Guide for remotely viewing my BlueIris on a laptop?

[OrangeToast]

Hi, newbie here. I've got a basic understanding of computers and TCP/IP and routers/switches.
But BlueIris and VPN's are all new to me.

Is there a preferred guide I can read that will walk me through from start to finish on securely being able to connect to my BlueIris installation from a laptop across the country?
Without opening up my home network to hacking?

I've got a very basic installation of paid BlueIris 5 installed on a dedicated ESXi virtual machine and my Internet router is a typical consumer midrange router which says it's compatible with OpenVPN and PPTP.

 

[Flintstone61]

take a look at Zero Tier One for securing your BI and remote access.

 

[Flintstone61]

i ( and many other here) have used this guidance to get mine working with my BI App on my iPhone.

 

[wittaj]

OpenVPN is simple, but we make it way more difficult than it needs to be lol.

I was there too once with OpenVPN...tried to do all this research to find directions and got to the point I said screw it and just enabled it and kinda of followed what it was asking and it worked.

Just go to OpenVPN and enable it and see what it says - probably asks you to create a user/PW, DDNS name, encryption method, and create certificate. Then copy and paste that certificate on your mobile device. Then install the OpenVPN app and select the certificate and then connect and you are on your home network.

It really is simpler than our minds make it out to be.

A big mistake people make is installing OpenVPN on their computer and trying to host it there, yet they are trying to follow the steps on enabling it on a router and screw it all up. Only install it on the computer to host if your router does not have it built-in.

This is for an Asus router, but the steps are kinda the same.


OpenVPN on a Asus router


Or go with ZeroTier

 

[OrangeToast]

Thanks, folks... lots to research!

 

[OrangeToast]

Well, unfortunately this Zero Tier isn't working out so well for me.

I can connect just fine via WiFi on my Android.
But as soon as I change from WiFi to Cellular, I get an "Unable to Connect" error.

I tried both my regular local IP for the BI server with ort-number
And also tried the ZeroTier managed IP for the BI server with ort-number

....

 

[fenderman]

You should be using the zerotier managed ip with the port number. Ensure you have authorized both the blue iris pc and the phone to connect to the new network in the ZT web interface

 

[OrangeToast]

You should be using the zerotier managed ip with the port number. Ensure you have authorized both the blue iris pc and the phone to connect to the new network in the ZT web interface

Yep, these things are already configured. Thanks though.

Any other ideas?

 

[OrangeToast]

I ended going with TailScale and it was a very easy setup.
Thanks!

Might look into the Zero again in the future but I needed this up & running ASAP.

 

[OrangeToast]

TailSpin worked one time and hasn't worked again since.

I can access the webpage fine on my phone or laptop.
But the BlueIris app just says "unable to connect" again.

Does BlueIris blacklist IP's or something?

 

[fenderman]

Does BlueIris blacklist IP's or something?

Yes if you repeatedly enter the wrong password. See help file.