On Going Remote Access Issue

[PSPCommOp]

Having a non stop issue accessing cameras remotely since i've been using BI. Every year or two I revisit the idea before failing, getting pissed and settling for lone LAN access.
Lemme start by giving an idea of my setup.

Running BI5 on a dedicated Dell Optiplex. Running Flawlessly since the Summer of 2016. Accessed via Microsoft Remote Desktop app on my MacBook.
7 wired IP PoE Cams. 5 Hikvision, 2 Amcrest.
24/7 recording, which flags for motion detection.
Dedicated Cisco PoE Switch for all cameras as well as multiple other wired ethernet devices around the house.
Home internet thru Xfinity Home.
Previous router was an ASUS RT AC68U. Current is a TP Link Archer21 AX1800.
All subsequent devices used to access the BI feed are Apple (iPhone, iPad, Macbook).
Have watched the Using ZeroTier with Blue Iris on the Learn Blue Iris channel at leat 6-7 times in the last three days.

Have tried using OpenVPN with the previous ASUS router, unsuccessful after months of trying. Tried WireGuard on a Raspberry Pi and no luck. Found ZeroTier several years ago. All set up and communicating but never successful with remote access outside home Wifi.

Decided last week to give this another go as a Coworker has a very similar setup. Few more cameras, but Xfinity internet as well (Comcast Business). Uses Apple products as well and at my recommedation 2 years ago, set up ZeroTier and has been successful accessing his feeds remotely on his iphone with absolutely no issues. Confirmed this is still the case earlier this yesterday morning when i asked him to show me how it works.

Decided last night to try and get this to work again but have had absolutely no success. Used the original ZeroTier setup from years ago when i first tried. Confirmed both the BI Server and iphone are connecting. Deleted that entire ZT network and set up another one. Also deleted the software from my BI Server as well as the app from my iphone and did a completely clean install on both. So here's where i'm at, what I'm thinking and hoping someone could guide me in the right direction because i seem to be finding conflicting information on this forum as well as the subs on reddit and elsewhere on the web.

I think the issue is either with the Network Adapter once ZT was installed, or the internal settings on BI. How did i get to this conclusion? In the video, when he specifically states to change settings in the mobile app.... the LAN should be the internal IP of the Blue Iris PC and the WAN should be the ZT IP of the BI PC. I have set this up and it says Connecting and then flashes Retrying. When i go into the Webserver tab of the BI Settings, I can choose the second network adapter in that tab, however the address that pops up is NOT the one showing in the Physical IP showing in the ZT Dashboard. The ZT is 174.xxx.xxx.xxx and the one in the BI Settings is 127.0.0.1. I can't seem to change that particular IP and i think that might be the hold up. I've tried restarting both the software and the PC itself but no luck. Is there any way to manually do this? Does this seem like it could be the problem that is prohibiting my connection? My coworkers IPs all match up like they should and he has no issues connecting. My are unable to be changed manually as far as i'm aware and its driving me insane because i think thats the issue.

I'm at my wits end so please feel free to offer any advice or ask any questions so i can hopefully get this hashed out. And thanks for reading my novela of a rant. I just really want to get this working already and think its a simple fix at this point but its just outside of my grasp.

Thanks

 

[Sybertiger]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but does Xfinity statically or dynamically assign IP addresses? Are the IP address subject to change everytime your reboot the modem or there's a firmware upgrade. Have you set up DDNS on your router? And did your OpenVPN include your DDNS address or did it have the static address "hard coded" in the certificate?

For what it's worth, I started out using a Asus RT-AC68U as my initial router. I recently upgraded to a RT-AX86U. My parents have a BI system too and they have a RT-AC86U router. Never had a problem with the Asus OpenVPN and remote access from Android and/or Windows devices. Both setups have DDNS enabled.

 

[bigredfish]

Xfinity sucks for a lot of reasons, but I’ve had essentially a static IP for going on 4 years…

 

[OICU2]

I am not familiar with ZT but I use Ovpn on a pfsense box. Pretty sure on the BI mobile app, if using a VPN, you do not want anything in the WAN section and only the local IP of the BI machine in the LAN section. So that when you connect to your VPN from an outside network (cell or another wifi network), it is as if you are connected directly to your LAN via wifi or ethernet. As I said I am not familiar with ZT but the vpn needs to be setup so that it allows access to other subnets on your local network. Maybe someone else familiar with ZT can guide you to what I am trying to say.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

+1 Tailscale on pfSense

 

[samplenhold]

If you log in to Zerotier Central and view your Network Members, your BI Server IP address listed there needs to be entered as the LAN address in the iPhone app with :81 at the end.

Also did you activate both the BI Server and the iPhone? That check box on the left side of the member listing.

 

[jpc-s4]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but does Xfinity statically or dynamically assign IP addresses? Are the IP address subject to change everytime your reboot the modem or there's a firmware upgrade. Have you set up DDNS on your router? And did your OpenVPN include your DDNS address or did it have the static address "hard coded" in the certificate?

For what it's worth, I started out using a Asus RT-AC68U as my initial router. I recently upgraded to a RT-AX86U. My parents have a BI system too and they have a RT-AC86U router. Never had a problem with the Asus OpenVPN and remote access from Android and/or Windows devices. Both setups have DDNS enabled.

In my area, the only way they will assign a static IP address is if you are a Comcast business customer. But in practice, I seem to have a fixed IP in that it tends to renew to the same address for months or years at a time...

 

[Sybertiger]

In my area, the only way they will assign a static IP address is if you are a Comcast business customer. But in practice, I seem to have a fixed IP in that it tends to renew to the same address for months or years at a time...

I think that is true with my Spectrum service but I went ahead and set up DDNS. My parent's have Comcast Xfinity but they were lucky that last year AT&T ran fiber into their community. AT&T is dynamic also.

 

[PSPCommOp]

If you log in to Zerotier Central and view your Network Members, your BI Server IP address listed there needs to be entered as the LAN address in the iPhone app with :81 at the end.

Also did you activate both the BI Server and the iPhone? That check box on the left side of the member listing.

View attachment 183872

So this was part of the issue. I had the wrong port number listed. Didn’t choose 81 but a higher port number. Once I put that in and cleared the WAN info out, it started working fully for me. Can’t thank ya enough!