Connect to my Mac from outside my lan

[SaitamaReborn]

It looks like Im not able to port forward on my Arcadyan hub...

From Telus Assist:

"Currently, TELUS residential services do not support port forwarding. If you require port forwarding, a static IP through our business plans may be more suited for your needs."

What I really want to do is connect to my Mac from outside my lan... however this is achievable.

My usual method involves port forwarding ... which I've been doing since the late 90's... but this clearly isn't the best way to achieve my goal... opening ports seems like a no-no nowadays 😄

Any ideas/suggestions on how to tunnel through the Telus Arcadyan Hub to connect to my Mac?

Some requirements:

-I have 2 Optik TVs, so I'm married to the Arcadyan

-I just bought 3 Boosts (replaced my 2 TP-Link routers)

Is there a way to VPN through?  ... like... my Arlo cameras are able to tunnel from outside in my lan to view live backyard... I figure there is a way to do this without opening ports or mucking around with the hub settings

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[NFtoBC]

I’m guessing your cameras initiate the connection to a server of some sort, which allows you to connect to them. It is less likely you initiate the connection. 
What is your purpose in connecting to your Mac? To see something running on it, or to access files? If the latter, possibly an iCloud subscription would meet your needs.

[SaitamaReborn]

I do have an iCloud account to sync loads of stuff.

I have 2 workstations, at home and at work. I need to build using XCode on each machine. 

Using Apple Remote Desktop I can treat the remote machine like its next to me 🙂

Luckily I don't have graphic intensive work to do, so for the most part its building and debugging in XCode.

This worked easy enough with my Shaw setup, as I had control over all the ports

[mcburrdad]

Telus doesn't support (residential) port forwarding, but it is still technically possible on the Arcadyan Wifi Hub (white trash can) to open up the port for remote desktop (via admin setting of the hub under Network --> Firewall --> Port Forwarding). As you suggest, that isn't the most secure, though if you are using Remote Desktop and not just a VNC connection the connection should still be encrypted but only as strong as compromised login credentials or a poor password.

It takes some fiddling (and cost) to set up a VPN, but it's doable. I've used a Raspberry Pi as a server that is connected directly to the hub via ethernet. Set up an account for free dynamic DNS through one of the supported providers listed under Network --> Dynamic DNS and enter your credentials. Then use PiVPN.io to set up a Wireguard VPN on the Raspberry Pi. Use port forwarding from above to open up a port and direct to IP address of the VPN server . Once you've tunnelled in through the VPN, you can safely remote into your Mac.

Those are obviously abbreviated instructions, but one way of tackling it.

[SaitamaReborn]

That's what I'm hoping... unsupported, but feasible.

I've done this config before... just with Shaw... same stuff...

-setup the LAN reserved IP for the Mac I want to connect to

-port fwd the ARD ports needed to that reserved IP

Verified through https://canyouseeme.org that there is service + not being blocked by Telus.

Launch ARD, connect to the WAN IP... fail 😞

[SaitamaReborn · Accepted solution]

Okayeeee.... alrighty... I just got off the phone with Telus Residential Customer Service...

"Chris from Calgary" gave me help I desperately needed.

As it turns out, I've been overlooking a setting...

When you get to the advanced settings of your Arcadyan Hub...

I didn't notice the LAN Port option actually has a drop down (!)

So now I can run own router and still make use of the 3 new Boosters I just bought!!!!

Huge props out to "Chris from Calgary"!   I've been toiling on this issue for a while, made my life 100% better 🤗

🍻Cheers Chris!  and Happy New Year! 🍺

[NFtoBC]

Thanks for sharing. I missed that drop down a few weeks ago when a previous question was asked, even though I had previously set up LAN1 bridge. I thought it had disappeared in an update.

[xray]

I suspect there is no routing between LAN1 and the other devices on the Arcadyan. This will only be an issue if you need to communicate between the 2 LANs. For instance if you have a network printer, smart device or NAS on one LAN you will not be able to see it from the other LAN.