remote access

Holy cow. I can't believe it. We successfully completed the implementation of remote access into the CAO network!

Dave, the antenna guy from Georgian.net, returned to the CAO. He logged back into their router and altered the WAN IP number for our new designated static IP. He then told me he had been told to deactivate the port forwarding numbers but I explained that this would prevent routing to our equipment. Even though the ports were open, I tested it (via my Sympatico dial-up), and we still did not have access.

He called the Georgian.net owner and they discussed options. When he concluded the call, he said that they wanted to remove one of the routers to flatten the network. I said that was unnecessary, that our routers could co-operate, and that all I needed was for them to apply one final change to their router. Dave accommodated me, we checked the forwarded IP address, found it was incorrect. We changed that and it all worked!

What a battle. Essentially, since about October or November, I've been trying to reach this goal. And in the end, it was something that Georgian.net could have done remotely, in seconds... Still, I'm grateful for their assistance, in particular, for Dave's on-site support.

For the RASC Toronto Centre, this represents a significant milestone. Not only can we better control our on-site hardware. But this opens the gate to remote telescope control.