Modded: Accessing the Web Interface (WebIF) from the External Internet

[xyz321]

It's the mongoose package which isn't often updated, and the mongoose.conf file is flagged as a config file so your local changes will not be overwritten.

Yes, I was looking at the wrong package.

 

[Black Hole]

That secures the web interface, but not the FTP, DLNA, or Telnet. FTP and Telnet can be secured (to some extent) by changing from Humax's default "0000" password.

 

[Tawny]

That secures the web interface, but not the FTP, DLNA, or Telnet. FTP and Telnet can be secured (to some extent) by changing from Humax's default "0000" password.

If you only open port :80 for http then the firewall on the router should protect the other protocols. It would be very unwise to open up all the ports.

 

[Black Hole]

Fair point. Proves I'm not well up on protocols!

 

[Chris Green]

Here's an interesting variation on a theme. I've got my port forwarding working both from my netbook and my HTC Desire, through both the main WebIf and the /iphone variant. I've followed TomT's guide to the letter to add a password, even going through the revised instructions from later in this thread to add it to the /iphone directory.

All well and good so far, and the .htpasswd file is in both directories.

Now for the funny bit.

1. From a PC - Entering either [my external IP address] or [my external IP address/iphone] prompts me for a password, all of which tends to indicate that I've done it right so far (and people who slavishly follow instructions because they don't know what they're doing frequently do!) however....

2. From my HTC Desire - Entering the full sized WebIf address i.e. just my external IP address, does indeed get me prompted for a password, whereas accessing the /iphone variant takes me straight into the page and leaving the page navigable without a peep from a password request. I was careful to make sure I wasn't using wi-fi here in case using your own internal network made a difference - just the phone's own data access.

p.s. Don't forget to turn off the Humax's Auto Power Off facility - it can be very annoying to get cut off half way through typing a lengthy telnet command, I know, I was there. Come to think of it, anyone intending to use the remote access in anger had better turn it off anyway, otherwise their box will have shut down before they're even in the departure lounge!

 

[Tawny]

Here's an interesting variation on a theme. I've got my port forwarding working both from my netbook and my HTC Desire, through both the main WebIf and the /iphone variant. I've followed TomT's guide to the letter to add a password, even going through the revised instructions from later in this thread to add it to the /iphone directory.

All well and good so far, and the .htpasswd file is in both directories.

Now for the funny bit.

1. From a PC - Entering either [my external IP address] or [my external IP address/iphone] prompts me for a password, all of which tends to indicate that I've done it right so far (and people who slavishly follow instructions because they don't know what they're doing frequently do!) however....

2. From my HTC Desire - Entering the full sized WebIf address i.e. just my external IP address, does indeed get me prompted for a password, whereas accessing the /iphone variant takes me straight into the page and leaving the page navigable without a peep from a password request.

I'd try this way of doing it, works for me.

 

[Chris Green]

I'd try this way of doing it, works for me.

'Fraid I just don't understand xyz321's syntax. Copying instructions is one thing, editting is another.

 

[xyz321]

'Fraid I just don't understand xyz321's syntax. Copying instructions is one thing, editting is another.

Sorry about my cryptic post (there is a reason why I haven't made much of a contribution to the Wiki).

Try the following from the telnet command prompt:

cd /mod/etc
echo "global_passwords_file /mod/etc/.htpasswd" >> mongoose.conf
/mod/sbin/mongoose -A ./.htpasswd mydomain.com admin pass
service stop mongoose
service start mongoose

The echo command appends the text in double quotes to the file /mod/etc/mongoose.conf. You can check that it is correct by typing

cat mongoose.conf

 

[Chris Green]

Sorry about my cryptic post (there is a reason why I haven't made much of a contribution to the Wiki).

Try the following from the telnet command prompt:

cd /mod/etc
echo "global_passwords_file /mod/etc/.htpasswd" >> mongoose.conf
/mod/sbin/mongoose -A ./.htpasswd mydomain.com admin pass
service stop mongoose
service start mongoose

The echo command appends the text in double quotes to the file /mod/etc/mongoose.conf. You can check that it is correct by typing

cat mongoose.conf

Thanks for that. Just what I need (and no sarcasm intended), a set of actual instructions. That's probably why I also don't tend to contribute to wikis. I did for a while on the 3View site but I'm not sure anyone ever read what I'd put anyway!

Incidentally, I found out why my Android phone was letting me in without a password. It's because I was merely tacking on /iphone to the existing IP address rather than starting from fresh. It works like that on the main WebIf too. Once you're 'in' you're in.

 

[Chris Green]

Well they do say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I'm living proof.

Followed xyz321's instructions ot the letter, or so I thought, only to have mongoose refuse to restart. When I checked 'cat mongoose.conf', I find that I've mis-spelled 'global_passwords_file' with two Ws. Is there a simple way to undo the echo command, or edit the mongoose.conf to get rid of the offending line? It's proving surprisingly difficult to Google mongoose commands.

 

[Tawny]

I guess you are editing the the file via Terminal? If so you need to Google VIM commands for help on editing the file. If you have ftp access to the Hummy you may find it easier to download the mongoose.conf file to your computer, edit it there with notepad (or the like) and then ftp the file back up.

 

[Chris Green]

I'm using Telnet at the moment. I've found the list of commands in /mod/bin, and echo is listed, but I can't seem to find the 'antidote' . 'Kill' seems the most likely but try as I might I just can't get the syntax right. I keep getting a 'bad pid' message. I seem to have lost ftp access to the Hummy - is this because mongoose won't restart do you think?

This is the line I have to get rid of:-

"global_passwwords_file /mod/etc .htpasswd"

 

[Tawny]

Using terminal navigate to the mod/etc directory so cd /mod/etc

Then open the file to edit it with vi .htpasswd <enter> - that will then show you the contents of the file and allow you to change it.

Move the cursor using the arrows so that it's over the extra 'w' that needs deleting by pressing x. The save and quit the file by typing :wq <enter>

Then you need to stop and start the service with service stop mongoose <enter> then service start mongoose <enter>

That should sort it. Not sure the ftp issue is connected to the mongoose issue or not.

 

[Black Hole]

Chris - I think the gap in your understanding is the command line. Did you ever use PCs in the days of MS-DOS - ie before Windows? If you did, then perhaps you can understand that the Humax Linux command line via Telnet is like dealing with the DOS C:> prompt. XYZ's "echo" line was a means to append specific text contents by sending a string to the console output but diverting the output to be appended to a named file (">>"). If you want to edit a file you have to start up an editor ("vi") and use the editor's commands (vi isn't the easiest of editors), nothing to do with the program that is going to read the file as input (mongoose).

Then open the file to edit it with vi .htpasswd <enter> - that will then show you the contents of the file and allow you to change it.

This is incorrect. It should be "vi mongoose.conf". Just a slip of the keyboard.

 

[Chris Green]

Chris - I think the gap in your understanding is the command line. Did you ever use PCs in the days of MS-DOS - ie before Windows? If you did, then perhaps you can understand that the Humax Linux command line via Telnet is like dealing with the DOS C:> prompt. XYZ's "echo" line was a means to append specific text contents by sending a string to the console output but diverting the output to be appended to a named file (">>"). If you want to edit a file you have to start up an editor ("vi") and use the editor's commands (vi isn't the easiest of editors), nothing to do with the program that is going to read the file as input (mongoose).

This is incorrect. It should be "vi mongoose.conf". Just a slip of the keyboard.

Many thanks to both of you. Yes, you're right BH, I seem to have my own personal 'black hole' but it all comes back to me now - cd, md, format/s, del *.* etc! I even have some vague recall of CPM before DOS, the former having some confusingly reversed syntax compared to DOS. I'm away at the moment but raring to give 'vi' a go when I get home, especially as I now learn that remote scheduling of recordings has now been 'turned on' in the latest WebIf. I could really do with a modded software variant that just deletes everything beyond /mod so I could start again, as at the moment I've got password settings for both webif, iphone and a global one too, assuming I get the latter working.

Having a 'faulty' mongoose.conf file definitely seems to be bad news, as I can't even get any kind of access to the box via 192.168.0.2 (yes, it is still fixed at that), not http nor ftp. Thank goodness telnet still works, otherwise I think the dreaded word 'format' would be playing around my lips.

 

[Chris Green]

Update: In the end, after concluding I must have done something else wrong too, as I still couldn't access the WebIf on my PC, I cleared the PVR of its modified settings using the telnet command lines laid out in hummypkg.org.uk and installed the very latest versions of everything. All now working well including the password.

However, just one query. When using either Telnet or PUTTY, the command "o humax" to access the box gets me nowhere with an error message to say that the host could not be found, whereas typing "o 192.168.0.2" does work. I've checked that the hostname is set to 'humax' in the WebIf Settings page.

 

[af123]

However, just one query. When using either Telnet or PUTTY, the command "o humax" to access the box gets me nowhere with an error message to say that the host could not be found, whereas typing "o 192.168.0.2" does work. I've checked that the hostname is set to 'humax' in the WebIf Settings page.

Unless your network has a DHCP server (the thing that hands out IP addresses) that's also acting as your DNS server (the thing that turns names into IP addresses) and the DHCP information is imported into the DNS database, you won't be able to access the device by hostname.

That is unless you're using a static IP and you place the name to IP mapping into the windows hosts file.

 

[Wallace]

I think it is wise to give the Hummy a static IP address anyway.

TBH, I have assigned all my 'daily' devices static address'. iPhones, printer, Topfield PVR, Sony Blu-ray and SWMBO's laptop. Anything else gets a dynamic address. IE visitors...

 

[xyz321]

Unless your network has a DHCP server (the thing that hands out IP addresses) that's also acting as your DNS server (the thing that turns names into IP addresses) and the DHCP information is imported into the DNS database, you won't be able to access the device by hostname.

Perhaps the udhcpc client should be restarted with the '-h <hostname>' option, it might help in some cases.

 

[Chris Green]

Unless your network has a DHCP server (the thing that hands out IP addresses) that's also acting as your DNS server (the thing that turns names into IP addresses) and the DHCP information is imported into the DNS database, you won't be able to access the device by hostname.

That is unless you're using a static IP and you place the name to IP mapping into the windows hosts file.

Well this is what I found curious in the first place. I've made no changes to my router nor have I ever added anything to the windows hosts file, but prior to loading the latest variant of the modded software, I was able to use the 'o humax' command and now I'm not. I've checked to make sure that the Humax is set to a fixed IP address.