Index
Remotely access your home assistant instance for free
Note: If you can afford and are willing to support HomeAssistant development, consider using a subscription to Nabu Casa which provides you Remote access + Alexa / Google Assistant support for $5 / month.
Only remote access
You can simply use a private VPN setup to have access to your instance. No open ports needed on your network.
- ZeroTier: https://www.zerotier.com/
- TailScale: https://tailscale.com/
If you have a public IP, you can also build your own VPN network using something like OpenVPN: https://openvpn.net/
Only Alexa / Google Assistant
NodeRed - TBD
Remote access + Alexa / Google Assistant
The best way to have both is to have your instance exposed to the internet: - If you have a public IP, then you can simply open relevant ports on your network and use your IP. - Most ISPs in India will not provide you a public IP, so you require to build a tunnel from the internet to your instance.
Tunneling options
- Dataplicity (Disadvantage: No E2E TLS, Dataplicity folks can see your data)
- nGrok (Disadvantage: URL changes everytime your tunnel stops - Restarts / Internet losses)
- Pagekite (Disadvantage: You need to request for trial extension every month)
- DIY: Use a free VPS with Tunnelling