External Access Disabled Message

Configuration
1

I am using the following equipment/software:

Mini PC (AMD Ryzen 9, 32 GB DDR5, 1 TB SSD, 4X USB3.2, 2X USB4, 2X HDMI 2.1, WiFi 6E)
Windows 11
VMware Workstation Pro 17.0 for Personal Use (Windows)
HomeSeer 800 Series SmartStick G8 LR
Z-Wave JS UI

I have HA installed and working on the VMware virtual machine. I’ve been able to access/control my newer Philips Hue and Leviton devices in HA without any issues. And more recently, I have my Z-Wave integration working and all of my old HomeSeer devices moved to Home Assistant.

However, I can only access HA on the Mini PC. Under Settings > System > Network, the message “External access disabled” is displayed (and probably always has).

I would eventually like to set up access through a VPN, but my instinct is that I need this issue fixed in HA first. Is that correct? Is there something I need to do in one of the configuration files? Other than adding firmware = “efi” to the VMX file, I have not directly edited any HA files.

I’ve attached a couple of screen grabs of my network hardware adapter settings in the VM in case there is an issue there.

HA Network Settings 1
HA Network Settings 1751×385 46.8 KB

HA Network Settings 2
HA Network Settings 2740×387 44.3 KB

As I said, everything seems to be working great locally on the Mini-PC/VM. I just have no external access.

Thanks for your help.

2

Did I perhaps post this message in the wrong forum?

3

At least one network adapter needs to be in bridge mode.

4

Hi, check the post below

5

Largely due to my daughter getting married, I have been away from this project for a while, but I have made some progress. When I first installed HA following the VMWare instructions, the bridged networking wasn’t working properly and generating error messages. A user thread I searched up got me to my original configuration using NAT and Host-only networks. That got HA running on my host computer but it wasn’t accessible from my phone.

After posting here and reading the suggestions I received, I now have a bridged network component as shown in the configuration screen shots below. I can now access and control the HA system (using the app or browser) from my phone. However, I can still not access the system when I am not on my local network. And I still cannot access HA using the Home Assistant URL shown on the startup screen.

  1. Is it common to be able to access HA through the local IP address but not the Home Assistant URL?

  2. I can access my host PC from anywhere using NordVPN Meshnet and have successfully moved files back and forth from the host PC and other Meshnet devices without any problems. However, I haven’t been able to successfully access HA through Meshnet. The information I’ve seen where people have successfully used Meshnet use Docker and a URL of :8123/. But I get a message that the site cannot be reached. Do I need to install NordVPN on the virtual machine?

  3. Should I need both the bridged and NAT network adapters in VMWare?

  4. I keep getting messages that a new device has been found on my network which is my router (UPnP). Do I need to include the router as a device in HA for any reason?

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Thank you any insights or suggestions that you may have.

6

Yes, this is normal. Until you set up Nabu Casa, a VPN with correct networking or a reverse proxy you cannot access it. It’s not recommended to use simple port forwarding without anything else. I’m not sure how your VPN works, do you connect to the PC from outside?

Which IP of the two works? I would think you can remove the NAT one.

No.