Is anyone interested in restarting an old thread??? I've been trying to find a way to view my father's iPad from my home over the internet for about 3 weeks now. I have a few good leads, and feel like I've gotten to the ten yard line, but I lack the expertise to take this into the end zone.
I've seen probably 10 threads on miscellaneous forums, but all end the same way ...with a dead end.
I've seen recommendations for apps that do this, like; team viewer, LogMeIn, Bomgar, Splashtop, etc... But these all allow you to view (and control) your home PC via your iDevice, not the other way around. I can almost assure you that there is not an app on the store or in Cydia that allows you to do this over the Internet using 3G.
Background:
I bought my father an iPad2, he is 75 years old and bearly knows how to take a picture with this iPad, let alone do anything creative. I need to be able to take control of his iPad to initiate some basic functions... (basically VNC to it) to Help him to send an email, help him use Maps, download an app for him, or even open the Photos app and scroll through his list of pictures :-), etc. even if I can just see his screen when we are on the phone that would work great.
"I basically need to do exactly what Veency allows you to do over wifi, but I need to do it over 3G."
Points:
*i don't care what I need to use to control (or see) his iPad. If I could use my iPad to see his, that would be ideal. But I don't mind using my windows PC or my Mac.
*also, his iPad is jailbroken. So is mine, as well as my iPhone. So let's not consider any limitations there.
*he is on iOS 5.1.1
*the iPad has 3G through Verizon and Wifi (I have wifi disabled)
*my home internet connection is AT&T, I use a 2Wire router.
What I have done thus far that I think might be required:
*I have jailbroken and installed Veency on his iPad.
*I have VNC Viewer installed on my PC. (I can control his iPad over wifi with no problems, but as we all know that is rather pointless. )
*I have also installed 3G Unrestrictor. (so, I am able to FaceTime with him over 3G, and supposedly his iPad thinks he is on Wifi)
*I have gotten his Internet IP address for his iPad (from: www.whatismyip.com)
*I opened port 5900 on my home firewall (I think)
*I did port forwarding on my home wireless router for 5900 to go to my home PC, where VNC Viewer is installed.
Not sure what to do next, but I am unable to connect
Any thoughts?
You can't strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
What I have done thus far that I think might be required:
*I have jailbroken and installed Veency on his iPad.
*I have VNC Viewer installed on my PC. (I can control his iPad over wifi with no problems, but as we all know that is rather pointless. )
*I have also installed 3G Unrestrictor. (so, I am able to FaceTime with him over 3G, and supposedly his iPad thinks he is on Wifi)
*I have gotten his Internet IP address for his iPad (from: www.whatismyip.com)
*I opened port 5900 on my home firewall (I think)
*I did port forwarding on my home wireless router for 5900 to go to my home PC, where VNC Viewer is installed.
Not sure what to do next, but I am unable to connect
Any thoughts?
The reason you're likely unable to connect is that the internet address shown on whatismyip.com is Verizon's router on the internet. That public address is shared by lots of 3g device and something called "network address translation" is used. There's no way your connection on port 5900 to verizon's public address is going to get translated inbound to the iPad on 3g.
If you had him install sbsettings through cydia, you could have his IP shown on the top of the iPad screen. It will show as a 10.x.x.x address. That whole block of addresses is intended for private usage. Note: installing sbsettings will not get you anything in terms of ability to connect via VNC, it will just show that the private IP is quite different from the IP shown in whatismyip.com.
There is a way to make this work but it's complicated. Your home network behind your router likely uses a 192.168.x.x address. Your router is doing network address translation - i.e. the IP assigned to your PC's wifi or ethernet interface will be different from the one shown by whatismyip.com. So "what if" you could virtually have his iPad join your home network?
Virtual private networking (VPN) is not a feature that is usually included on an "off the shelf" consumer router - but IF your router model and hardware revision happen to be on the compatibility list for something called DD-WRT, and it has enough internal memory to run the "mega" version of DD-wrt you can become a VPN server.
Anyway, the steps to this in very broad terms are:
identify your home router model and see if it can be flashed to DD-WRT mega
actually flashing your router completely resets all of your network settings to DD-WRT's defaults and likely any special features of your router (like connecting devices to wifi by pushing a button) will no longer be available. But you get a web interface with powerful options not found on consumer devices. Needless to say you are voiding the warranty and risk bricking the router if something goes wrong with the flash.
once its flashed then configure it as a PPTP VPN server. This webpage is a fairly accurate guide (i.e. I looked at it briefly and it looks right)... it doesn't exactly match my configuration but its probably right.
I didn't write it, it was just the first google search result I found while I was responding that seemed accurate and wasn't promoting a paid service. I would definitely setup your router with DD-WRT, put the VPN configuration in place with a username and password that are tough for someone to guess - because your router will ALWAYS be "listening" for inbound VPN connections.
Before you put your relative through trying to connect, I would strongly recommend you go somewhere with a laptop (or your own ipad) and verify that you can connect to your PPTP VPN from the outside world - McDonald's free wifi works fine for this, or AT&T - whatever, really. When connected to your home network through VPN you should be able to bring up the "internal" management page for DD-WRT with whatever "internal" IP address the router is set as on your home network. That validates 100% that you'll have an end-to-end connection for the person you're trying to help.
Devices connected to your VPN will have whatever address you programmed into your router when you setup DD-WRT to serve up a VPN - it asks you what addresses should be reserved for connected devices.
At the point that you jump through ALL of these hoops and get it to work, when your relative connects to your VPN you would then use the VNC viewer on your PC and point it at that reserved address on your internal network. At that point it will work...
Unless you're using AT&T u-verse for a home internet connection, becuse you might not have a public IP address available to you.
It can be done, at any rate. I use it all the time from my iPad or other devices on public wifi networks. It gets me privacy, access to files or whatever on my home network... there are lots of pluses that outweigh the absolute hassle (not going to sugar-coat it) of setting it up.
DD-WRT is not the only option for creating a VPN, just the one that worked best for me all things considered. My home router is an ASUS RT-N16. I bought it specifically for its high level of compatibility with 3rd party firmwares like DD-WRT.
...and it sounds like you have AT&T U-verse Check the WAN address on your 2wire router. If it's 10.x.x.x there's no way you can do this because you're behind a network address translation too.
Thanks guys. I'm on vacation away from the house rig now, but I will try this next week. I am on Uverse, but I don't think I have a 10.x address. I'll be back with an update soon.
VNC has become an invaluable tool for IT professionals and non professionals alike, with the steady increase of bandwidth available over the internet connections using VNC is now more viable than ever. The transition to new and powerful mobile devices such as the iPad has made connections portable and convenient. A range of fast and easy to use software is now within everyones reach across a profusion of hardware platforms.
Alternately, why not just use a screen capture video tool to create a tutorial for each of the lessons you would like to share, then email them to your father?
He could replay them and pause as much as needed to be able to follow along and understand the required steps for each app.
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Originally Posted by Cobra75007
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