Access Front End Remotely

[MadMax1412 (Max Schafer)]

@eXtatic

Try to open this in your Windows Explorer \\homeassistant\ssl

It didn’t like this.

@eXtatic

alternatively use the IP \\192.168.178.122\ssl

This worked but all I have is a nginxproxymanager directory. I double-checked that Explorer wasn’t hiding any hidden files.

@eXtatic

You didn’t mention a use case to access your Home Assistant from outside of your home network?
If you don’t want remote access, you can omit all this Duck DNS and Proxy stuff and just use the IP to access Home Assistant from home via the App.

My apologies if I’ve mis-lead you. Certainly not my intent but I think it might have happened due to my idea of “Remote Access” means being different to what you think.

What I mean by “Remote Access” is that if I’m away from home and I want to turn off some lights etc, I can just open the HA App on my phone and click an icon.

I certainly wouldn’t be remotely working on the “back end” such as updating config files, installing updates etc.

@eXtatic

If you don’t want remote access, you can omit all this Duck DNS and Proxy stuff and just use the IP to access Home Assistant from home via the App.

Sorry for my ignorance here, but wouldn’t I still need DuckDNS so that if my router reboots or my internet connection resets and I’m allocated a new IP address from my ISP, I would still know how to “dial home” (as ET would say)?

Hence that’s why I assumed my Chrome Tab which is set to open to https://myaccount.duckdns.org/lovelace should work since DuckDNS knows my external IP address.

Obviously I’m here cause I need help (boy do I need help ) so if uninstalling the DuckDNS is what I need to do, then that’s fine, but I still would like to learn and understand how the HA App can access my HA when outside my home network.

Anyways, here’s the add-ons I currently have:

@eXtatic

Giving up is not an option

I would like not to, but sometimes it can seem overwhelming and you try so hard to understand the terminology etc and still struggle. I can see how powerful HA could be which is why I would like to be involved in it rather than just limit myself to buying smart products and asking Google Homes to turn lights on and off.

Thank you for your patience.

[eXtatic (Dominik 🇩🇪)]

All fine, just wanted to be clear on your goal.

Could have seen this before … you need to set accept_terms: true
Btw. if this is your original token I’d redact it.

@MadMax1412

I looked at the configuration and it looks fine.

> aliases: []
> domains:
>   - myaddress.duckdns.org
> lets_encrypt:
>   accept_terms: false
>   algo: secp384r1
>   certfile: fullchain.pem
>   keyfile: privkey.pem
> seconds: 300
> token: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[MadMax1412 (Max Schafer)]

@eXtatic

you need to set accept_terms: true

Thanks. I’ve changed that.

@eXtatic

Btw. if this is your original token I’d redact it.

I’ve redacted it. Thanks for the pickup.

Well I can’t seem to access the Pi now at all. My PC did a Windows Update and so I did a reboot of my PC and now when I try to open a Chrome brower tab to http://192.168.178.122:8123/ all I get is a message saying

192.168.178.122 didn’t send any data.

I have unplugged the Pi and left it for 5 minutes and still no luck.

I have also tried accessing it via http://homeassistant:8123/ with no luck.

I can ping it and my router shows it’s connected via wi-fi.

In Windows Explorer, I went to \192.168.178.122\ssl to see if I could see that directory and suddenly explorer now lists, not only \192.168.178.122, but also \HOMEASSISTANT. When I tried clicking on the \HOMEASSISTANT directory, it prompted me for a username and password, so I entered what was in my Samba share options (as I wrote earlier) and it connected.

Not sure what’s happened, but maybe it will come good. I’ll be busy all day tomorrow so it will be Sunday before I even look at it again.

[eXtatic (Dominik 🇩🇪)]

Alright, next thing to check is if the certificates were created in the ssl folder.
Then change the http config for the NGINX Proxy setup.:

http:
  use_x_forwarded_for: true
  trusted_proxies:
    - 172.30.33.0/24

I guess that after a restart, this will bring back your UI, since HA itself is not expecting an SSL connection.
You can then proceed with the NGINX Proxy setup.

If your UI does not come back, check the log in the config folder for issues.

[MadMax1412 (Max Schafer)]

@eXtatic

Alright, next thing to check is if the certificates were created in the ssl folder.

In the SSL directory there are 2 files - fullchain.pem and privkey.pem

@eXtatic

Then change the http config for the NGINX Proxy setup.:

This is what my Configuration.yaml file looks like now:

# Configure a default setup of Home Assistant (frontend, api, etc)
default_config:

# Text to speech
tts:
  - platform: google_translate
  
http:
  ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem
  ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem


http:
  use_x_forwarded_for: true
  trusted_proxies:
    - 172.30.33.0/24

  
sensor:
  - platform: systemmonitor
    resources:
      - type: disk_use_percent
        arg: /config
      - type: memory_free
      - type: processor_temperature
      - type: last_boot

group: !include groups.yaml
automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml
scene: !include scenes.yaml

Earlier in this thread, KingRichard mentioned this section but had a few more lines as shown below:

http:
   ip_ban_enabled: true
   login_attempts_threshold: 5
#   base_url: example.duckdns.org:8123
   cors_allowed_origins:
    - https://cast.home-assistant.io

Do I need those as well?

@eXtatic

I guess that after a restart, this will bring back your UI, since HA itself is not expecting an SSL connection.

Since I can’t access it, I guess the only way to restart will be to power off the Raspberry Pi, wait and then plug it in. Fingers crossed

Ok, so I can access it from http://192.168.178.122:8123/lovelace/0 but still not from https://mydomainname.duckdns.org/lovelace which is why we now need to work on the NGINX Proxy Setup.

[eXtatic (Dominik 🇩🇪)]

You need to remove this from your config

http:

  ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem

  ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem

[MadMax1412 (Max Schafer)]

@eXtatic

You need to remove this from your config

Done.

@eXtatic

You can then proceed with the NGINX Proxy setup.

Is this the next step? If so, it’s this one I install - Correct?

And just follow the instructions and update the config as per the documentation?

(all after a backup of course)

[eXtatic (Dominik 🇩🇪)]

@MadMax1412

Is this the next step? If so, it’s this one I install - Correct?

And just follow the instructions and update the config as per the documentation?

Yes sir, that’s correct

[MadMax1412 (Max Schafer)]

@eXtatic

Yes sir, that’s correct

Ok, so I’ve installed the Add-on, modified the config as instructed and started the add-on.

I can now access the front end via https://mydomain.duckdns.org/lovelace/0

I would like to thank everyone for their help and patience.

I’ll do a full backup now. Thanks again everyone.

[eXtatic (Dominik 🇩🇪)]

Good to hear it’s working for you now.

Have fun with it!

[MadMax1412 (Max Schafer)]

Thank you.

Now that I have that problem sorted, I’ll slowly add my devices and once I have a few things showing, I might follow this YouTube video and get a nice interface set up - Creating a Beautiful Home Assistant Mobile Dashboard Easily! - YouTube

Once again, I can’t express how thankful I am to everyone for the help and patience they have shown me.