I wanted to find a way to have remote access to a couple of Pi’s I setup for family and friends without the need to punch out of a firewall. This way I could help manage the systems for them and go through a proper life cycle and at the same time it needs to be inexpensive.
The method that comes to mind right away is to set the units up for VPN, but that adds a level of complexity I don’t want to deal with, security, ip tracking, firewall, and lots of coding for automation.
The solution I found is through remot3.it . For private use it is free under a fair use policy. It works and is a neat solution. You register a unit and then register a service for connection.
That being said I may be a dork and actually make my own service after talking with a friend on how he has automated his house system with a bot. It has stirred up some ideas on how to create a secure tunnel for ssh without exposing the protocol. Maybe there will be a part 2 for those of us paranoid.
There wasn’t too much online for a walk-through for an OSMC Pi os:
sudo apt-get updatewget https://github.com/weaved/installer/raw/master/Raspbian%20deb/1.3-07/weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb- Current as of 06/13/2018
sudo dpkg -i weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.debsudo apt-get -f installsudo weavedinstaller- Login
- Setup a Unit name
- This will be used to Identify the unit
- Setup Application Service
- This is the port that you want to use as the service
This is run down of what to expect:
osmc@XXXX:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates InRelease
Ign:3 http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease
Hit:4 http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch-updates InRelease
Hit:5 http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch Release
Hit:2 http://ftp.fau.de/osmc/osmc/apt stretch InRelease
Ign:6 http://giteduberger.fr rpimonitor/ InRelease
Get:7 http://giteduberger.fr rpimonitor/ Release [1396 B]
Fetched 1396 B in 3s (356 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
osmc@XXXX:~$ wget https://github.com/weaved/installer/raw/master/Raspbian%20deb/1.3-07/weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb --2018-06-12 14:15:13-- https://github.com/weaved/installer/raw/master/Raspbian%20deb/1.3-07/weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb Resolving github.com (github.com)... 192.30.253.113, 192.30.253.112 Connecting to github.com (github.com)|192.30.253.113|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found Location: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/weaved/installer/master/Raspbian%20deb/1.3-07/weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb [following] --2018-06-12 14:15:14-- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/weaved/installer/master/Raspbian%20deb/1.3-07/weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb Resolving raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)... 151.101.52.133 Connecting to raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|151.101.52.133|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 110112 (108K) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: 'weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb' weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb 100%[========================================================================================================================================>] 107.53K --.-KB/s in 0.08s 2018-06-12 14:15:14 (1.33 MB/s) - 'weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb' saved [110112/110112] osmc@XXXX:~$ sudo dpkg -i weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb
Selecting previously unselected package weavedconnectd. (Reading database ... 34792 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack weavedconnectd_1.3-07v_armhf.deb ... Unpacking weavedconnectd (1.3-07v) ... Setting up weavedconnectd (1.3-07v) ... ============================================================================== Available commands: sudo weavedinstaller - configures your device's tcp services for remote access ================================================================================ Processing triggers for systemd (232-25+deb9u3) ...
osmc@XXXX:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done
osmc@XXXX:~$ sudo weavedinstaller
remot3.it connection installer Version: v1.3-07_Pi lib_v1.3-07_Pi Modified: August 22, 2016 (library) March 07, 2017 Checking your network for compatibility... Your network is compatible with remot3.it services. ********************* Sign In Menu ********************* 1) Sign in to your existing remot3.it account 2) Request a code for a new remot3.it account 3) Enter a verification code received in e-mail 4) Exit ******************************************************** Use your Weaved account with remot3.it! ******************************************************** Please select from the above options (1-4): 1 One moment please... Please enter your remot3.it Username (e-mail address): email@here Please enter your remot3.it password: ------------------- weavedconnectd version 1.3-07v is currently installed. 1.3-07v is the most recent version of pi_installer ........
Create a Device Name
Enter a name for your device (e.g. my_Pi_001). The Device Name identifies your device in the remot3.it portal. Your services will be grouped under the Device Name. Only letters, numbers, underscore, space and dash are allowed.XXXX. RegisteringXXXX.... Updating /etc/weaved/services/Weavedrmt365535.conf . =========== Installed remot3.it Services ================= Protocol Port Service remot3.it Service Name ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ Device Name:XXXX============================================================
Attach a Service
********************** Main Menu ************************* 1) Attach/reinstall remot3.it to a Service 2) Remove remot3.it attachment from a Service 3) Remove all remot3.it attachments, then exit 4) Exit ********************************************************** Please select from the above options (1-4): 1 =========== Installed remot3.it Services ================= Protocol Port Service remot3.it Service Name ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ Device Name:XXXX============================================================ *********** Protocol Selection Menu *********** 1) SSH on port 22 2) Web (HTTP) on port 80 3) VNC on port 5901 4) Custom (TCP) 5) Return to previous menu *********************************************** You can change the port value during install *********************************************** Please select from the above options (1-5): You have selected: 1. The default port for SSH is 22. Would you like to continue with the default port assignment? [y/n] y Protocol: ssh Port #: 22 ........ Enter a name for this remot3.it service (e.g. SSH-Pi). This name will be shown in your remot3.it Service List. Only letters, numbers, underscore, space and dash are allowed.XXXX-ssh . RegisteringXXXX-ssh ....... =========== Installed remot3.it Services ================= Protocol Port Service remot3.it Service Name ------------------------------------------------------------ SSH 22 sshdXXXX-ssh ------------------------------------------------------------ Device Name:XXXX============================================================ ********************** Main Menu ************************* 1) Attach/reinstall remot3.it to a Service 2) Remove remot3.it attachment from a Service 3) Remove all remot3.it attachments, then exit 4) Exit ********************************************************** Please select from the above options (1-4):
That’s it. After that wait about 5 minutes for the service to register and off you go 🙂