I’m fairly new to Home Assistant but loving it. I am trying to setup external access but am unsure how with the following setup.
Verizon fios router with internal address of 192.168.1.1 connected to a Netgrear Orbi router with address 10.130.1.1 and all devices either directly connected (ethernet) or via wifi on 10.130.x.x. I have dyn.com services setup to direct to the Verizon fios router but am unclear how to configure the port forwarding on either the Verizon router and / or the Orbi. Basically what I’m trying to do is direct from 192.1681.1. → 10.130.x.x:8123 but unsure how.
When I access the external IP address I get to my Verizon router login (which I don’t like!) but no forwarding seems to work.
It sounds like you have a router plugged in to a router. Usually that’s not a great idea. If I’m correct then you can’t tell the verizon router to forward to HA because the verizon router has no idea the HA device exists. It thinks you have a very boring network with exactly one device called a Netgear Orbi, it has no idea that one is making its own network and other devices are connected to it.
I guess first question is why do you need the verizon router at all? Is there no bring your own router option where your netgear orbi becomes the only router in your house? Then you can just do all port forwarding in the netgear interface and be done.
If that’s not an option then next best bet is to look for a DMZ (de-militarized zone) option in the verizon router’s interface. If you can find one then put the address of your netgear orbi there. This will cause it to forward all external traffic to the orbi. Which essentially also means you never have to touch the verizon router’s interface again and can just pretend the orbi is the only router on your network.
If that’s not an option either then your next best bet is probably to put the Netgear orbi in relay mode. So its no longer acting like a router but rather just extending the network of the verizon router. Then the verizon router will see HA on the network and you can port forward to it. Makes the orbi a bit of a waste though.
If you really don’t like any of these options then I guess the only other option is to make tunnels. So to port forward 8123 to HA first you would set the verizon router to forward 8123 to the Orbi router. Then you’d set the orbi router to forward 8123 to HA. Repeat for any other ports you want to forward.
But would seriously suggest just trying to go with the Bring Your Own Router approach. I have verizon and a netgear orbi and I don’t have any of these issues. I have a box in my basement verizon set up which is not a router, does not make a network, and simply passes all traffic to my orbi via an ethernet cable. I don’t pay them anything for this device and I completely control my network in the netgear interface.
You correctly describe my setup albeit I don’t separately rent the version router, its just part of the fios package. It takes a fiber optic cable in and then passes it to coax for tv. I do just connect the orbit via ethernet to the Verizon router as I want to take advantage of the wifi 6 mesh capabilities and have a view repeaters around the house.
I think I need to try the simple passthrough via the dmz if I can figure that out.
I’ll do some research and see if this is a possibility.
I guess the only concern with the Orbi router being in the DMZ is that this would expose the entire network to the outside of the firewall if I understand that correctly
If nothing else is connected to the verizon, why have dhcp enabled at all on the verizon router. You may be able to disable it. I have a router/modem combo from my isp with dhcp disabled and it passes the outside IP to my other router.
Yes but it’s a router, that’s its expected mode of operation. The orbi expects to be the firewall for the rest of your network so putting it in the dmz shouldn’t be an issue.
Or yea turning off dhcp on the Verizon router and passing that duty over to the orbi is another option. That sounds better then relay mode assuming the Verizon router has a “disable dhcp” option.