Home Assistant – Remote Access

If you want to be able to access Home Assistant from anywhere in the world, you can use the following method to achieve this goal.

DuckDNS (Free)

Install DuckDNS Add-On

Open Home Assistant web portal, Go to Settings -> Add-ons -> ADD-ON STORE -> input DuckDNS, click install button.

Create a DuckDNS sub-domain

Go to DuckDNS website, Create an account and sub-domain

Setup DuckDNS Add-On

Go back to DuckDNS Add-On, in Configuration tab, click right top Menu choose “Edit in YAML“, setup sub-domain and token, turn on SSL.Config file example as bellow:

domains:
  - <your-sub-domain>.duckdns.org
token: <your token>
aliases: []
lets_encrypt:
  accept_terms: true
  algo: secp384r1
  certfile: fullchain.pem
  keyfile: privkey.pem
seconds: 300

Edit configuration.yaml

Go to Sidbar -> File editor-> configuration.yaml, Add bellow setting at the end.

http:
  ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem
  ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem
  ip_ban_enabled: true
  login_attempts_threshold: 5

Set Home Assistant URL

Go to Settings -> System -> Network-> Home Assistant URL, set you address for internet and local Network.

Test sub-domain

Go to https://<sub-domain.duckdns.org>:8123 and the login page appears within 1-3 seconds, then you have successfully set up a reverse proxy with DuckDNS.

(Optional)Resolve DuckDNS domain to local IP

If you want use same address for external and internal address in HA, then you need a local DNS server which can resolve the domain to your local IP.

1.Install Dnsmasq Add-On

2.Setup Dnsmasq

defaults:
  - 8.8.8.8
  - 8.8.4.4
forwards: []
hosts:
  - host: <your-sub-domain>.duckdns.org
    ip: 10.0.0.7 <HA Hub local IP>
services: []
cnames: []

3.Set it as Primary DNS server in your Router

Test it:

C:\Users\Thomas>nslookup <your-sub-domain>.duckdns.org
Server:  Unknown
Address: 10.0.0.7

Name: <your-sub-domain>.duckdns.org
Address: 10.0.0.7

Use FRP (need FRP server with Public IP)

FRP is an open source, reliable, and efficient solution for providing secure access to internal networks through the internet. It allows for easy setup and configuration of TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, and other protocols, enabling users to expose services in the internal network to the outside world.

To configure frp penetration effectively, it is essential to have a server with an external network ip that is accessible from the external network. If not, the next tutorial can be skipped. The configuration tutorial is composed of two parts: the configuration of the server (external network server) and the configuration of the client (intranet server). By following these steps, you can be sure to configure their frp penetration correctly.

Install FRP on Public Server

wget https://github.com/fatedier/frp/releases/download/v0.33.0/frp_0.33.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar -zxvf frp_0.33.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
cd frp_0.33.0_linux_amd64/

Config FRP server

nano frps.ini

Set FRP Server config, example as bellow:

[common]
# frp listen port, default is 7000
bind_port = 7000
# Token for Client auth
token = 52010

# frp backend management port
dashboard_port = 7500
# frp admin username and password
dashboard_user = admin
dashboard_pwd = admin
enable_prometheus = true

Setup FRP service

nano /lib/systemd/system/frps.service

Set FRP service for boot start, example as bellow

[Unit]
Description=fraps service
After=network.target syslog.target
Wants=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
# Use you own frp installed path
ExecStart=/etc/frp/frps -c /etc/frp/frps.ini

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start and enable frps service

sudo systemctl start frps
sudo systemctl enable frps

Validate FRP server

open http://<frp server IP>:7500，the login your admin account which you create in “frps.ini” file.

Install FRP on Local Hub

Download the correct version of FRP based on your machine type – ARM or AMD64. The process is the same as you did for the server side.

Setup FRP service

Same as what you did for Server side. The only different is use “/etc/frp/frpc -c /etc/frp/frpc.ini”

Config FRP client

nano frpc.ini

Setup FRP Client configuartion

[common]
server_addr = <FRP Server Public IP>
server_port = 7000

[ssh]
type = tcp
local_ip = 127.0.0.1
local_port = 22
remote_port = 7001

[Home Assistant]
type = tcp
local_ip = 127.0.0.1
local_port = 8123
remote_port = 7002

Validate FRP

Open http://<FRP Server Public IP>:7002, if you see the HA login page then you are good, if not ,go back to check the FRP config.

Home Assistant Cloud

Home Assistant Cloud is the simplest way to get remote access, for a fee of $6.50 per month.