HDHR at a different location than Channels DVR Server

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi all, I searched through the forums and I know a few have this setup but I haven't seen exact resolutions of how to set it up. Let me give a little background first. I own 2 properties

  1. Home - Channels DVR configured and running
  2. Lakehouse - HDHR

I setup a VPN between 1 and 2 but I can't get the Channels DVR to see the HDHR which it think others have been able to do. My HDHR is on the same subnet with a different range of ip addresses. E.G. Home is 192.168.0.X and Lakehouse (via vpn) is 10.9.0.X with both on the same subnet of 255.255.255.0

Every time I try to add the HDHR source, I get the loader on the add button but it returns nothing. One thing to note is that the HDHR doesn't have any channels yet as I forgot to bring my antenna with me this trip. Just trying to get the HDHR added as a source in general. Do I need to have channels on the HDHR first and that is my issue? Other thoughts?

#2

The HDHR tuners will server a webpage if you enter the IP in a web browser. So make sure you can reach the HDHR tuner directly via a web browser before attempting to add it as a source to the Channels DVR.

#3

You're right...didn't realize I can't ping it. not sure what is up now. my tunnel is there

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#4

Routing table from the other end?

Routing has to work both ways, do you have a route back to 192.168.0.0/24? You will need it, unless you’re NAT-ing.

I don’t see a route for 10.9.0.0/24 either.

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#5

How far are these systems from each other? You may run into issues with latency causing timeouts. The entire system assumes the HDHomerun is available on the local LAN and that can cause problems if it isn’t.

Latency also becomes an issue due to TCP window sizes. That said, if there is low enough latency between the systems and you have at least 20mbits/sec of upload capacity, it should work.

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#6

Here's the Lakehouse's routing table. It's about an hour away and I should have good internet speeds

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#7

Being on different network segments maybe an issue.
If I recall, Tunnel option for VPN creates its own sub network.
Use the TAP option, as that make VPN connection client will act as if it is on the Local Network as far as IP addressing and such.
I used TAP at one point when i wanted to acces my mapped networked drives natively in my os as well as us the HDHR HomeRun software when away from home.
THough, I think Android does not support TAP type vpn connection anymore, at leas tnot natively.

#8

You have no routes for the remote LANs at both ends - it’s late here, I will reply tomorrow if you don’t sort it before.

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#9

def outta my league here with the VPNs

#10

Ok, so based on the routing screenshots: You have 2 distinct LAN subnets, 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 (/24) and 192.168.50.0 255.255.255.0 (/24).

Just because they have the same mask, i.e 255.255.255.0 (/24), does not make them the same subnet. The subnet mask dictates the size of a subnet, i.e the allowed 'range' if you will

So, 192.168.0.0-255, where 0 is the network address and not usable, 255 is the broadcast address and not usable. Usable addresses in the 192.168.0.0/24 subnet are between .1 and .254. This is one subnet.

For your other subnet, 192.168.50.0-255, where 0 is the network address and not usable, 255 is the broadcast address and not usable. Usable addresses in the 192.168.50.0/24 subnet are between .1 and .254. This is another completely separate subnet.

I'm going to assume that:

  • Channels DVR has an IP address on your home network of 192.168.0.100
  • HDHR has an IP address on your Lakehouse network of 192.168.50.100

Now, look at your routing table for the home connection:

Do you see a route to 192.168.50.x? No. Your home connection does not know that the 192.168.50.x network exists. So it uses the default route, i.e via your ISP gateway (which would/should be dropped).

Again, looking at your routing table for the Lakehouse connection:

Do you see a route BACK to your home 192.168.0.x network? No. The Lakehouse does not know that the 192.168.0.x network exists. So it uses the default route, i.e via your ISP gateway (which would/should be dropped).

So we can see that neither end knows about the other end. Yes, you have a tunnel network for 10.10.0.0/24, but this doesn't automatically mean it knows about the other LAN networks.

I'm going to assume that:

  • Home connection, has a 10.10.0.1 address on the tunnelled network
  • Lakehouse connection, has a 10.10.0.2 address on the tunnelled network

So, what are you missing?

  • On the home connection, you need the following route to tell it HOW to reach the Lakehouse network via the tunnelled network

Destination: 192.168.50.0/24 GW: 10.10.0.2

  • On the Lakehouse connection, you need the following route to tell it HOW to reach/route back to the Home network via the tunnelled network

Destination: 192.168.0.0/24 GW: 10.10.0.1

Then, you can see that each network can reach (and route back) to each other, via the connected tunnelled network.

UPDATE: Aside from the raw bandwidth side of things, you need to make sure that the routers you have at both ends are capable of encrypting/decrypting the VPN traffic at the required rate. VPNs can be 'expensive' in terms of processing power, if you don't need encryption you could disable this to lower the overhead.

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#11

Oh, assuming it is OpenVPN you're using, you could probably achieve what you need there.

So that it adds the various routes during connection/start-up, rather than configuring static routes. There might even be UI option to do this, depending on what the routers are, however there are usually options to add your own additional configuration lines.

Added to the OpenVPN server configuration, assuming this is the 'Home' end and the Lakehouse is the client:

## We want to push a route to the Lakehouse side, 
## that it can reach 192.168.0.0/24 via the VPN tunnel
push "route 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0"

## We want to add a route on the 'Home' OpenVPN server, 
## that it should route 192.168.50.0/24 via the Tunnel
route 192.168.50.0 255.255.255.0
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#12

I think I have the routes right now but still no luck with pulling up the HDHR on the home connection over http. What IP should I use on the home network to try and connect to the HDHR?

Home routes

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Lakehouse routes

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#13

The routes may need adjusting, based on the actual output of your routers - rather than explicit copying for the 'I'm going to assume that' section.

Some questions:

  • I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that you had/have the VPN running between both routers? i.e a site-to-site VPN? Is this the case?
  • If so, have you checked that the VPN/tunnel is actually up? Besides the routing tables. Can you ping, directly from the router CLI/UI, to the other side of the tunnel using the 10.10.0.x addresses?
  • What are the VPN IP addresses, 10.10.0.x, on both ends? These are the gateways to be used in routes

Alternatively, if you remove the static routes and use the OpenVPN server configuration (assuming this is what you're using) it should add the correct routes for you.

#14

I am using the OpenVPN routing as prescribed with the push route and the regular route.

I am able to ping 10.10.0.2 from the client side

Maybe I should just restate what I have going right now since my head is spinning

Home
Asus Router w/ Merlin and OpenVPN
3 TVs with a particular app that need to be routed to the Lakehouse to work (it's a cable company's app that has to be on the same internet connection to work)
Channels DVR server
Note: I plan on adding an HDHR to get local channels from Home. I don't expect any issues since it will be on the same network as the Channels DVR

Lakehouse

  • Asus Router w/ Merlin and OpenVPN
  • HD HomeRun to get Local Channels from the Lakehouse
  • 3 TVs using local network to get the same app as described in Home section. No issues here since they are already on the home network

So, with that in mind (and forgetting my trials at setting up a second VPN server above), I currently have

  • Lakehouse Asus router configured as an OpenVPN server
  • Home Asus router configured as an OpenVPN client.On this client setup, I configured only the TVs to use the VPN tunnel
  • This is all working seamlessly as I am able to use the TV app on the Home TVs

So, where my mind went initially is to setup a second VPN server/client combo with the Server being Home and the Client being the lakehouse so I could then configure the HDHR to only use this tunnel.

Is it right to have 2 VPNs going even? Is there an easier way?

#15

Well, I think that post just confused me further.... :wink:

I am able to ping 10.10.0.2 from the client side

This may well be the local 10.10.0.x IP on the client (Home?) side, so it's not pinging over the tunnel. It's simply pinging the local interface.

3 TVs with a particular app that need to be routed to the Lakehouse to work (it's a cable company's app that has to be on the same internet connection to work)

Hmm, so you're presumably routing ALL of their internet traffic via the Lakehouse for these devices? Seeing as you cannot realistically reroute just 1 App.

I think we need to see the OpenVPN configuration, both ends, and the interface IP addresses for VPN interfaces on both routers. Otherwise just shooting in the dark...

Home Asus router configured as an OpenVPN client.On this client setup, I configured only the TVs to use the VPN tunnel

So you probably have policy routing (via iptables, the firewall) as well, to confuse issues further :wink:

So, where my mind went initially is to setup a second VPN server/client combo with the Server being Home and the Client being the lakehouse so I could then configure the HDHR to only use this tunnel.

But the problem you have here, is that the connection i.e to the HDHR, is going to be established from Channels at the other site, so whilst the HDHR is configured to use the tunnel (to reroute it's egress traffic via the tunnel), Channels ALSO needs to have a route over the tunnel to access the HDHR on its 192.168.50.x address.

Is it right to have 2 VPNs going even? Is there an easier way?

Personally, I'd have 1 VPN, multiple is just going to confuse matters.

This 1 VPN would expose both local networks to the other - i.e you can reach 192.168.0.0/24 (Home) from the Lakehouse, and 192.168.50.0/24 (Lakehouse) from Home. You don't need 2 tunnels for that.

However, your need to have 3 TVs reroute all of their internet traffic via the Lakehouse, possibly complicates matters for a single tunnel (I'm not familiar with what's possible on Asus/Merlin).

Again, personally, I would attack this as follows:

  • To start with, ditch the 2 tunnel solution
  • Get a regular site to site VPN up and running, with 1 VPN, so you can ping/access 192.168.0.0/24 addresses from the Lakehouse and 192.168.50.0/24 addresses from Home
  • With the above working, you should be able to add the Lakehouse HDHR to your Home Channels server using its 192.168.50.x address
  • Then, we'd need to look at policy routing from the 3 x TVs at home, to force them to redirect all of their traffic over the VPN (not just local 192.168.x.x traffic).
#16

Before you get too far down the VPN troubleshooting, from my experience with a similar setup, even with a 20Mbps upload, I wasn't able to get good remote streaming performance. The source HDHR Prime's channels were all mpeg2, which didn't help, but even with expected margin of bandwidth, the pauses and glitches made it unwatchable.

#17

Good point. Wouldn't you be better off with a computer at the lakehouse running the DVR software, and then accessing it using the "Away from home" option in the Channels DVR client?

#18

Yeah. I definitely have thought about switching it around to have the DVR at the lakehouse. My current setup has the dvr at home with the lakehouse in away mode.

My main focus of all of this setup is to try and get to a single ui/app (being channels) that has local channels from both locations and uses tve from my required cable subscription (via the HOA fees at the lakehouse) for the rest

#19

You could run a Channels DVR server at both locations. I run two, but at the same location. One for Cable using an HDHR Prime, the other for just TVE. I've seen posts where it can even run on a Raspberry Pi4. Ask the devs, but I'm sure if you have a monthly or annual Channels Plus subscription you should be OK running two of them. You just need to figure out the VPN (if you still need it for some reason) and the client connections from both locations.

#20

My lord! You do need to be a rocket scientist!