APEX and Uverse - Internet Access and e-mail

[JCAB]

Good morning everyone. I finally got around to hooking up my APEX. I was able to get it on the network (only have temp and ph probes running), but have spent the last two days trying to get internet access and e-mail set up. I've contacted U-Verse and Apex as well as looked at the guides (which is what Apex customer support also told me to do -not too helpful there) as well as looked at and followed Victoly's thread on 2Wire hookup. In looking at his thread for the Apex settings, setting the HTTP Port at 8080 did not work for me as it caused me to not be able to access the Apex on the network. Once I changed it back to 80, it was fine (I can see it on my computer and on the iPhone app so long as I'm in the network). I also followed his 2Wire settings, except for the port issue and the map to host port as it did not allow me to put in that many numbers (the guide says to leave it blank, so I did). Maybe not doing those two things is causing the issue? As for e-mail, I used all of the settings provided by AT&T (which were the same that I found on ipconfig). I did notice that APex's e-mail states that port 465 will not work, but it is the port that AT&T says I need to use for my SBC Global account (former AT&T). Not sure what to do there other than use SMTP2GO.com as suggested by APex. Finally, I tried opening a freedns.afraid.org IP address, but its currently "broken" (I assume that it's because I opened it today) and, honestly, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. I'm not a computer person, but I can generally follow directions really well or figure things out on my own, but I can't figure this out. Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[jestep]

To condense you can access it on your own network, just not externally, correct?

ATT tends to block SMTP port 25. 465 is a secure port so I'm assuming Apex doesn't support secure email protocols. I would ask your email provider if they use port 26 or 587 as an alternate. Many providers allow email on these ports because so many ISP's block port 25 completely.

You probably need to wait for DNS to propagate before being able to test connecting the the Apex externally.

[JCAB]

Jestep - correct. I can access on my own network but not externally and no e-mail. I'll call AT&T again and ask about an alternate port.

[jestep]

Jestep - correct. I can access on my own network but not externally and no e-mail. I'll call AT&T again and ask about an alternate port.

You would need to contact SBC Global. ATT doesn't block 26 or 587, but the email provider may not use the ports.

[JCAB]

I'll try those ports. SBC Global is now AT&T so I assume they will work. But this is only for the email issue, correct?

[victoly]

when you say you changed the http port, do you mean on the apex or opened 8080 on the router?

[JCAB]

I changed it on the apex network settings from 80 to 8080 and added the apex controller app to the apex static IP address through the router process you provided. When creating the app, I used 8080 to 8080 for the port. Rebooted apex. When I did that, I could no longer connect to the apex on my network. Changed the ports back to 80 and am now able to access through my network, but not Internet. Going to call ATT about port forwarding and see if that is the issue.

[victoly]

Hmmmm, another option worth considering is to do what esacjack mentioned in another thread, and basically just have your gateway hand off traffic to a wireless router. The capabilities of the 2wire frankly suck, and you might have a much easier time setting up the standard wrt54g, or whatever you might have lying around.

just out of curiosity, when you changed the address, did you use the port when connecting via browser?

for example, it used to just be 192.168.1.50, but when you change the port it needs to be 192.165.1.50:8080

[JCAB]

I did not. I'll try that when I get home.

[victoly]

yep, that's the issue. your web browser assumes port 80 for anything http unless you specify a different port when you type in an address (like the 192.168.1.50:8080)

[JCAB]

Do I need to change something on the iPhone app, too? I'll try it as soon as I get home. Fingers crossed!

[victoly]

yes, youll need to add the port when connecting via iphone as well. additionally, when you use your dynamic dns address the port needs to be there as well jcab.reeftank.com:8080.

[JCAB]

So I followed jestep's advice and changed my email port to 587 - email is now working. Victoly, I also changed the apex port to 8080 on the apex, the apex application created in the firewall and the iphone app. I can see everything on my network, but still can't access over the internet. Where does the jcab.reeftank.com:8080 go? Is that what I create at freedns.afraid.com (it looks like it takes a day for them to provide it)? Once I get that, where do I put it? I see Name, Host and Port, but no place for dynamic dns address (I thought that had to be turned off in the apex and changed to static). Thanks for the advice and sorry for all of the questions. BTW, I have it connected to a Netgear wireless router/extender because my 2Wire signal doesn't reach the room that has the apex. Thanks again.

[victoly]

i just made up that address sorry for the confusion. once you get your dynamic dns setup (whatever address freedns gives you), you'll set up port forwarding on your 2wire such that any traffic that is coming to the 2wire from port 8080 (jcab.reeftank.com:8080) will be forwarded to your apex ID address (192.168.1.xxx) where xx is whatever you chose for the last digits.

[JCAB]

OK, thanks! I knew you were using it as an example, I just didn't know what to do with it! I'm out of town tomorrow, but hopefully I can figure it out when I get back. I was actually an electrical engineer major for one semester but dropped out (hello, Marketing) after my first Pascal programming class, one stray coma and the whole thing didn't work. It feels like I'm back in that class. What I don't get is how my wireless thermostat was so easy to set up and access and this is such a pain!

[victoly]

actually, funny you should mention that (if you're talking about the nest, which i love). The next firmware revision is going to go a very similar route to the nest and cut out all the dynamic DNS IP garbage and streamline the process quite a bit. We'll see how it's implemented.

[wizardx322]

Man y'all go through crazy stuff cuz y'all have AT&T? I got time Warner and a router all I had to do was port forward

[victoly]

yeah, the 2wire is a combo router/WAP, and it sucks

[jestep]

I believe you can still request a modem only and provide your own router from there. We were able to do that when we had ATT. If you know what models are compatible you can also get your own and save $5 a month, at least that's what the modem rental was a few years ago. We're using TW now, which is a lot better service, but it's way more expensive.

[wizardx322]

I believe you can still request a modem only and provide your own router from there. We were able to do that when we had ATT. If you know what models are compatible you can also get your own and save $5 a month, at least that's what the modem rental was a few years ago. We're using TW now, which is a lot better service, but it's way more expensive.

Might be more but less headache

[victoly]

also, give this a shot

http://www.reeftronics.net/network-diagnostic

[JCAB]

That did it. I changed the IP address to the one displayed by the site and that made it work outside of the network. I knew I was close, that's what made it so frustrating. Thanks victoly and everyone else. I REALLY appreciate it!

[victoly]

Awesome. Glad it's working for you.

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