyone can see the crono realtime, and one brother have remote control app configured in their smartphone so we can start and stop the timer. Just our congregation is using this machine, so the rest of the time is unused. If someone is interested in share the cost I'm open to talk about it. I'm willing to share full access to the machine and also to the billing panel in order to be transparent.

best regards!

[emtekaka]

Hi @xeitu I would be interested in such hosting. Which service provider are you using? How many users can login to vm simultaneously?

[xeitu]

Hi, Im running it on upcloud, good price and no issues until now. I think it can handle a couple of RDP connections at the same time, but if more user is needed I think I can found a work around. Actually I barely acces directly to the server.