I'm developing an API and I am hosting it on my desktop server running Windows 10 using php -S localhost:8080 -t D:\Code\Projects\Website.
I want to be able to use my iPhone to visit this localhost:port webpage without plugging my iPhone into my computer via a USB since they are on the same network. Although, my desktop does not have WiFi capabilities; rather it is using an ethernet cable plugged directly into my router. When I use this address on my desktop, it works fine and takes me to my index.php page.
If I open my default gateway 10.0.0.1 NETGEAR Genie, I can see my iPhone's IP is listed as an "attached device."
I added an Inbound rule to my Firewall (TCP, port:8080, allow access, domain/public/private enabled), but I still cannot use my iPhone to reach this webpage using [my_desktop_ipv4]:[8080].
Would there be any security restrictions from my iPhone's iOS settings? Or am I missing something?
I want to control my raspberry pi with my Google Home at college, but everything I find involves a server and opening a port which I can not do on my schools network.
Is there another way I can do this?
The Google Home has no way to directly control other devices on the same network or through other wireless protocols. Everything goes through an Internet-based service and expects to communicate with devices via a server-based proxy. How that server communicates with the device is up to the developer.
Depending on your needs and capabilities, you do have a few options.
One option, for example, is to use a tool like ngrok to create a tunnel between the device itself and a service run by ngrok on the public Internet. Calls to the public https address are sent to a service running locally on your device, and you can handle it accordingly.
Another is to have your device connect to a server and listen for command changes, and then execute those changes. If you don't want to run a server, you can even use something like Firebase - have your device listen for changes on the real-time database (which can use the HTTPS port to communicate as a client, so you don't open anything) and have something like a Firebase Cloud Function act as the webhook for your Action.
Go through this blog post: http://nilhcem.com/android-things/google-assistant-smart-home
You will have to set up a OAuth server but as #Prisoner said you can use ngrok to tunnel the device to internet, BUT I would recommend using "localtunnel" as it provides a free static url and the set-up is also easy. NO Port Forwarding is required with this method.
More info on localtunnel setup:-
How to generate fixed url with ngrok
Moreover you need to activate the OAuth server only once for account linking & than you can close it.
The simplest way I can think of is to expose your Pi to the internet (using port forwarding, ngrok, or whatever) then set up an IFTTT Google Assistant trigger to invoke a webhook which points to your exposed Pi.
I am exploring the possibility of communicating with server that requires VPN connection outside of corporate network using iOS enabled device. I found out that I can connect to VPN using proprietary apps of Cisco, F5, Juniper etc. Assuming that user has successfully connected to VPN using these apps, can I directly communicate(call web service) from my iOS app? I know that Safari can directly communicate with server requiring VPN connection once user establish connection using one of apps I mentioned.
Thanks,
Jignesh
I'm sure that there could be unique circumstances that cause problems, but in my experience I have found that this works just fine. I have an app that interacts with SOAP services running on servers within our corporate intranet. Once I have established a VPN connection using network-specific clients (I've used both Cisco and Juniper clients) I am able to use NSURLConnection and other iOS API's to connect to those servers.
I implemented a web service for an Android application. The web service is running on my local host (192.168.1.2). Using the Android emulator I succeeded to connect to web service. The I tried to connect my Android device using debugging mode to web service but it didn't work. So my question is if it is possible to connect an Android device to this web service that is running on my local host (192.168.1.2) without using a real IP ?
It's much simpler way supported by google!
Connect your phone via usb to computer and enable usb debugging
On your computer open Chrome browser and type exactly this address: chrome://inspect/#devices
Now you can link your computer port to your device port by port forwarding button. On my computer I have service on address localhost:61437 and I just linked it to device's 8081 port. Remeber to check 'Enable port forwarding' checkbox
screen from service on my computer ( localhost:61437 )
screen from my mobile browser with the same service ( localhost:8081). And that's it. Also you use this service address in your application
Did you already solve your problem? I also got a problem like you. These are the steps that I already done:
unplug lan cable or turn off any other internet connection from your pc.
connect your android mobile to your pc using usb.
turn on usb tethering
back to your pc. check your ip. mine is 192.168.42.37
check your webservice app in your pc. let's say http://192.168.42.37/webserviceapp
back to your android mobile. try this url http://192.168.42.37/webserviceapp
Now you can access your webservice app in your pc from your mobile phone.
Well your localhost is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1) and your LAN IP is 192.168.1.2. Each pc/device that are connected under your LAN could reach your webservice on IP 192.168.1.2
Your Android device must be so connected under the same LAN maybe through Wifi connection so it will be able to talk with 192.168.1.2.
If you can't connect your Android device under the same LAN eg you have just a 3g connection you need to play with your router/firewall to redirect all incoming traffic (maybe just the http traffic) from your public ip to you private ip (192.168.1.2)
Hope this help
I'll throw in my process, since nothing on SO worked for me. Here are the steps I took to connect my physical android device to the web service running on my laptop (connected to the phone) on localhost:
Enable USB debugging on your Android device
Run your web service on your machine. My web service runs on localhost, port 3000 in development: http://localhost:3000/api/...
Run ifconfig (Unix), or ipconfig (Windows)
Find your machine's inet address on your LAN interface. Mine is 10.0.0.121 for interface wlan0. Externally, it is 68.43.XX.XXX, which is not the address that you want to use.
Use the LAN IP since you are connecting to your service on LAN, otherwise you might get an econnrefused (connection refused) error due to firewall rules
Build your http URL with that IP address, and the port that your web service is running on. For me, it's http://10.0.0.121:3000/api/...
When you launch your app, you should connections to your local web service in logs, Wireshark, etc, and you should see the desired activity/data in your Android application.
I had the same issues, researched a lot then found out that you have to explicitly make changes in your firewall settings. Your firewall is blocking your code to be accessed from external source. So, all you need to do is, go to firewall settings, add port 80 (in my case since, I am using Apache http Server) for inbound and outbound. Now, you can test it on your phone's browser http://192.16..**:80/
I've done that on a Mac using GasMask and Charles Proxy Server. Your phone and your computer have to be on the same network.
say the webservice url you want to access is at http://api.xyz.com, you first use GasMask to point that url to your localhost, then use Charles to set up a proxy server. Then you go to the settings on your phone, go into Wi-Fi, long-press the network you are connected to, choose Modify Network, and enter the proxy settings Charles gave you.
In my case, nothing of these solutions works because Windows firewall blocks it, but putting a rule on the firewall hasn't effect.
The problem in my case is that my laptop is connected with Wifi and Windows had the Wifi connection like a Public network. I must to change the network connection to Private network. http://www.comofuncionatodo.net/tecnologia/informatica/como-cambiar-de-red-publica-a-red-privada-en-windows-10/
I agree with the other answers as good approaches if you don't want to expose your DEV webservice on the internet. However, it's much easier if you do just expose the webservice. There's a number of free DNS services, but I've found no-ip to be the easiest to set up. I use it for exactly the purpose that you asked about; so I can test with my DEV webservice on a real device.
If you choose to go with no-ip (I have no affiliation with that company, it's just the one I've used and am familiar with), you can get a free publicly accessible URL like http://MyExampleWebServer.no-ip-org, and no-ip has a utility you can install so even if you're behind a dynamic IP, it will always keep the correct external IP associated with that URL. If you're working from your house, then you'd just need to make sure you port forward traffic from port 80 to your internal 192.x.x.x IP address (or whatever port you use; maybe 443 for ssl).
It's as easy as that, and now you can hit that webservice from any device that can access the internet.
I haven't worked with it, but I believe dyndns also offers a similar service.
This solution is for GAE development server in Eclipse
Step 1: Get the LAN IP
Goto your Windows Command Console (Press Win+R, then type "cmd"). In the console, enter "ipconfig". You will see a list of display. Under Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi, get the IPv4 Address. It will be something 192.168.x.x
LAN IP : 192.168.x.x
Step 2:
Go to Eclipse, Open the Configured server
Under Properties of GAE Development Server -> Local Interface address to bind to, enter the LAN IP address, and save.
Step 3:
Now you can access the GAE server by
http://192.168.x.x:8888/
8888 - Refers to the Port Number, as mentioned in the GAE development server
In order to access local web services using their own server hosts rather than IP addresses with ports, do these following steps:
Make sure your Android device and your local machine are on the same network.
Install SquidMan on your Mac, Linux, or any other Proxy Server.
Configure the proxy server's HTTPPort (ex. 5555) and clients (ex. 192.168.0.0/24) to your own network mask, and run the proxy server.
You are either using the web services in:
a. A web browser: Configure the proxy settings of your Android device from Modify WiFi networks.
b. Android application:
Set up the Proxy for your HTTP client. If you are using Volley, check this out: Volley Behind a Proxy server.
You can now connect to it by using whatever URL you are using on your host to connect to the web service (ex. http://my-local-machine.com)
Hint: If you got 4xx response codes, make sure your web service allows connections from other non-local-hosts.
If you are referring your localhost on your system from the Android emulator then you have to use
http://10.0.2.2:8080/
Because Android emulator runs inside a Virtual Machine(QEMU) therefore here 127.0.0.1 or localhost will be emulator's own loopback address.
I'm trying to test my iPhone application on the device.
I have a mac computer which stores my development environment.
Right now I can only access PHP files using the http://localhost/PHPFileLocation
which does not work when I try to test my app on real device.
How do I configure apache2 to be accessible from outside?
Is it possible to configure it to a specific IP address?
I want to reach some php scripts located on my development machine running apache2 from my iPhone device.
Thanks
If your computer has a WiFi card then you should be able to attach the iPhone remotely to a ad-hoc Wifi network created on your dev machine.
I'm assuming your Mac is behind a router. You should be able to configure your router to port forward connections to your WAN facing IP address to port 80 (the HTTP port) on your Mac - see http://portforward.com/ for some help.
You may also need to turn the firewall off on your Mac.
Once this is set up correctly you can hit http://yourexternalIP/PHPFileLocation in your iPhone app and this will be directed by your router to the Apache2 server on your Mac. The external IP is normally found on your router's admin page somewhere.