Apex Jr internet help!

[itsbobbyz]

can someone please help me set up my apex
to monitor my tank away from home
its soo confusing :[
ive tried and messed up my router already
so i had to reset everything once
and dont feel like messing with it till i get someones help

[Zack]

Does this help? Its a video I have favorited for when I have to set mine up


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZQ9_Ze4s4k

[itsbobbyz]

no not really. i have it set up wehre i can see it at home but not when i am away. something bout ip addresses and things like that
also i dun know how to set my heater, return pump and skimmer the settings wont work for me

[rrasco]

You need to forward a port on your router that passes the connection through your firewall and to your apex. What router do you have?

[itsbobbyz]

i have a smc 8014wg
its a all in one modem and router from time warner

[rrasco]

Okay...

You're going to need a few things. First, you need to know the IP address of your apex. This will be the same IP address you use to access it while on your home network. It should be something like 192.168.1.100. Write that down.

Next, you are going to need your home networks WAN IP address. This is the IP address assigned to you by Time Warner. Go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ and write down the address it gives you. It will say, "Your IP address is x.x.x.x".

Now that you know your external IP address, or WAN IP, and you know the internal IP of your apex, you need to setup port forwarding. Login to your router, I'm assuming you know how to do that since you said you reset it earlier. Go to the NAT settings and under Port Forwarding, there will be a 'custom defined service table', click add under that table.

In the form that appears, give the service a name, such as Apex. Leave the type as TCP. For the LAN server IP, you will enter the internal IP address of your apex. Leave remote IPs to any and public IP ports to Port Range (I'm not sure what the other options are, but port range should be fine). You are going to need to pick a port to forward. I typically use something like 12500 or in that range. It's not too important which port number you choose, so long as no other service is using it. Since most default ports for common services are lower than 100, and even more so below 500, I try to pick a high port number, once again, like 12500. You can use 12500, or whatever port you want, but for this example, lets use 12500. So enter 12500 for start public port and end public port. You could alternately forward multiple ports in a range, but you only need on. Lastly, enter 80 for private ports. And click apply. This should have successfully set up port forwarding for your apex.

To test it, you will need to use a device outside of your home network. If the apex has a phone app, you can use that, but make sure you are not connected to your home wifi when testing or it won't work. To test, you will use the WAN IP you documented earlier for the host or server or IP (not sure what apex refers to it as) and then you will enter 12500 for the port. Alternately, from a browser outside of your home network, you could use the following URL format to access the apex as well: http://x.x.x.x:12500 where x.x.x.x is the WAN IP for your home network.

I found the manual for your router by googling the model:
https://www.google.com/search?q=smc+8014wg

HTH

[Zack]

Once you've tested it with a device outside your home network can you use your apex with say a laptop that is using the wifi from the same router or an ipod connected to the wifi? Or does it have to be external like an iphone?

[rrasco]

You can always use the device inside the network, you just have to use the internal address: http://192.168.x.x. If you're outside the network, you would need the WAN IP along with the port you are forwarding to the apex: http://[WAN IP]:[FORWARDED PORT].

[itsbobbyz]

HAHAH
wow you make it so simple
i had some other question on how to program my things that i will be putting into the apex
i cant figure out how to set them up if you could help me out that would be awesome as well

[rrasco]

Did you get it to work? I have never used an apex so I don't know what's required in setting stuff up on it, I'm just a networking person so I can help with the routing.

[itsbobbyz]

oh alright thank you so much though for you help so i can access my apex away from home.
will i be needing to change anything in the future, if like my ip address changes or something

[rrasco]

Time warner has dynamic IPs so it is possible your WAN IP will change, but not often. If you experience problems accessing your apex externally, check if your WAN IP has changed and use that one if it did.

[itsbobbyz]

its cuz my roommate resets the router some times so it might be a problem is there any other way to keep it so it does erase the port from the router

[rrasco]

If it is reset to factory setting you will have to setup the port forward again. Your router should have the ability to backup the configuration, so that may save you some time if the router is reset often. Power cycling the device should not effect the settings.

[ErikH]

Bobby, do you know the name and password to log into your router?

[itsbobbyz]

yea i do