Control of Firewall in Technicolor TG582n router

[#1]

@MinusNet  does your phone need reconnecting back to your home Wifi ?

[#2]

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@MinusNet wrote:

>> Ports 443, 8080 and 123 must be open.

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In bound or out bound?

Anything you set on the router will only be inbound and I doubt that these are inbound ports.

However, I seem to recall some issues with NTP services with certain Plusnet firewall settings in the user portal.  NTP uses port 123...

[#3]

@[-Censored-] wrote:
 Thanks @Gandalf 

That seems a good option, even though after 8 years of having the modem mounted on the wall with the router on the floor and cables everywhere, I've recently redecorated and mounted both units on the wall with super-tidy cables! ‌‌Is there some way we can exchange private messages so I can pass you my Plusnet ID and contact details?

Regards

Dave

I've PM'd you earlier this afternoon but just to post back here, your new shiny Hub Two should be with you in the next few days though it may be next week as the weekend's nigh upon us. 

P.S. I had found your account from the e-mail address you've used in your forum profile but thanks though for confirming your username and address in the PM. Made sure I was looking at the right account. 

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Thank you to @MisterW @jab1 @Townman and to @Gandalf 

I now have Home Connect app controlling the oven, with almost all issues solved. 😊

As mentioned in an earlier message, the first suggestion from Home Connect was the predictable "switch off appliance, wait a while, switch back on". That didn't help. The second suggestion was also predictable - "reset factory settings, and try again". That one worked.

It may be circumstantial evidence but at the time I went back to factory settings on the oven and struggled through the connection dialogue between app and appliance (router as a third party), the firewall was disabled on the router. That may have been relevant, or it could have been that I took a slightly different route through the (complex) dialogue from the first attempt.

Once I was satisfied that connectivity was established, I re-enabled the firewall, rebooted the router, and checked that the app was still working. There's still an option that's not working (though likely to be communication between app and Home Connect servers, not the oven) which I have reported to Home Connect support, and I will continue to monitor it, but generally we seem to have success.

I don't have the willpower to reset factory settings and go through it all again with the firewall enabled, just to see if that was the critical aspect before. However, when the shiny new Hub Two sent by Gandalf arrives, I expect I will have to go through it all again, and I will try with firewall enabled.

Thanks for all your help and encouragement.

Dave

[#5]

However, when the shiny new Hub Two sent by Gandalf arrives, I expect I will have to go through it all again,

@MinusNet  if you keep the factory settings on the router, then yes. However, what you can do is to change the wireless settings ( SSID & password ) on the Hub 2 to be the same as the TG582 ones. Then all your wireless devices (including the oven) would automatically connect to the new router. You would need to be able to connect a device ( e.g laptop or desktop ) using a wired connection to be able to do the change though.

[#6]

An update....

It took me 24 hours to realise the following, and then another 48 hours to add this message.  😊

@MisterW said: "However, AIUI Home Connect is a server based system, both the appliance and the App connect to the server in order to communicate. This means that only outgoing connections are needed to be allowed by the router. With the router firewall set to standard , no outgoing ports are blocked and therefore there shouldn't be any problem. "

@Townman said:

">> Ports 443, 8080 and 123 must be open.

In bound or out bound?

Anything you set on the router will only be inbound and I doubt that these are inbound ports."

Yes.... but. You can use the app when you are away from home, for example once I had it all working and I happened to be connected to WiFi at the local library, I used Home Connect to turn on the oven lights and set the timer to 10 minutes. Did is surprise my wife? Yes. Was she amused? Doubtful.

So, the app (on smartphone, in library) presumably communicated with the Home Connect servers somewhere, and they presumably sent inbound messages to the oven on my home network. Whether the message flow went direct from my phone or via the server, it must have been inbound through my router.

Well, it seems logical that it should be like that, but way beyond my level of knowledge. 😨

The main thing is that it is working on the antiquated TG582n router. The Hub Two sent by @Gandalf has arrived so now I need to psych myself up to switch devices, and work out how to incorporate it in a tidy manner. 😬

Dave

[#7]

This is just to wrap up loose ends for anyone who remembers the thread.

I installed the Hub Two easily enough and mounted it neatly on the wall. Everything has continued working (or not working) as it did before. Unfortunately I still have the residual problem using the app Home Connect with our Bosch oven, and am awaiting support from their technical team.

However, there are fewer connectivity components, power adaptors, and cables cluttering the hallway, which must count as progress. 😁

Regards - Dave

[#8]

Cheers for the posts Dave. I'm glad to see things are somewhat better with the Hub Two and fingers crossed you manage to get your Home Connect to play nicely with your oven!