Understanding the need for Port Forwarding

[tokyotony]

I think I have been misunderstanding the need for Port Forwarding to access DVR outside my home.

So, am I correct in my understanding...regardless of my home network situation (e.g. Double Nat, Cable modem router connected to mesh system, etc.) , if I want to watch my DVR outside my home network, I definitely have to set up port forwarding, yes?

Recently, I got rid of the ISP's modem/router that hooked up to my mesh which hooked up to my Channels server and I still noticed I had to do port forwarding.

Thanks!

Tony

[Rice]

@tokyotony

have to set up port forwarding, yes?

Yes. Or you can choose to use the integrated Tailscale option which does not require any port forwarding.

[tokyotony]

Wow, adding Tailscale was simple. However, I cannot remotely access the server setting when I use my.channels.net. Do I have to have Tailscale on the computer I’m using to remotely access it?

Error I get:
An error occurred during a connection to 2f6c38852003.u.channelsdvr.net:8089.

[cyoungers]

@tokyotony

Do I have to have Tailscale on the computer I’m using to remotely access it?

Yes. Each node in the Tailscale VPN need a client running and signed in.

[tokyotony]

Actually, I just installed Tailscale on my computer, and still cannot access the server. Hmmm.

I have not (not want to) have a virus app running on my computer (I am using Norton). Perhaps that is the issue?

[Rice]

For reaching your dvr settings page use the tailscale ip instead of my.channels after you install Tailscale on your device/machine.
http://100.x.x.x:8089/

[tokyotony]

Thank you. That worked. Question: Will that IP address change? I turned Tailscale off and on on the Channels server and it stayed the same.

Thanks so much!

[Rice]

No it won’t change

[tokyotony]

I’m trying to watch remotely on my iPhone but getting the error below. Do I need to use Tailscale on my phone? If that’s the case, what about my AppleTV and Google TV if remote?

[tmm1]

Yes you need to install Tailscale on the clients.

On Apple TV beta there's an option in the app to setup Tailscale directly since they don't have a client app for tvOS

[tokyotony]

Thanks everyone. I think I’ll go back to just doing a port forward. Tailscale looks very interesting but I think I prefer the flexibility to use other devices without having to set up Tailscale for each one just to watch Channels.