Secure Remote Network Access

Overview

There are several ways to secure a network and allow remote access—some are complicated, while others are simpler. You can set up port forwarding in your router, but how secure is that?

Here’s how I secure my network:

Step 1: Use Hamachi from LogMeIn

I use Hamachi to set up a secure network. My devices that support VPN are connected to this network. To keep things simple, I use my Windows 10 machine to forward ports.

Step 2: Forward Ports Using Netsh

Windows provides a simple command-line utility called netsh to forward ports. Here’s the command syntax:

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress=X.X.X.X listenport=9000 connectaddress=Y.Y.Y.Y connectport=8090
        

Substitute the following values:

• X.X.X.X: The Hamachi address of your Windows machine.
• Y.Y.Y.Y: The local IP address of the device you’re trying to access.

Example Command

If the Hamachi address of my Windows machine is 123.13.121.12 and I have an IP camera on 192.168.1.10, the command would look like this:

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress=123.13.121.12 listenport=9000 connectaddress=192.168.1.10 connectport=80
        

How It Works

Here’s what happens in this setup:

• The listenaddress is the Hamachi IP address of your Windows machine.
• The listenport is the external port you’ll connect to (e.g., 9000).
• The connectaddress is the local IP address of the device (e.g., 192.168.1.10).
• The connectport is the local port the device is using (e.g., 80 for HTTP).

To access the device from a machine on the Hamachi network, use a URL like this:

http://123.13.121.12:9000

Windows will forward the connection to the local device at 192.168.1.10 on port 80.

Security

This setup ensures that only machines connected to the Hamachi network can access your devices, providing a secure remote access solution.