Using RRC1258 Control as the portable

[vk5mk]

I want the RRC Control set up as my portable so I can operate my Home station remotely when travelling. My system works perfectly across my LAN/WiFi but I am unsure how to get the system to work with RRC Control "hot spotted" to my mobile phone. Any advice greatly appreciated.

[dj0qn]

You basically have two choices:

1) Buy the internal WiFi card from Microbit. Then turn on your phone's hotspot and connect
   to it and you are already there.

2) Buy an external WiFi bridge. This is cheaper, but is one more box to carry around.

There are other advantages and disadvantages to both solutions:

The internal card can only be used for normal connections using standard encryption, such as WPA2.
It will not work in public hotspots where you must first log onto a browser and click on a form,
such as in a hotel (i.e. authentication over a Radius server).

The external bridge allows you to allow use public hotspots as well. You first connect to a PC and sign in,
then move the bridge to the RRC for its use.

I personally use a small portable bridge for flexibility. The Netgear WNCE2001 I use is no longer available.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[VK3ALB]

Hi Mark,

I've used my RRC with WiFi adapter (TS480) in the car via my phone hotspot and it works quite well. On Telstra 3G/4G I've driven from Geelong to Canberra without an issue and no one picked what I was doing until I told them. I've also used the RRC Nano from Canada via phone and tablet checking in to the local 3590 net every night while I was away.

As Mitch said, trying to use WiFi over a radius server is out unless you use an external box but I think it has merit if you travel a lot.

[vk5mk]

Thanks to both of you for the tips. I want to stick with the mobile phone hot spot idea for now. Are there any other changes I need to do to the radio end as well so they can find each other over the inet not just my internal logical network?
What about DynDNS - is this required to be set up?
Appreciate any advice.

[VK3ALB]

Hi Mark,

You will need to forward the ports for your RRC at the rig end. You do this in your home internet router. Exactly how you do that will depend on your particular router model. You will also need to set up some kind of Dynamic DNS service so your home RRC can be found from the internet. I use the service provided by Remote Rig and I'm happy with it.

The RRC user manual has checklist (Networks & Firewalls) on what you need to do but you will have to become well acquainted with your router manual. The hardest part for me was figuring out what terms my router manufacturer used for port forwarding.

Making these configuration changes won't affect your home setup.

I suggest you dig through the archives here to see what you can find about port forwarding (there's a lot) and post here with more questions as required.

[dj0qn]

Mark,

Drop me a short email at dj0qn (at) darc.de and I will send you my networking checklist that walks you through the process.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX