Home Assistant Remote Access for FREE - DuckDNS + LetsEncrypt + Single URL

[@suzanneyates2362]

I spent HOURS trying to get this to work, using other KZbin videos, reading up documentation, and I kept hitting a brick wall. Thank you so much for explaining everything properly for dummies like me, you have made all of this stuff actually accessible. Hugely appreciated.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Glad it was useful!

[@TheSonicFan4]

What were you stuck on?

[@danbeare5263]

Agreed! I used another KZbin video & other info online but it did not work & I had to rely on Everything Smart Home to get me through the process in a logical precise manner whilst really learning along the way! :) Thanks again! That one took a while... haha :D

[@skaftisveinsson]

Thank you thank you thank you!!! I have also been trying to get this to work as well and after watching this, it finally does!

[@tweebs1]

You deserve an award for that marathon! Thanks,

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha thanks Ryan, appreciate it!

[@deanboock6187]

One of the few tutorials where everything was where it was meant to be. Great work!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you sir!

[@sebastien0.395]

Complete noob here, was struggling to get everything working and finally found your video, many thanks you're awesome !

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Glad it was useful! 🙏

[@tomekhekin914]

THAAAAAANK YOU SO MUUUUUCH. Just discovered you and I am so impressed. You are not only a greater teacher and clearly show step by step how to do everything but you are so got at front of the camera. This is so rare for tech savvy people. Keep up the good work.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hello, thank you very much my friend, really appreciate that! Means a lot 🙏

[@knetbafoon]

Thank you so much for this guide. I'm new to HA, it took me just an hour, then 3 days of pulling my hair out because I couldn't get it working, turns out my isp were blocking all my ports, a 10 minute call to them & BAM! Job done. Cheers.

[@SmartHomeMakers]

Gold mine of information! Particularly enjoying the security considerations part :)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Gio, glad it was useful information and not just ramblings 😂

[@xXDeadJesterXx]

One thing you will want to do (and I didn't figure this out until almost the end of the video). Is to enable "Advanced Mode". On the left menu, at the bottom, click on your username and scroll down to Advanced Mode and enable it. This will allow you to "check your configuration" (8:40) and to enter the Internal and External URLs (15:58). You will also need to install a Visual Studio Codec addon. The one he has in the video doesn't seem to be available anymore but as of this writing there is one called "Studio Code Server". This will allow you to enter the SSL information in the configuration file (8:19).

[@JohnHight3270]

Wow! Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial. You have got me to the NAT Loopback, and you have armed me with enough to get to the single URL nirvana.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you John, appreciate your support! Glad you got it working so far!

[@SamDukez]

You are the only one that has explained this so perfectly and didnt assume your viewers knew everything. So bravo for that. The changing to 8.8.8.8 on the duck dns is where i believe no other video has showed and is the cause of many people getting stuck. Thank you.

[@kellanstevens]

Thanks so much for this video, it helped me find out I was on a CGNAT and a quick message to my ISP and they changed it so I have my own IP. I've been trying this for months but just that tiny snippet of the video when you talked about CGNAT helped so much! thanks so much

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Ah man that's awesome, glad it helped! That makes me happy you got it working! 🙏

[@KenCarTechMeow]

@@EverythingSmartHome meanwhile my ISP wants to charge me $5/month for turning off CG-NAT. I think I'd rather dump that into Nabu Casa. Unless there's another non VPN way to do this.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

That sucks! Yeah would definitely recommend just going via Nabu casa, there is other ways to do it but would involve slightly more cost anyways so

[@andresdaza3557]

finally someone with pfsense and home assistant.many things to learn before this video. i was wondering to go back to wall manual switches and take home assistant to trash. i reaaly appreciate your video. all solved!

[@tryn3]

Man, this was an amazing video! Thank you so much! Definitely subscribed for more! It's really clear that you've put effort into explaining this in a very clear way to people that has not done this for 20 years! Even if you have. That is truly commendable, and is definitely not an easy thing to do!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hey, thank you so much for your kind words, I very much appreciate it, thank you 🙏

[@paulmurrayphotography]

Lewis, this is an exceptional video. I've been using computers and working in this industry for over 40 years, I've trained thousands of people. Lewis, you have that skill of putting exverything together and explaining stuff in a simple, understandable way.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks so much, that means a lot 🙏

[@smoger_moore8601]

Couldn't agree more, this walkthrough is awesome! I think it took me 1 hour (I expected at least half a day).

[@chrisdunn817]

Massive thanks for making something difficult and full of pitfalls so straightforward. It worked!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Chris!

[@ht659]

Hacs

[@MM-321]

I hardly ever write comments when watching multiple "how to" videos on getting things working...BUT, you are absolutely the best! I watched someone else's video on how to set this up and I got locked out of my HA because the guy missed to mentioned some steps that you covered. very helpful and thanks for saving the day for me!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you very much for the kind words and for taking the time to comment, really appreciate it! Glad you got everything working!

[@geeves21312]

Hello! Would you consider doing one of your awesome tutorials for a non- hassio install (particularly for a Docker install)? Given there's no add-ons, I have spent the last 6 hours trying to configure it and cannot get an external HTTPS going. I originally followed this fantastic tutorial on a Raspi with Hassio but have upgraded and now running into walls :( Thank you for all your work!

[@RLR997TT]

Just watched this again after moving houses, countries and hardware, great video!

[@liveitup278]

You're a God, thank you for all your effort. Finally got me to where I needed to be.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha thanks man appreciate it!

[@danieltudor6165]

I would not use Home Assistant if ESH would not exist, not sure how to explain how thankful I am, great job man !

[@BboySpaceCadet]

For those struggling with the DuckDNS setup, he seems to skip over installing and configuring LetsEncrypt, so I tried that first but was still getting errors configuring DuckDNS. I was able to save my config by setting the alias to "[]" (empty brackets).

[@NN-tk7uw]

Seems nobody covers the Let's Encrypt part. Does it need to be installed or does DuckDNS include it? Let's Encrypt has a "challenge" option of DNS or HTTP; which should it be?

[@jonathanallen985]

Excellent - many thanks. Tried to get this working 2wks ago and failed. Turned off the Pi.....came back and tried again - spent 4hrs pausing...rewinding...pausing...finally got it to work - except for 443 port forward as router doesn't want to port forward 8123 to 8123 and 443 to 8123....but very pleased that I can now access for FREE outside the house. Excellent - this is starting to be fun.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Good stuff glad it worked!

[@martyboi83]

Great video Lewis! I could have done with this about a week ago, would have saved me a few headaches I can tell ya😂 Loving the channel, your content is easy to understand for a novice like me. Keep up the good work.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you sir, appreciate it! And damn next time I'll get there in time 😜

[@imeldaphang3049]

Thank you so much for the video. I spent hours trying to figure it out because I am a total noob. Created 2 domains for nothing coz didn't really know the use. Finally you came in! Done now and I can proceed with the automation I want to do. Thanks again. SUBSCRIBED !

[@TechTutorialsDavidMcKone]

A very well explained and informative solution, but I feel it carries too high a risk, despite the convenience This is because it involves exposing an internal server to the Internet Should it get hacked, it's then likely to be used to try to access other computers and as most folks will likely have a flat home network that means the attacker will have direct access to try and exploit other IT devices in the home There is the possible extra step of placing the device in a DMZ, like businesses do, but home users won't have the extra IT security that goes with that strategy It's relatively cheap to build your own VPN device these days and place it behind your firewall. And you can use free DDNS to deal with the problem of having a dynamic Public IP As you said, a VPN is the more secure strategy but it's the only I'd consider myself After a while you get used to opening the app when you're away But throw in some signed certificates with a passphrase and it's much harder to exploit this, as long as you keep everything regularly patched of course Plus you get the added benefit of more secure browsing on a public WiFi because your phone builds a secure VPN tunnel back to your home

[@olninyo]

was freaking out thinking I was going to have to go through all of this again with a new router/ISP. turns out after adding the port forwarding again, everything just works 😅🙏

[@puneitsingh]

As always. Great content. Thank you

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you my friend 🙏

[@NylzTube]

Looked at so many (outdated) articles before I saw your vid. Now I got it all working. Thank you so much!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Excellent, thanks!

[@cattivellio]

hey not workin sadly, I see that its a TpLink router problem :( is there a way to go back to the local ip???

[@chastie84]

Excellent video! Just getting started with Home Assistant and your channel is now my go to for all my questions and problems (also nice to hear a familiar friendly Scottish accent too!)

[@Indewolf]

Really helped me out. Thanks for the tutorial, I just got HA last week, and it is slowly becoming my new hobby!

[@CLStegall]

Dude! Seriously... HA is such a PITA. And, you made this SOOOOO much simpler. Thanks a million! Great job!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Glad I could help!

[@apriljohnson814]

You always have a different way of solving every issue I have tried to solve by other means. Most other channels are doing the same things but you get there a different and more direct way. I am supposed to have a loopback router but apparently not. Now, it doesn't matter. Thank you!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you so much, that means a lot! 🙏 My technical background helps me a lot when it comes to these things haha!

[@renefelker]

Great job. I have been fighting this for over a week. It was your presentation that got me through it............

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Rene! Hope it was useful!

[@AlexeiWatson]

This was amazing. I had followed some other instructions to set up duckdns but was not able to get internal network AND external network access to work. Your clear instruction got me there!

[@JoaoGabriel-bk6pn]

This was amazing!!!! After this video I finally got it to work. And yes I'm one of those guys that got locked out of my home assistant!! :(

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you, appreciate it! Haha as long as you got it back working that's the main thing!

[@yoomar19]

Love you rvideos! you go beyond the basics, you explain every single step without assuming we should know some steps. Thanks!!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you sir!

[@ruijoao2771]

Can't thank you enough! I struggled all day for this to work, seen a bunch of videos and made a lot of googling but only your video made it happen. Thanks! You made it very easy to follow. I add this video to my favorites, cause I'm going to need this for sure in the future. Great lighting and video quality btw. cheers!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Rui! Glad you liked the video and it was useful and thank you for the support, appreciate it!

[@Gustavwessels]

I spent so much time trying to figure this out and the video did an excellent job of explaining it

[@corlegui1]

Hey man, thank you so much for the clear water explanation, i did a lot's of research on you were the only one who did a step by step including the why of doing things, thank for sharing your knowledge

[@H.D.83]

You have waaaay to few subscribers, have my upvote :) video is well explained and good tempo without too much fuzz. TNX!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha thanks, appreciate it!

[@rudiexx420]

This worked on the first try, canˇt believe it!! Thank you so much. You really know your stuff. Subscribed!

[@rmcguire91]

First time I have ever commented on a KZbin video. Excellent tutorial. Thank you so much!

[@valuecreator33]

Thanks for a great video! I tried another tutorial and I managed to lock myself outside my HA. So I needed to follow another video so I would create backups and then I followed this tutorial. So easy, I am on to the next step now to intergrate smartthings. Thanks again!!!

[@alexli14_]

I want to thank you for this vid i had been trying to get this set up for days with a custom domain fallowing allog gave me the info i needed to get it working

[@fururian]

This video is gold! Thank you. I have installed Home Assistant Core but with our explanations and some internet it was possible too. I will now return to our Alea integration video ;)

[@paul1599]

Just a follow-up on my previous post - I got onto the Discord channel linked here and the guys spent a considerable amount of their time resolving the issues I had. Everything now functions perfectly - single URL, local and remote secure access, Google TTS, the works!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

It's an awesome community, and now your there to join us too! 🙌

[@ОлегПришялк]

Hi! I'm facing the same problem with TTS. Could please help and tell where exactly in community Discord can I find the solution? (what channel or who gave the solution)

[@mveenman4172]

Awesome. Followed all your steps and it works like a charm. And I am by no means an expert. Some of the HA menus have changed in the meanwhile, but with some effort they can be found. Great stuff.

[@mandrasaptakmandal636]

the "Requirement" section was really really helpful, thanks a lot

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks!

[@diogosilva8563]

Man, you have no idea how much you've helped! Thank you so much!!! Great work.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Awesome!

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

Excellent explanation of all of this. No clue why anyone would give this a thumbs down. Great work, keep it up.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks my friend, appreciate it!

[@fabbrorandomlife]

Done! You are AMAZING! I've only one "complain" English is not my main language and coding/programing/nerding is not my main job, so in some point i struggle to follow you speaking so fast and doing things on pc xD

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Awesome! And thank you! I will try to take that into consideration, thanks for your feedback!

[@fluxpistol3608]

KZbin has the ability to control video speed

[@edwardrauscher8598]

Love the video! It helped me greatly! One thing to note though is that some ISP’s block port 443, so check with your ISP to see if they block it.

[@d0iu]

Legendary video! Thank you! I apreciate that you explained WHY we are doing every step. You've made a complicated topic look simple.

[@resbo]

As a very new user of HA this guide was very good and almost perfect. I really appreciate the guide, but the 'DuckDNS Home Assistant installation and setup' section confused me when you started editing some configuration file and then did a config validation. I figured it out though, and it really wasn't hard - but some confusion could have been avoided. Thanks for a really good guide anyway :)

[@tomshea9404]

Genuinely one of the most helpful videos out there! No nonsense and lots of knowledge, thank you!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Tom!

[@decarufe]

💥💥💥That is the best explaination to setup remote access I've ever seen! You even anticipate all the mistake I made. Thank you very much.

[@kallisterling1241]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to convert my AT&T UVerse Arris NGV210 to a passthrough and purchase Asus AX6600 XT8, but it natively supports NAT loopback so finally got this working. Thank you!!

[@knightyyz]

Thank you. As usual I followed you step by step and everything is working as it should!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Awesome, glad it worked!

[@swaxxiii]

A great video!!! I tried to go through a lot of outdate documentation without success. Being new to HA, I find it extremely frustrating to waste a lot of time following outdated documentation. Thank you sooooo much!!!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice once, glad it was useful!

[@thamesmud]

The best guide on remote setup for Home Assistant! You are a star.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks, appreciate it! 🙏

[@mark0077777]

This video was absolutely amazing. I paused, re-winded it so many times and it was fantastic. I am using an ISP router, and behind that have a google nest WiFi router, so I had of course to try to translate what you were saying. In many cases my device, phone/windows PC needed a reboot to pick up some of the router changes. Might be worth noting in an update video. I never got access to port 443 working but could be just me. Great video, wow.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks, glad it was useful!

[@eatondustin1]

Super helpful, I was struggling with some of the guides out there but this was perfect! Subscribed for sure.

[@2011k1500]

Great video. Just a couple things. At 8:19 for some reason I couldn't find the lines in my add-on logs. I just copied what you did and haven't had problems. Also might be worth mentioning turning on MFA though I realize this video is three years old and that might be new.

[@daanhermans2423]

Thank you so much! The info is so up-to-date, older tutorials dont work as well. Hero!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Your welcome!

[@andrewtoogood8774]

Amazing thank you for the effort, my rubbish router would not let me specify 8123 and 443 and I wasn't going to add the entire range... however your steps still got me there with :8123 on the end of both internal and external. Thank you very much taking a snapshot now!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one!

[@simokemppinen4130]

Thank you for excellent and thorough step-by-step guide. Lost my https access earlier and by following your instructions I regained it and made it even better. Subscribed.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hey that's awesome! Thanks!

[@romein138]

Definitive video on the subject. Subscribed and liked, this video needs WAY more likes for how straight forward and clear it is. Thanks for all the hard work on this one.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You are far too kind! Thank you for the comment and support, very much appreciated! 🙏

[@carlparnell1600]

Thank you so much, I'll be following this step by step as after several attempts to setup Duckdns they have all failed.

[@twei__]

I did a similar thing a few months ago, but through a CGNAT. I setup a OpenVPN server on a VPS and connected to it from my home assistant core instance. Then I set up Port Forwarding from the external interface to the internal VPN ip and so far everything is working great

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Yep that's a great workaround!

[@jonathantrottier1582]

I have no programing experience and I was able to follow this it took a bit but this is awesome.

[@joeaugier817]

I've tried doing this so many times! Yours is the first tutorial that's guided me perfectly to get it done. Brilliant, thank you. Liked and subbed

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hey thanks Joe! Appreciate it!

[@Aurleis]

@Everything Smart Home, Excellent video. I wanted to include the instruction on my cable modem/router since it wasn't listed on the website given, and TCP isn't readily visible on the NetGear CAX80 port forward settings (at the time of this post). Start by choosing ADVANCED (tab), then ADVANCED SETUP and then PORT FORWARDING/PORT TRIGGERING. Choose HTTP from the drop-down, and choose Add Custom Service. On the next page, choose Service Name to whatever you want, change service type to TCP and set your external start port to 443 and external ending port to 8123. Click the box "use the same port range for internet port), scroll down and select the Internal IP address of your HA Hub (or type it in if you know it). Hit Apply and port forwarding on your NetGear CAX80 is done.

[@bhaskarchandra2486]

Thank you for the detailed instructions and walk through. I got stuck with a Double NAT issue but other than that, it was smooth sailing.

[@RiaanEloff]

THIS WAS FOUR HOURS OF HELL!!! Not the video, my lack of knowledge! Wow, thanks dude, this video was amazingly helpful. The reason it was hell, was: about every time you open your mouth, I have to pause the video, and go search google to learn what the last four words meant! This is just because everything you said is soooo far beyond my knowledge and understanding. I think this video is awesome! I also think the thing that is lost on yourself, and many other longer-time HA users, is: noobs don't even know what most of the terms mean! 🙂 Yet, I was able to follow along all the way. (Ok, well, there were some terms you used in HA that did not exist anymore, and THAT took another 45 minutes just to find out where the options are now located and how to get to them! - but that's on HA changing the interface obviously). So I followed along all the way, and step by step saw things working and happening as you predict (once I grasped what I was supposed to do, and once I discovered the place in HA to DO the stuff). It was quite exciting seeing things working and building to the final operation. REALLY good video bro! Really good! There is an "unfortunately" in there, though....unfortunately, everything worked right up until the moment I had to change the router's DNS. Apparently my provider locked the router into an automatic DNS, and one cannot change it. So, after four or more hours of SERIOUS mind-bending hell, I am still stuck without the ability of having access to HA from outside 😭😭😭😭 I cannot tell you how traumatic this is! 😩 I think this rant of mine may be therapeutic 🤣🤣 So, I realize you may never see this, or be able to answer, but, anyone else who is reading this: any advice on what to do if everything went according to plan as in the video EXCEPT the ability to change the router's DNS? Are my only two remaining options: A) Get another router, or B) Use Home Assistant Cloud subscription? Thanks again for this monster video dude! It is incredible!

[@colincadman9699]

Excellent video, two small comments that could be easily fixed which caused me a minor problem. 1. at 7:53 you said to click 'Start' which happened so fast on the video I missed it many times. 2 HA has evolved and the side bar links are now buried in the configuration tool, which took a bit of finding and the which option to use. Again great explanation and thank you for your time and effort✔✔👌👌

[@deepside7]

Been putting this off for years as it sounded too complicated - video made it very easy :)

[@timothyhastie]

This is such an amazing video. Thank you for taking the time to go through everything. Well thought out

[@loudroarYT]

AMAZING!!! Thank you for telling me to antisipate error screens, how to double-check my work etc. GREAT JOB!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Glad you found it useful! 🙌

[@arthur5234z]

Thank you. Another excellent video. Jam packed with useful info and no mucking about.

[@CullenJWebb]

This was super helpful. Thank you for taking the time to lay out all this information in such an easy to follow way. I'm all set thanks to you.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks for taking the time to comment, appreciate it 🙏

[@gjkoolen]

Thanks! I just followed your steps and it worked flawlessly 🙂

[@johnmcintyre9690]

Got yourself a new fellow scot subscriber - saved me a ton of time and hassle ...thank you

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Always good to have more Scots around! Thanks!

[@JoelSternke]

Another awesome video. Followed your instructions and everything works great! Thank you!

[@adamprovencher2069]

Great Job. Thanks. I ran into problems with my EdgeRouter EX until I changed my LAN interface to switch0 and then everything worked perfectly.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Adam, glad it worked!

[@anil8anil]

Followed step by step, everything worked well. That was a great video. Thanks so much. You're the best!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Anil, appreciate your support!

[@Wandering_Kerrs]

Thanks for this video. I have tried a couple of times, but finally got it right with your help. The only thing with one url, is it is slower than molasses in january especially from internal.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Awesome! If it's slow internally I would suggest following the DNS section of the video to make it much faster

[@Wandering_Kerrs]

@@EverythingSmartHome I di do that on hte router , but maybe I need to apply hte DNS to both the router and the DSL modem.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You only need to apply it to the router that handles DNS for your network

[@Wandering_Kerrs]

@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks!

[@hybrispsycho1]

Great video as always i was a little ashamed that i had port forwarded without encryption til today but all set now thanks to this

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you! Hey, it's good to learn from mistakes and correct them! 😁

[@hybrispsycho1]

@@EverythingSmartHome it was something I kept meaning to do but remembered when I was looking through your videos. It's nice to know it's secure especially as I have now set up cameras etc

[@markbost9874]

Thank you! Your video was very helpful and very very well done. You and others like you make the internet a better place.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you Mark, that means a lot!

[@oudoulj]

Thanks for the great tutorial ! Personally I had to setup port forwarding both on my ISP's router AND on my Orbi router (plugged behind my ISP's router)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Your welcome! Glad it worked!

[@ecotts]

Also, no mention of that visual code thing in the tool bar of a freshly installed HA. Had to install studio code server.

[@michaelmcelrath1163]

This video was EXCELLENT. Very quick, step-by-step, and thorough.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Michael! Appreciate that!

[@Razvan_Udrea]

Most watched video from your channel The DNSmasq thing also helps with local control if your internet connection is down -- for some reason not having a local DNS that my phone to query while home no internet was available didn't make sense in my first go However once the internet went dark - make a lot of sense :P

[@DomOikos]

Finally !!!! my Hero !!! Your video is by far the best. Thanks so much.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks!

[@gabirhussam]

Finally is working, thank you really💯

[@iikkakonola]

Thanks man! Luckily thunder killed my old trash 2nd hand router and i KNEW i need a new 2nd hand trash router with NAT loopback : ) Now i can access our HA instance outside of LAN!

[@FleischOfficial]

I've tried everything with my port forwarding but it seams to be a little funky on nowtv router? please help!! also is there a way to uninstall duckdns from Rpi4 in terminal?

[@airpab]

Amazing tutorial! I just love you bro !!!!! wow - your networking skills - level MASTER! and I really like that you're speaking so fast :) I did it for a second time now, the first time with different videos and it was working - but not like it is now! Thank you so much. I'm gonna buy you a coffee ASAP ;)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thank you friend, appreciate it very much!

[@AZAgentBond]

I'm in mate. Cant thank you enough!

[@tldr365]

The best guide I've seen so far.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Glad it was useful!