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WebIF - can it be accessed from the WAN?

I have an 'on' power timer set for 03.00 and 'off' at 13.30. This was to test the effect of the humax auto turn on and off at 04.30 when it does 'it's thing'. After rebooting at McDonalds I found the timer 'on' was set to off, in addition to the box being put into standby.

I repeated the selecting of a recording via the EPG when on the LAN and the box rebooted and stayed 'on', however, the reboot had reset the power on timer back to off. I am surprised that a reboot affects the power on/off setting.
 
I think you had some kind of glitch. The forced reboot would not normally leave it in standby, so anything might have happened.

Note that an OTA update is expected to clear the power on/off timers.

By the way, you do not need to reboot the box as long as the normal power cycles will take care of it before the programme you are trying to schedule, and actually you are better off doing schedule stuff via the RS web site because the Humax will check in and fetch anything that's been queued up for it whenever it boots (and periodically when on, even if only "half awake" recording).
 
Black Hole said:
I think you had some kind of glitch. The forced reboot would not normally leave it in standby, so anything might have happened.

Note that an OTA update is expected to clear the power on/off timers.

By the way, you do not need to reboot the box as long as the normal power cycles will take care of it before the programme you are trying to schedule, and actually you are better off doing schedule stuff via the RS web site because the Humax will check in and fetch anything that's been queued up for it whenever it boots (and periodically when on, even if only "half awake" recording).
Click to expand...

Ok, I will do another test to see if it was a oneoff.

You mean 'if' there is an OTA update it would clear the timers? Or that an expected update will clear a timer problem?

Using RS web site would defeat my object of connecting securely to webIF from problem places such as China. I was hoping to do everything via webIF

I am looking into a watch reminder, hopefully to be able to set it for a daily repeat before I leave. However I need to check what happens if no action is taken to a reminder. eg. does the box stay on 24 hours or when does it turn off.
 
I'm not saying not to have secure access to your WebIF, but I don't see the problem with using the RS service for setting up recordings rather than using the WebIF - would solve a lot of problems surely?

A reminder is a suitable alternative to a power timer (refer HERE) - it brings the box properly out of standby for the duration of the reminder period and updates the EPG (for padding recordings).

And yes, I do mean an OTA will (probably) clear the power on/off timers.
 
Black Hole said:
I'm not saying not to have secure access to your WebIF, but I don't see the problem with using the RS service for setting up recordings rather than using the WebIF - would solve a lot of problems surely?

A reminder is a suitable alternative to a power timer - it brings the box properly out of standby for the duration of the reminedr period and updates the EPG (for padding recordings).

And yes, I do mean an OTA will (probably) clear the power on/off timers.
Click to expand...

The idea of using webIF securely was so that I don't need to access the humax in any other way and risk being hacked whilst connected to it via my machine or in an internet cafe. If I use RS I might as well use normal communications to connect to webIF. If I can use RS then I should also be able to use webIF securely? If RS is available then webIF should also be? If webIF is accessed as if I was using the LAN then I should be able to schedule normally?
 
I think you misunderstand what RS is all about. The Remote Schedulling Service is an externally-hosted web site af123 has set up. Every now and again your Humax handshakes with the external service to update an externally held copy of your EPG, and download any commands than have been left for it. Seperately from that, you can log in to the RS web site to inspect the copy of your EPG and set up any new recordings; you can also have "watches" placed which can automatically schedule programmes which match certain criteria, or have email alerts if anything matches.

You do not access your Humax insecurely, you are only logging in to a web site that is not hosted on your home network. The web site does not attempt to access your Humax, your Humax has to visit the web site and is recognised by its MAC address.

The advantage of the RS service as opposed to using WebIF for schedulling either locally or by remote connection is that there are fall-back mechanisms - like in your example when the Humax failed to boot again after a restart, not a problem with the RS service because the Humax will check in again next time it boots for any reason at all. You can also set up wake-up times via the RS.

Unless there is a technical reason why this won't work for you, I recommend using RS for schedulling, and your secure access to WebIF for everything else.
 
Black Hole said:
I think you had some kind of glitch. The forced reboot would not normally leave it in standby, so anything might have happened.
Click to expand...

I have to say that this has happened to me, a couple of time in fact.

After I had forced a reboot from my PC upstairs, I wondered why I couldn't access it again from my PC. It was only when I went downstairs to my Hummy, that the reason was obvious....it had gone into standby and not actually rebooted.

So a glitch, perhaps, but not unheard of.
 
af123 always recommends not forcing a reboot if you can help it, just let things take their course if possible.
 
Black Hole said:
I think you misunderstand what RS is all about. The Remote Schedulling Service is an externally-hosted web site af123 has set up. Every now and again your Humax handshakes with the external service to update an externally held copy of your EPG, and download any commands than have been left for it. Seperately from that, you can log in to the RS web site to inspect the copy of your EPG and set up any new recordings; you can also have "watches" placed which can automatically schedule programmes which match certain criteria, or have email alerts if anything matches.

You do not access your Humax insecurely, you are only logging in to a web site that is not hosted on your home network. The web site does not attempt to access your Humax, your Humax has to visit the web site and is recognised by its MAC address.

The advantage of the RS service as opposed to using WebIF for schedulling either locally or by remote connection is that there are fall-back mechanisms - like in your example when the Humax failed to boot again after a restart, not a problem with the RS service because the Humax will check in again next time it boots for any reason at all. You can also set up wake-up times via the RS.

Unless there is a technical reason why this won't work for you, I recommend using RS for schedulling, and your secure access to WebIF for everything else.
Click to expand...

Yes I had missunderstood RS - never noticed it's address (or forgot!). I agree using RS would be best for scheduling as I could use any machine anywhere. However that still leaves me with the problem which I started today's post with. The inability to be sure whether the box is on or on standby. Any type of remote comunication needs to know that.

Edit: I just found the Additional Commands down at the bottom (I never use below the top 5 channels). BTW that command does not react when the mouse is over it. I will try using that and see how I get on.

Thanks for your input.
 
makem said:
However that still leaves me with the problem which I started today's post with. The inability to be sure whether the box is on or on standby. Any type of remote comunication needs to know that.
Click to expand...
Set up a series of manually scheduled reminders at intervals through the day (they must not conflict with your recording schedule of course). For example, if you set up 4-4.30pm, 9-10pm - then if the box fails to wake up in one you've a good chance of it waking up the next time (though frankly I've never known it to fail). Actually, being accessed from the other side of the world, middle-of-the-night access windows might be quite convenient.

In answer to another query I've seen yes, it does sit in standby and then wake up for the period of the reminder and go back into standby again (unless it was turned on before). A recording schedule will also give you access, because although the box is only "half awake" the custom software still runs and the network still boots (but not WiFi unless the "wireless helper" package is installed).

Reminders survive OTA updates, but not retunes (although they are backed up and restored with the WebIF).
 
It should just work - here's my Linux session
Code: 
sftp root@192.168.1.10
root@192.168.1.10's password:
Connected to 192.168.1.10.
sftp> ls
bin                              boot                              etc                              lib                              mediatomb                 
mipsel-linux                      mipsel-unknown-linux-uclibc      mnt                              root                              sbin                       
share                            test                              tmp                              var                       
sftp> quit


What client are you using? WinSCP is good on Windows as it's built on PuTTY.

By the way, you're not thinking of copying programmes this way are you? The problem is that this, or any other type of connection, encrypted or not, is going to have dreadful throughput because the connection from your house to the Internet is probably a lot slower than from the Internet to the house (assuming that you have ADSL). If you combine that with the round trip time to China any programme is going to take quite a long time to transfer.
 
Sam Widges said:
It should just work - here's my Linux session
Code: 
sftp root@192.168.1.10
root@192.168.1.10's password:
Connected to 192.168.1.10.
sftp> ls
bin                              boot                              etc                              lib                              mediatomb                     
mipsel-linux                      mipsel-unknown-linux-uclibc      mnt                              root                              sbin                           
share                            test                              tmp                              var                           
sftp> quit


What client are you using? WinSCP is good on Windows as it's built on PuTTY.

By the way, you're not thinking of copying programmes this way are you?
Click to expand...

I am using WinSCP.

Yes, I was considering sending from the box to me in China etc just 1/2 hour programs to keep the wife happy. I know the speed will be slow but at this stage I don't know just how long it would take. I thought I would give it a try when I am out there and see if it is feasable.

If you think it is a non-starter then ok, I will abandon the idea.
 
By all means, give it a go, and you've nothing to lose by trying it, but avoid HD recordings.

Also, you may fall foul of another issue in the Internet - a lot of ISPs give a low priority to traffic that's on port numbers above 1024 (with a few exceptions) because of psp and torrents. The upshot of this is that the tunnel will be fine for running webif, but may be unreliable to transfer programmes. However, certain traffic types, including the default SSH port of 22, are given a higher priority, so you will have to consider moving your SSH port back to 22 if you get bad throughput. The good news is that, because you have turned off username/password authentication, you should still be secure, it's just that you will have more naughty people checking the locks.

If you do move your SSH port back to 22, I strongly recommend changing the root password to something long and nasty that's not 'humax', just in case there is a problem with the config and you accidentally enable password login again. Unfortunately, the passwd and crypt commands seem to be missing - maybe we could page af123 and get them added to the dropbear package.
 
Sam Widges said:
By all means, give it a go, and you've nothing to lose by trying it, but avoid HD recordings.

Also, you may fall foul of another issue in the Internet - a lot of ISPs give a low priority to traffic that's on port numbers above 1024 (with a few exceptions) because of psp and torrents. The upshot of this is that the tunnel will be fine for running webif, but may be unreliable to transfer programmes. However, certain traffic types, including the default SSH port of 22, are given a higher priority, so you will have to consider moving your SSH port back to 22 if you get bad throughput. The good news is that, because you have turned off username/password authentication, you should still be secure, it's just that you will have more naughty people checking the locks.

If you do move your SSH port back to 22, I strongly recommend changing the root password to something long and nasty that's not 'humax', just in case there is a problem with the config and you accidentally enable password login again. Unfortunately, the passwd and crypt commands seem to be missing - maybe we could page af123 and get them added to the dropbear package.
Click to expand...

Ok, I think is worth attempting. But as it is not especially important I will wait to see if af123 finds the time to consider adding them. I will try moving the SSH port back to 22 in the meantime. If I do attemp the ftp then I will need your step by step help again :) From what I have read you need to tunnel maybe 5 or more ports for control, pasv and data. It appears you also need to know what port range the server uses. I see many people on the internet struggling with this subject.
 
You don't need to do anything to make SFTP work: if you can SSH and if the sftp subsystem is installed (which it is) then all you have to do is use it.

Download WinSCP and give it a go, it really is that simple.
 
With an SFTP/SCP client (WinSCP for example), you just point it at the SSH server directly. It piggy backs an FTP-like protocol over the SSH tunnel. Getting native FTP to work over an SSH tunnel is impractical.
 
makem said:
If you think it is a non-starter then ok, I will abandon the idea.
Click to expand...
Go to one of the speed test web sites and measure your uplink speed - that will give you an idea how long a video file will take to transfer. Half hour of HiDef is about 2GBytes, half hour of StDef is about 700MBytes (roughly speaking).
 
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