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Internet of things – a problem and solution with dynamic DNS

Posted: January 8th, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Software, Tutorial, Wi-Fi | Comments Off on Internet of things – a problem and solution with dynamic DNS

I just found out that Netgear routers support Dynamic DNS. Not bad for a $29 router, like my WNR 1000.

Let me explain what that is cool:

If you want to access an ‘internet thing’ in your house, you need either:

  1. A proxy service. OR you need to set it up yourself, with
  2. Dynamic DNS + Port Forwarding + IP Reservation. ALL available on your router.

Proxy services offer a lot of features and convenience, but will always control your data and you will always be beholden a 3rd party. So I’m not so keen on those options. It is a tiny,tiny bit more work to set up, but once you have it running, you can effectively make each little ‘internet thing’ accessible (like … 20 minutes work, or less).

Setting it all up.

The WildFire is perfect for this application. So let’s say you have a WildFire running in your home controlling something, and want to access it from your cell phone. Log into your home router and do three things:

  1. Reserve the IP address of the device. That is, grab the MAC address, and tell your router “whenever this MAC address connects, give it this particular IP address”. Your router will have a ‘IP reservation’ screen, probably under Advanced > LAN settings or similar,
  2. Forward a port on your router. So when a person comes from the outside, and accesses a particular port (like port 80), send them to a particular IP address – the one you just set up. Now you can contact your WildFire from anywhere in the world, by IP address.
  3. Use Dynamic DNS to give your WildFire a nice name, instead of an IP address. With Netgear you can sign up directly inside the Admin console. This will give you an address like myhouse.mynetgear.com. You have limited choices in the ‘mynetgear’ part, but that is fine.

Voila! You can access your device from anywhere, using your cell phone, by entering in the URL Not bad for 20 minutes work.

–Dirk

 


Announcing WildFire, the board for serious network connected devices.

Posted: November 21st, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: NewProduct, Wi-Fi | Comments Off on Announcing WildFire, the board for serious network connected devices.

Wicked Device, along with MakerShed, is thrilled to announce the release of WildFire, an Arduino compatible board with built-in Wi-Fi, expanded memory footprint of the ATMega1284p processor, and on-board SD card slot.  The WildFire is available for immediate purchase from the Wicked Device Shop and MakerShed.

Check out these specs:
– WiFi with TI CC3000 chip. Easy WiFi!
– 16K or SRAM. (Uno has 2K)
– 128K Flash. So much room for activities! (Uno has 32K)
– 4K EEPROM (Uno has 1K)
– Micro SD card slot for applications such as data logging
– 4 Additional Digital I/O pins
– 2 Additional Analog I/O pins
– Accepts Arduino shields
– Programmable via Arduino IDE
– 4-layer PCB with dedicated GND and power plane

In addition to the rapidly growing software ecosystem and web resources developing around the CC3000 WiFi module, Wicked Device is developing a set of tutorials to help the novice get their WildFire up and running. Check out the Wicked Device WildFire resource page.

@ken_rother