Accessing PhoneValet Anywhere from outside your network
The following is a guide to help you access PhoneValet Anywhere from over the Internet.
While accessing PhoneValet Anywhere from your local network is easy, some settings may be required to access PhoneValet from outside your network. Settings must be made so that you can find your computer running PhoneValet from a web browser across the Internet.
Bonjour works only on local networks, so you must use a URL instead.
1. Configure PhoneValet Anywhere
Make sure PhoneValet Anywhere is running and is accessible from your local network first. This will ensure the PhoneValet Anywhere software is configured correctly. Instructions are located here.
2. Configure your router
If you have a router at your home or office, you must configure it to pass web traffic through to the Mac running PhoneValet. Configure your router to forward port 80 to the IP address that your router gives to your Mac. Below is a screenshot from Airport's configuration utility. In the screenshot below, the public port is the port that is accessed from the Internet. The Private IP address is the IP address given to your Mac running PhoneValet. The Private port is the port that is used to serve web pages on the Mac running PhoneValet. (The default port for web servers is 80)
If you do not have an Airport router, please consult your router's documentation for information on how to configure port forwarding.
3. Configure the firewall on your Mac
If you are running MacOS X 10.4 or 10.3 and have the Firewall turned on on the Mac running PhoneValet, be sure to check "Personal Web Sharing" so that it allows web browsers to access this Mac. You can check this by going to your Mac's System Preferences, clicking Sharing, and clicking the Firewall" tab.
If the firewall is not turned on, you do not need to check "Personal Web Sharing." If you are running MacOS X 10.5 Leopard, the firewall will automatically add Personal Web Sharing when it is turned on in the Sharing Prefereces.
4. Use the following URL to access PhoneValet from outside of your network:
http://18.118.140.108/cgi-bin/phonevalet.cgi
Note: this URL is automatically generated to include the address of the network from which you access this page. If you access this page from your Mac running PhoneValet, this URL should be correct. Otherwise, substitute the numerical IP address for the address of your network.
If you have a static IP name (e.g. yourcompany.com), you can use that instead of the numerical IP address to access PhoneValet
Many Internet providers do not guarantee you have a constant (static) IP addresss. This means it can change at any time. If you have a changing (dynamic) IP address, you can use a dynamic DNS serivce such as dyndns.org to sign up for a dynamic DNS address. What this does is give you software to install on your Mac that tells the DynDNS organization what your external IP address is, and when it changes. You are also given a name such as yourname.dyndns.org. When you access this address, DynDNS automatically forwards you to your home Mac. So then your URL to access your Mac running PhoneValet would be:
http://yourname.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/phonevalet.cgi
More information on setting up DynDNS is located here. |
That should be all you need to do. You may also wish to bookmark the URL you use to access PhoneValet, to save you some typing. If you have any questions, feel free to contact PhoneValet Customer Support.
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