Secure remote access for iOS App

[W3bbo]

After playing with the excellent iOS App, I am looking at options for allow access to my server when outside of the local network.

From a security and paranoia standpoint, I'm very reluctant to simply use port forwarding to open port 8866 to the outside world as I do not believe there is any encryption of passwords or data, prevention of brute forcing passwords etc. (as Sub has previously mentioned, the web server is not hardened or designed for access outside of the local LAN).

I'm currently looking at the option of installing an OpenVPN server on my NPVR box and using the iOS client to establish a secure VPN connection before launching the NextPVR App.

Has anyone else tried a similar configuration? If not, I'd be more than happy to put some documentation together.

[jmcnal1]

I use Hotspot Shield on my NPVR box so I'd be willing to test it out if you could guide me on how to find the server once I have engaged the VPN.

Jim

[sub]

From a security and paranoia standpoint, I'm very reluctant to simply use port forwarding to open port 8866 to the outside world as I do not believe there is any encryption of passwords or data, prevention of brute forcing passwords etc. (as Sub has previously mentioned, the web server is not hardened or designed for access outside of the local LAN).

It doesn't do anything knowingly unsecure. It doesn't transmit unencrypted passwords across the internet etc, and tries to follow standard security practice...but I haven't spent a lot of time focusing on security aspects of the web server, and I've also not looked at all the lines of code in NEWA, so I can't be 100% sure it's good for exposing publicly on the Internet.

If you were going to expose it anyway, at the very least I'd recommend changing the port number and the default pin.

[pkscout]

I did this for awhile, but I never could get any VPN server working correctly on my setup for very long. That said, when it worked, it did work well. In theory once you're done you won't need to do anything special. Your iOS device will be on your local internal network and should discover the NPVR server with no problem.