Do I need a subscription?

1

Hi all,

Switching over from ST ( a long road). Do I need a subscription to get notifications or to access my home automation system from outside my WiFi network.

As with ST and google home can control anything from anywhere on my phone.

Is HA the same?

Thanks in advance.

2

The Nabu Casa cloud option is $6.50 per month (proceeds go to supporting Home Assistant development), you get a free trial. You don’t have to use it. There are free options like DuckDNS or a VPN.

3

Thanks.

But what does that do?

And how does having a VPN fix it. Fixed IP address?

What am I missing :confused:

4

They are all options for access from outside your network, like you asked for.

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5

What you need is an open port in your router.

This could be https://, but it is a bit more complex, as you will need a DNS certificate that goes with the name. Http:// is easier, but will not be encrypted.
There are many options to use DNS, DuckDNS is one of them, but you can use any DNS provider; again the difficulty is generating a https certificate

VPN would solve that issue, instead of opening a port for HA, you open a port for VPN.
When connected to VPN you’re basically connected straight into the local network.

Nabucasa can also solve it, no need to open a port; HA will keep the connection to Nabucasa open

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6

OK thanks.

I’ll do some reading up on that whole side of it. I’m clearly clueless and spoilt by ST’s side of it

7

Thanks for that!