Here’s the scenario. Each Roku device advertises itself on the local network and exposes a protocol on the network of controlling the device. I know that the Assistant actions can make calls to a known address but is it possible to create an action that can query and interact with the local network?
The short answer is no, Actions cannot make calls directly to a local network, only publicly accessible https urls.
As a longer answer, you could set up an intermediary device like a Raspberry Pi that has a web server and also is able to do local network calls.
Related
For an IoT related project I need an internet server to be able to interact with devices (they will be small PCs, probably raspberry pi) that will be behind the home router of each user. One of the requirements of the project is that these devices are self-installable by the user.
Therefore the server will not know the public IP of each home router and there is no possibility of NAT configuration in the router to reach each device within the home network.
In this scenario, what possibilities exist? At the moment I am studying the use of websockets initiated from each device to the server on the Internet (in fact, the devices know the server location); over this websocket should run all the communication (in a bidirectional way) simulating a REST interaction between both sides. Is there any other alternative? What do you think about the use of websockets to solve this need?
Websockets are used for interactive communication between a client and a server. By 'interactive' I understand near real-time. If this is your requirement, then you can use it.
If you only need non-interactive communication (request / response), you can use a classical REST API over HTTP, initiated from the devices. As long as they are connected to the router, the network stack takes care of everything.
You need to know the public IP of a router only when the server has to initiate the connection to a specific PC/workstation. In that case, a NAT rule has to be set up on the router which directs the traffic to the right workstation in the local network.
I'm looking for a way to managing and controlling IoT devices without the (constant) need for a remote server to be part in it and with a PWA instead of a native application on the managing device. The resulting goal is an IoT device that keeps working when a product eventually goes obsolete (no more server running/allocated) and having an application that has PWA benefits like always up-to-date, easy to replicated and cheaply hosted on something like S3.
As an example, let's say I have one or more IoT devices of different classes like an ESP8266 and a Raspberry Pi for instance. Just as with any new IoT device I want to add it to the network and from there on manage its state from an app. The app in this case is a PWA instead of full blown native app.
1) Traditionally, in the initial setup a native app would scan for wifi networks, connecting automatically to one that has the right name. Using PWA's we are limited to just the "state" of the network. So users would have to manually switch to the network of the newly connected IoT device. This is okay.
2) Next up, the user would need to enter his/her wifi credentials. There might be methods to set this up automatically using a native app, but I don't believe this is the case on a PWA. This, also, is okay.
3) The device then restarts, tries to connect to the network set up in (2). If set up correctly it should get its IP using DHCP. And now things get difficult. I want to 'discover' that network from my PWA. There used to be a way to retrieve the IP from a device using the WebRTC API. but that since has changed to show an obfuscated mdns that resolves to localhost. The ip leak would have allowed for a browser based network scan, but that is no longer possible. I always hoped that Android would default to using a users router as a DNS server, but that is not the case. The result is that simply using an mDNS isn't an option either. I do not want user having to check their router, install an app like fing or do anything else that disrupts the flow from a UX perspective.
Step (3) needs to run every time the app starts so you'd want something reliable. Scanning for devices isn't possible using a PWA, so I need to find another method. I was thinking of something like the way Docker containers can find each other in between networks (see etcd for example), using a predefined key that is shared during installation. The problem with this, is that it requires a remote server to store the IPs attached to that key. I don't want that.
Ideas on how to solve this are very much appreciated! I want to be able to offer a solution that would work even when WAN is out. That being said, I am aware that a connection to a remote server is needed if the end user would want to enable any voice assistant or wants to control a device from WAN.
I am developing a product which uses ESP8266 (arduino firmware). I am developing an Ionic app as the main controller. The product is working perfectly fine through the server. But a major feature needed is to communicate with the devices through LAN. The devices host a server so I can communicate with them using GET requests through my app using their local IP.
But the problem is discovering these devices. Currently my approach is to send a get request on all IPs on my subnet and parse the response, if any, and store the active IPs in app; then use those stored IPs to communicate for subsequent requests.
The problem is the sending request to all IPs part. It is a slow process and slower with low end phones.
What I want is a way to receive communication from the devices initiated by them, maybe. Something like signalling all IPs (just my devices) at once to send their IPs to my phone.
Can this be done easily? And quickly? And accurately?
One option is to set up the ESP8266 to publish an mDNS service (also known as zeroconf, bonjour, etc..). Luckily, mDNS is built into the ESP8266 Arduino core. There is some basic setup info here: https://tttapa.github.io/ESP8266/Chap08%20-%20mDNS.html, as well as elsewhere on the web.
Then on the ionic side, you can then use a zeroconf/mDNS plugin to automatically discover the ESP8266. I've used this one in the past, with good results: https://ionicframework.com/docs/native/zeroconf/
I studied your article (CoAP) in https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7228.
we are developing Home automation Solution with IoT enabled devices.
I have following doubts to provide the seamlessly solution for Home Automation.
1. I have some appliance with Wi-Fi enabled controllers
2. These controllers are connected to One Standard Router (ex:- CISCO,TP-Link, D-Link). All appliance connected to one router through Wi-Fi.
3. These appliance controlled through local handheld devices by using our proprietary protocol with in the Home network.
Now, we want to give a one feature like operate these appliance by using Handheld device from Remotely.
Internet is enabled to this Router & also register one domain name.
But our problem is how to send commands or data from remote devices through Internet to home appliances.
Note:-
1.I don’t want to develop or place controller between IoT devices &
Remote handheld devices.
2. Request is initiated by remote handheld device only.
I hope, any body can guide to me for better solution.
Thanks in advance
Even if it's not a programming question I would like to make some references that can help you with decisions:
AllSeenAlliance AllJoyn Framework SmartHome Working Group. I think, it will guid you how to develop better solution.
HomeOS by Microsoft Research
I want to check the network requests an app is making from my iPhone. It's on the same WiFi network as my computer (or if it makes things easier, I can set it up to use an ad-hoc network). I don't want to see every packet, just the URLs which my iPhone is requesting. I don't care about the returned data all that much.
A simple solution would be much appreciated.
If you want to intercept the phone itself you'll need to point it at an http proxy you set up on a computer and watch the requests come through. Something like http://www.charlesproxy.com/ or there are most likely many free proxies.
Connect your computer to the rest
of your local network via Ethernet.
Turn on Internet Sharing from the
Sharing System Preference to share
your Ethernet connection via
AirPort.
Set your iPhone to
connect to the computer as its base
station.
Use Wireshark to
capture and analyze the packets.
I found a really nice repo on github named Wormholy https://github.com/pmusolino/Wormholy it will show every network request on your iphone, you only add it to your pod file and then on your app, you shake your phone and you will see all requests.
Easy to install
Transparent on your app usage
Overview and details of your request
Like so
Screenshot of wormholy usage