r/homeassistant • u/Sickle_Machine • 4h ago

Support A doubt regarding Remote Access?

Hi all,
I am considering to buy either the home assistant green or the home assistant yellow, for my smart home automation based on zigbee.

My part provider who will also be helping me with setting up HA, told me that I am not sure, that HA green can be used in Remote Access. He told that it maybe requires a subscription. something like, you might not be able to operate your home automation from somewhere outside, you might only be able to do that once you are connected to the Local Network of your home. But he has very well done it using Lumi Pro.
He told we tried to do this few years back even on a raspbery pi, by installing the HA on it but it did not work in remote access mode.
So is this true guys?

Also, since I also have a RPi, can I somehow check this myself?

Thanks alot to everyone.

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

7

u/danirodr0315 4h ago

Yes, you can install Home Assistant on your Raspberry Pi to test it out. I’ve been running it on my RPi4 with an SSD.

I don’t have the subscription, but I still get remote access by using the Tailscale add-on.

If you’d like to support the developers and have an easier setup for remote access, you can go with the subscription.

2

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

Is the tailscale add on quite difficult? Considering i have intermediate knowledge with RPi.
Also, can you care to share a valid to the point link that you yourself have tried and tested?

Though Thanks alot.

2

u/danirodr0315 3h ago

I only had to configure it once and haven’t touched it since.

I think this is the tutorial I followed back then, it also covers the Tailscale Funnel feature, which gives you your own DNS to access Home Assistant: https://youtu.be/vDxmtRByXDY

There’s also an easier tutorial, but with that one you’ll need the Tailscale app to access your VPN: https://youtu.be/okRHCU-FcgU

1

u/zipzag 1h ago

Wireguard with HA is a good choice too. But longer term having a router that has VPN is probably the most useful. Setting up a home network VPN is not difficult.

I pay for Nabu Casa cloud access to support the HA developers.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 1h ago

Any guide or videos to configure VPN with my router? Also its free right?

1

u/zipzag 1h ago

I simply bought a router, Unifi, that has several VPN options. I think higher and Asus router now also come with a VPN client.

Ubiquiti Unifi routers also come with ad blocking and firewall software. Many people use Unifi as they get deeper into home automation because of the robust software and integrations into HA. But there are many good choices that now have VPN.

4

u/Wuffls 4h ago

Tailscale is your friend on this.

3

u/Dr-Technik 4h ago

Out of the box you don’t have remote access to HomeAssistant. You can enable this either through the Nabu Casa Cloud (this needs a subscription) or use some other methods to enable remote access by yourself. For example through a VPN or exposing HomeAssistant to the internet

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

Umm, correct me if i am wrong.

Since I will be connecting my Home Assistant Green/Yellow to a lan cable that is connected to my ISP router, is this what you mean by saying that we need to expose HA to the internet?

1

u/Dr-Technik 50m ago

No, that just means the HomeAssistant has access to the network and probably to the internet. You need to make it reachable from the internet, that is something else. But I would not recommend this to a beginner

0

u/Mac_Aravan 2h ago

Usually you do it with nginx proxy which will handle https encryption (using let's encrypt) You can run the proxy on the green/yellow I think (I do it on a Linux server)

The other setup is to use http with VPN.

Both require either static IP, or dynamic DNS support.

1

u/AcademicBed9444 4h ago

If possible, one option is to use duckdns and open ports on the router but you need to have a public IP, some ISPs have CGNAT, if that is the case there is the option of paying the Nabu Casa subscription or using a VPN, in my case I am using my domain that points to a cloudflare tunnel in which my HA server is exposed with that I also have Google assistant configured to control the devices with the nest mini, my HA runs on an orange pi +2e with an HDD connected by USB for a long time. already 3 years

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

Hi, too much tech.
May I Dm you to understand a bit more on this?

1

u/Grim-D 3h ago edited 3h ago

Unless you really can't afford it I would get the Nabu Casa subscription. Gives ypu remote access among other things and helps fund the HA dev team so they can do more. Its also pritty cheap aa far as subs go.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago edited 3h ago

Where I live, everything starting from lighting to dimmers to devices is already very costly and I have to bear import duties on everything.
I wanted to go with Nabu Casa Subscription but it is an added subscription cost that I will have to pay.
Until then, can I tinker a bit and maybe do some workaround? Maybe after I learn how to use it remotely and depending on the need for it I may consider then purchasing a remote access subscription.
Also, do reply keeping in mind that I have parents living at my home, so would they also be able to use the TailScale method?

1

u/Grim-D 3h ago edited 3h ago

Plenty of other ways you can go, Nabu Casa is just the simplest. Any sort of VPN solution will be the most secure solution. You could also just reverse proxy it with some thing like SWAG though not as secure as then its just out there l on the web then (but that is the same for Nabi Casa as uts just a reverse proxy).

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

Understood, any video or tutorial for the same.?
I am asking because I need to consider all this before placing my order.
Also, might sound dumb, but I hope all of this isn't a region specific thing.
I mean all of this would work even when I am based out of and setting it up in any country right? It's not like right that I can use all of thing lets say only in the US?
Thanks a ton

1

u/Grim-D 3h ago

There are plenty of vids and tutorials out there though I couldn't recommend one as I just use the Nabu Casa sub. If you have the Pi I would start on that and test everything. In my opinion the best way to use this sub is try and if you get stuck then come back with the exact issue you have and plenty of people will try to help you through it.

You can easily backup HA and restore it so if you start om the Pi any thing you do could be transferred to the Green or what ever.

No, nothing is region spersific.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 2h ago

Okay. But I was just being sure before ordering anything.

Something like "if at all is it possible".

But I think regardless of me purchasing the green, I think I'll be able to remote access it through some tutorials.

Thanks alot.

1

u/Grim-D 2h ago

Best way to be sure is to try if you have a spare device like the Pi. I would definitely be supprised if you cant find a way to do remote access that works for you though, you should be good.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 2h ago

Alright, Thanks for the help mate.

1

u/Substantial-Prior966 3h ago

I have a HA Green and can access it remotely. I initially used VPN to my home LAN but eventually installed a reverse proxy on a RBP and now use that. Works perfect.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

So basically you now do not use a HA green?
Or you use green in addition to RBP?
Also, any tutorial for how you got started and started setting it up?

1

u/Substantial-Prior966 3h ago

Of course I use the HA Green!

I have a RBP that I use for a number of applications, like Plex server, and now I also use it as a reverse proxy for the HA Green to reach the internet.

I use port forwarding on my router to the reverse proxy and then set up Nginx Proxy Manager.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

Oh okay.
Any tutorial that you followed for that?
Will be very helpful.
Thanks.

1

u/Substantial-Prior966 2h ago

Ask ChatGPT to write you a tutorial! It will also help you along the way and can analyze error logs if you run into trouble.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 2h ago

Okay. So let me go ahead and try this on my Rpi first.

Also, I have a wifi plug, can I use that to test out things?

1

u/Brtrnd2 2h ago

I also recommend nabu casa.  As I run more than one service, everything is joined to the same tail scale network.

I think creating the account is the hardest part of the setup. 😅 

1

u/vapescaped 1h ago

All versions of ha, on all devices that are plugged into the Internet, can have remote access.

Like others said, nabu casa is the easiest way to do it.

From there, you have many options. Just throwing it out there because nobody else mentioned it, there's also a cloudflare tunnel option that's an add on through Home Assistant Community Store.

But as you can see, everything beyond the nabu casa subscription requires more work and IT knowledge.

There are plenty of great YouTube videos that can walk you through all the options step by step. I would recommend watching some, then deciding if it's something you're confident doing or if you're more comfortable going with baby casa.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 1h ago

I am confident with something like this: https://youtu.be/vDxmtRByXDY?si=98Ly2XXZRkXjHWGZ

But really unsure of the outcomes or possibilities. For eg: will my parents too have to do this every time they want remote access? Or will it work with my setup?

How to deal with these doubts?

1

u/vapescaped 1h ago

All setups work the same. Remember, home assistant is a local server. Once you add the external url to the companion app, it's exactly the same as accessing it locally. If you're on your local network, the companion app will connect to the server locally. When you're not on your local network, the companion app will see that instantly and use the external url.

-1

u/dierochade 3h ago

I did a lot of research and even have a cloudflare-Traefik-crowdsec stack running. Endes with a simple WireGuard vpn thats only tunneling local ips. Its a one liner in the Config. Pretty awesome.

1

u/Sickle_Machine 3h ago

Again, bit hard to even make any sense of this.
May I Dm you to understand this approach better?