Pair from separate network or through VPN

[Albert Vaca]

Ok, thank you! It would be awesome if you succeed implementing it, because
a lot of people is requesting this feature :D

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 4:54 PM, Achilleas Koutsou <achilleas.k at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Unfortunately, I haven't had time to do much of anything beyond work the
> past few months. Things will most likely be easier next month, so I'll try
> and finish it up then.
>
> Given my lack of progress, the pairing issue is still there.
> Also, I haven't made the new backend read IP addresses from the saved
> settings yet. That should be much simpler, of course.
>
> What I have done, however, is lots of testing! Especially testing a
> persistent pairing/connection through a VPN for several hours. I haven't
> had any issues with communication between devices through a VPN (while the
> two devices are on different physical networks), given that they are
> already paired from within the same network.
>
> I hope to have a patch for you by the end of October, unless someone beats
> me to it.
>
> Regards,
> Achilleas
>
> On 16/09/14 16:32, Albert Vaca wrote:
>
>> Hello Achilleas,
>>
>> Sorry for the long absence. Have you made any progress on this? Did you
>> manage to solve the problems with the pairing? Actually KDE Connect
>> should listen to the VPN interface, but you may have to restart it.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Albert
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 3:16 PM, Achilleas Koutsou <achilleas.k at gmail.com
>> <mailto:achilleas.k at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Greetings all,
>>
>>     New guy here.
>>
>>     I've been slowly working on implementing a new feature for KDE connect
>>     that will allow two devices to communicate through separate networks
>> or
>>     through an alternative or non-local network (such as a VPN).
>>     Specifically, I wanted to address Bug 326509 [1] (feature request).
>>
>>     My initial attempt started by adding a new backend for handling
>>     connections through VPNs automatically. There are two problems with
>> this
>>     approach:
>>     - In order to be a general solution, it would have to accommodate all
>>     types of VPNs and VPN interfaces.
>>     - Some VPNs, e.g., OpenVPN in routing mode configured as a tunnel
>> with a
>>     tun interface, don't allow broadcast packets, which is necessary for
>> KDE
>>     Connect to work.
>>
>>     My current approach is to add a new backend and menu for manually
>>     specifying IP addresses of foreign devices. This can also accommodate
>>     hostnames and non-standard port numbers. This was actually Albert
>> Vaca's
>>     original idea which he shared with me when I first contacted him about
>>     working on this issue. Given the nature of KDE Connect, specifically
>> the
>>     fact that it's designed and meant to Just Work, the manual IP input
>>     interface should probably be hidden in an advanced menu.
>>
>>     So far, I've forked the repositories to my GitHub account (both KDE
>> [2]
>>     and Android [3] repositories). On the Android side, I've got a few
>>     things working, mostly hard coded hacks as proof of concept.
>> Specifying
>>     the VPN IP of my desktop in the Android app actually works, but the
>>     pairing is a bit flaky, probably because the KDE side isn't listening
>> on
>>     the VPN interface (?).
>>
>>     In general, when I'm finished with this, it should be possible to pair
>>     and connect two devices that aren't on the same network or when
>>     broadcast isn't possible, as long as the two devices are able to
>>     communicate with one another. This should also work when a device is
>>     behind a NAT/firewall, as long as the specified port is forwarded
>>     appropriately.
>>
>>     This message is intended both as an introduction for myself, to let
>> you
>>     know how I'm thinking about the problem, see if there's anything I
>>     missed about how the connectivity should (or could) work and to ask if
>>     anyone else has any ideas for solving this issue.
>>
>>     So, what do you all think?
>>
>>     Cheers.
>>
>>     --
>>     Achilleas
>>
>>
>>     [1] - https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=326509
>>     [2] - https://github.com/achilleas-k/kdeconnect-kde
>>     [3] - https://github.com/achilleas-k/kdeconnect-android/tree/manualip
>>     _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>
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