Tell me what you want, What you really, really want.

Moderator: Mmiscool

User avatar
By viscomjim
#33697 Hi Mike, this project is great and your constant updates are awesome. I am sure I am not the only one here that, because of espbasic, is now really excited about using the esp8266 for new projects. Using the esp as an access point is very cool, however, as a noob, I have no idea about how to go about accessing the esp from somewhere other than it general vacinity. I am trying to figure out what to do after I connect to my network, to access this from anywhere. I don't understand port forwarding and the rest of what is necessary to accomplish this and really, this is where it becomes very powerful for IOT stuff.

So what I am requesting is, a step by step guide to getting an esp8266 running espbasic on to the internet for communication and control from anywhere. I understand there will be differences in how this is done based on what particular router people have, etc. but a "basic" setup with an esp to router to browser outside of the network. Having read a bit on this, I understand that there are "security" issues that may come with this, but there has to be a way to get this to work, without too much hassle, so we can take this to the next level.

There are many examples out there, but typically in these instruction, so much is left to the author assuming that the reader has a pretty good grip on a lot of details that are simply over my head as a beginner, so I usually don't get successful results due to something that just doesn't make sense.

If you could put something together that is simple and understandable for the espbasic to do this, I, and I am sure many others, would be infinitely grateful as this would put us on the "next level" for doing cool things with IOT.

Thank you for your consideration.
User avatar
By Mmiscool
#33730 The normal workflow for port forwarding to any device on your network starts the same way.

If you are in windows you can bring up the command prompt and type the command "ipconfig".

When you run this it will show you 3 values.
Your ip address.
Your sub net mask
and your default gateway.

The default gateway is the one we care about.

In your browser enter the IP address for your default gateway as the address and navigate to the configuration page.

You may be prompted for a user name and password at any point going forward. Common combinations for default user names and passwords are as follows.
admin:admin
Admin:admin
Admin:password

You may have already set these options before.


One in your routers configuration you will look for the port forwarding configuration page. Some times this page will be labeled applications.

Once on this page you will add an entry for the esp module.

You will need the ip address of the esp module on your network. You can get this by restarting the model wile having it connected to your serial terminal listening at 9600.

You will add the ip address of the esp module, the internal port number and the external port number. The internal port number will be 80. The external prt number can be any one you chose.

Once this is competed you will save the settings on the router and restart it if necessary.

At this point on a pc connected to your network go to google and type in "what is my ip" or click the following link.

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is ... t+is+my+ip

enter the ip address google returns in to your address bar followed by a full colon and the external port number you selected earlier.

An example would be
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:1234

If you can now connect too ESP try having a friend do it from out side your network or from your phone with the wifi turned off. If they can access it you are good to go. Now any one in the world can reach out and touch your esp.