Node-Red on remote PC

General
1

Hi,
I have 2 PCs running WIN 11. Both are on the same sub-net. Both have an instance of Node-Red v4.0.9, Node.js v22.14.0.
The "main" PC is running Homeseer HS4 v4.2.22.4
I have several Red-Node operations that are triggered by HS4, and are working properly.

What I am trying to do, unsuccessfully, is to have an HS4 device trigger a Red-Node flow on the second PC.
The flow appears to be setup properly on the second PC, but no data seems to come over when the HS4 device changes.

I have port 1880 allowed through the ESET firewall

Any thoughts/suggestions?

2

On which PC? The main PC must allow outbound and the other PC must allow inbound.

I would generally not recommend running 3rd-party firewalls on Windows Desktop OS's but rather use the built-in Windows firewall.

Also, are the PC's both wired or wireless?

3

Both PCs are wired and have port 1880 permissioned.
Also, does the Node-Red terminal need remain open after starting Node-Red?

4

Depends how you start Node-RED. If you start it manually, then yes, they must stay open.

5

Is Windows seeing the network as private or public?

6

How do I start Node-Red automatically or on windows startup?

7

Private Network

8

There are multiple methods. You must also decide whether to use a separate user id/password to run it and whether you want it to run on system startup or on user login.

You can use the Windows task scheduler. You could turn the startup into a Windows service. Or you can use a 3rd-party tool.

To be honest, running local services is much easier and more reliable on Linux than Windows Desktop. :slight_smile:

9

OK, I think you need to check whether the Windows Defender local Firewall is also running. It is possible that it is blocking the inbound connection.

More importantly, I forgot to ask how you are making the connection between the two flows? What node are you using to send and what node to receive on the other end?

10

HS4 182.168.1.8:4901 is the IP/Port to access the web page.(Local and remote)
I have also tried Port 1880, which gives me an error

Also, is 1880 TCP?

11

You need to tell me how your flows are connected. The nodes, not so much the port.

12

HS4 is running on WIN 11
Might be a major pain to move to LINUX

13

You need 1880 if you are accessing Node-RED's web pages. It needs TCP. This assumes default Node-RED settings of course.

14

Might be an ongoing major pain to continue to struggle with Windows Desktop! :slight_smile: However, it should work.

You know that you can monitor active network connections using Resource Monitor?

15

I did not know that

16

I've just tried a simple connection between my live Node-RED on Linux and my dev instance on Windows 11. Using an http-request node on the live server and http-in/http-response on the dev machine. It worked perfectly. I don't have a rule port 1880 inbound. But node.exe does have an allow-all inbound rule for private networks. The dev device is a desktop PC on a secured network so this is fine.

It isn't very friendly to be honest. Linux has a lot easier access to monitoring tools in my view (and I am a VERY long-term Windows user).

17

Have you thought about setting up a MQTT broker and then letting your Node-Red instances communicate using MQTT publish and subscribe functions?

18

Did you set the webhook for both systems in HomeSeer?

19

Just to see if I understand. The end result you are stuggling with is getting the two windows node red instances communicating with another?

You could use mqtt service such a mosquito (this is the most ideal as mqtt has a much more robust capability, but with the new version of mosquito i have had issues getting to work on node-red)

One work around I discovered while using a syslog server is using ncat to send a message from one machine to another under port 514

Palette to install is syslog-input

Command to send to this instance is echo "<34>jan 24 21:11:25 myhostname myapp: {{payload}}" | nc -w 1 -u your ip here

The time stamp in this is arbitrary as you just need to msg format.

This is how i send from linux to windows. For windows to windows you will need to install nmap and direct the terminal command to you ncat file location.

Hope this helps.

20

You can use vbs to start node-red as a hidden terminal. Then save the script and put the saved script into your shell:startup folder.

Set regedit to auto log in.

This should give an auto starting node-red instance without a terminal window.

I havent play played much with hiding the terminal window for node-red, but should work.