When you are on another network (not at home) are most of you using UI3 in a Chrome window or are you using the BI app on your mobile phone? It would appear that if you are using built-in VPN on your router that you'd have to add virtual port forwarding for the BI app and I know a lot of you don't want to open up any port if it can be avoided.
When you are on another network (not at home) are most of you using UI3 in a Chrome window or are you using the BI app on your mobile phone? It would appear that if you are using built-in VPN on your router that you'd have to add virtual port forwarding for the BI app and I know a lot of you don't want to open up any port if it can be avoided.
You dont have to open any ports regardless of method. When you connect with vpn, its as if you are on you local network. In the blue iris app, enter the LOCAL ip in BOTH the lan and wan fields.
I have been using OpenVPN + Blue Iris App on my iPhone so far, but been playing with switching to UI3 behind a nginx reverse proxy providing TLS with client certificate authentication. I have it all set up and have been testing it locally and it works quite well.
I find the UI3 interface working very well on my phone (thanks @bp2008), and it has one feature in particular that I haven't found in the app. The ability to filter alerts to a group of cameras. Most of my alerts are from my LPR camera and in the past I have avoided having it flood the alerts list by hiding it, but then I can't access those alerts at all from the phone app. With the UI3 interface it works very well selecting a group of cameras not including the LPR camera.
I use VPN for all connections that are remote. I use the BI APP for the phone, and UI3 on the 10 inch android tablet or a windows laptop. Both work well.
Just go to ngrok.com, download it, and run it. Leave the window open. You'll see a forwarding address like aabbccdd.ngrok.io. The free version will give you a new URL every time you launch it, so leave the program running. No setup is required on Blue Iris. Just point your mobile browser or BI mobile app to that address. Disconnect from your wifi and use cellular data to test.
I've been using the VPN and the BI app, but reading here about remoting to the UI3.htm, I like it. Seems more responsive and quicker than the app.
Using Chrome, it was easy to save a bookmark to the home screen. I wish getting into the VPN on my android was as easy. Because I use the native VPN, I have to go to Settings/Connections/More Connection Settings/VPN/HomeVPN/Connect/(tell Samsung 'no thanks' on saving username and password, since saving doesn't work anyway)/(close the setting window)/(launch Blue Iris). That is 8 taps just to get the VPN to work.
OpenVPN is much simpler to use. "Click" the app, "click" to connect and you're in...plus it's free. You do need to install the credentials, first, but that's a one time thing and easy to do. Even that can be automated using Tasker or a similar app.
I wish getting into the VPN on my android was as easy. Because I use the native VPN, I have to go to Settings/Connections/More Connection Settings/VPN/HomeVPN/Connect/(tell Samsung 'no thanks' on saving username and password, since saving doesn't work anyway)/(close the setting window)/(launch Blue Iris). That is 8 taps just to get the VPN to work.
On my old Note 4, I ran Nova Launcher which let me create a widget that went straight to my VPN connection. I have a Pixel now and was able to create a widget that takes me to the VPN listing, then I tap the connection I want, then "connect". Better than going to long way, but still not great.
iPhone doesn't even know what a widget is, so you still have to go into settings, VPN, and tap your specific connection. That's quicker than Samsung's stock way, but not a fast as Android can do with Nova Launcher.
