Switch from DuckDNS to Nabu Casa

This assumes no reverse proxy is being used:

  • Stop and then delete the DuckDNS addon.
  • Remove your port forwarding rules from your router. Then check that they are really gone. I can not stress this enough. I changed a running config in my router but forgot to save it. This led to the port forwarding being reinstated after a router reboot, which led to people still trying (unsuccessfully) to attack the open port.
  • Remove the two ssl lines from under http: in configuration.yaml
http:
  ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem # remove this
  ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem # and this
  • Also delete any manual integration configuration if you used it (see Duck DNS - Home Assistant )
  • Restart home assistant.
  • To access Home Assistant locally, navigate to http://<ip_address>:8123 NOT https from now on. Dont forget the port number and update your bookmarks and apps.
  • Set up Nabu Casa if you have not already done so.
  • Replace any DuckDNS URLs in your config (hopefully in secrets.yaml) with the Nabu Casa remote URL.
  • Update your mobile apps to use the Nabu Casa URL.
  • If after a while you decide to stick with Nabu Casa go to http://www.duckdns.org/ , sign in and delete your domain.
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Just some questions:

  1. What to put in external and internal URL in configuration.yaml under homeassistant: section ?
  2. What inside the same options in HA android companion app?
  3. How to config tts with google cast as i read it needs base_url when not using duckdns?

Internal: http://<ip_address>:8123
External: Nabu Casa remote URL

Set the tts base URL to your Nabu Casa remote URL, preferably using !secret

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After a long time I finally subscribed to Nabu Casa but that’s besides the point. Is there any benefit to switch from ddns to nc?

It is a lot easier to set up.
It is more secure than opening ports in your router.
It helps with configuring voice assistants.
It comes with a nice tts.cloud_say service.
The profits go to help supporting Home Assistant development.

2 Likes

I use quite a bit of TTS in my home automation. The Nabu Casa TTS service now rivals Google Cloud in terms of quality and reliability. The intuitive articulation is almost creepy at this point. A great feature is the ability to change voices (and gender!) on the fly meaning you can assign different voices to different tts messages. I’ve also set it up so we can switch them in the UI so if we get bored or annoyed with one voice we can switch it up for a bit easily. This feature alone is worth the monthly fee.

Also +1 for ease of voice assistant integration. I wish I could have all of the hours of my life I spent getting Google Assistant working reliably before Nabu Casa was a thing back.

The rest of it is just gravy! :slight_smile:

HI Tom, what else would need to be done if using NGINX?
Also, if using Google API for Nest integration, I imagine there are some changes there?

Sorry I can’t help you with that. I have not used a reverse proxy.

Hopefully someone else can help you and update the first post (anyone can edit it).

1 Like

only found this because of your post in Discord, please let me add this, because it seems to be the main challenge currently and many users have the same question:

having had this setup for some time now, I am/we are experiencing issues when trying to use Assist, when on local network. (switching off the NC external connection when at home, to keep things as safe as possible)

Seems we are in a catch22 here: Assist wont work in a browser when not using https, but, local notifications wont work when on https…

Bottom line question:

how to use local http connection and still be able to use Assist requiring https.

please note I use the lazy user settings:

as I feel that would be the most used config for people on NC.

fwiw: I did try to use the original external_url again, but since all is configured in GUI as posted, that is futile(or even against new guidelines)

we can maybe set a base_url in tts settings, but, since I dont use the platform: google_translate anymore since moving to tts.cloud (NabuCasa) I dont have a tts: entry at all anymore, so cant set that base_url …

not that simple after all…

That’s not really anything to do with this guide.

Your problem is a limitation of web browser security. Fortunately the companion app does not have this limitation and http access to voice assist will be added to it soon.

I removed the http ssl entries from my config, and set up the local ip and internet nabu casa entries in Settings>System>Network and I can now access Home Assistant using my local http IP but I can no longer access my addons like File Editor, Backups, MQTT Explorer, etc. locally. They appear in the side bar but I get a blank page when I try to open them. I can access these on my phone ???

How do fix this?