LEGACY WEB CONNECT
Arguably, one of the most useful/powerful features in OvrC is the ability to connect remotely to a device’s UI webpage as if the technician were connected directly into the customer’s local network. This feature would allow a technician, from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, in real-time, to configure that device’s settings, test for functionality, or to troubleshoot a customer complaint.

However, the feature was fraught with issues and difficulties:

• OvrC would negotiated a connection between the customer’s device and the technician’s laptop, but then do nothing to manage nor maintain that connection
• Web Connect would communicate using a random port, which required that Partners know how to configure and support those random ports
• Some connections would fail due to the way the ISP managed those Web Connections
• Other connections failed due to the customer’s local IT policies 

NEWLY REDESIGNED WEB CONNECT
The OvrC team here at Snap One has completely redesigned the Web Connect process to leverage the existing communication pathway between the customer’s OvrC Pro Agent and the OvrC servers. This persistent connection, which is secured and authenticated, communicates using the HTTPS protocol through a standard network port: 443.

Combined with a number of bug fixes, including a resolution for the page rendering issues, and other service improvements, the redesigned Web Connect will yield higher connectivity success rates, and faster, more reliable connections.

As all the fixes were done to the backend, Partners can try out the new Web Connect experience without having to install, update nor configure. 

• Log into OvrC app or app.ovrc.com
• Select a Customer
• Go to the Devices page
• Select CONNECT for a specific device to use the new communication pathways

“What’s even more positive is that with the previous mechanism, the connection would be blocked by my office firewall requiring me to VPN out to use WebConnect. With the new connection mechanism this is no longer required and seems to tunnel out without issue.” – Craig Paxman



The fine print information regarding the functionality of Web Connect in different scenarios:

The new Web Connect is faster and more reliable by avoiding SSH connections that ISPs/IT policies/firewalls would prevent, avoiding the use of cookies to improve page rendering, and minimized the number of encryption/decryption steps to reduce the risk of corruption (which is why it is not recommended to execute a device’s firmware update over Web Connect). While developing this new pathway, our teams also uncovered an resolved many other bugs and issues that diminished the Web Connect experience.
This new Web Connect pathway will be used in:

• Sites with an OvrC Pro Agent (Araknis or Pakedge router, Control4 controller, or iHijii appliance): all Web Connections to any local network device (with a local UI, or through applications like Remote Desktop or PuTTY), whether Snap/Control4 or third-party, will follow the new communication pathway
  
• Sites without an OvrC Pro Agent:
  • Luma X20, Araknis X20, and MoIP 4K Controller, running the latest firmware, will follow the new Web Connect communication pathway
  • Legacy OvrC-enabled devices (Luma X10, Araknis X10, Wattbox, Episode, etc): the first Web Connect session to the customer’s site will follow the new communication pathway, but all other concurrent connections will default back to the original Web Connect process

*PRO TIP: some devices provide two Web Connect options: 443 and 80. Port 443 will follow the new Web Connect path using HTTPS. Port 80 communicates over HTTP.

Web Connect through SSH is available for limited use cases for Snap One devices, specifically the Wattbox WB-700/300 and the Araknis AN-620 Switch, that have known issues using the new Web Connect pathway. Those issues will be resolved at a later date most like through a firmware update, allowing them to use the new pathway at that time.

Web Connect over UPnP is still used by some legacy OvrC-enabled devices (Wattbox WB-400/600, Wirepath cameras, and Araknis X00 devices) to establish a Web Connection over WAN. This method is viewed as a security vulnerability by some ISPs, which will block this type of traffic by default. Support for this type of remote UPnP connection is also commonly disabled in the router by default.
This communication method suffers high failure rates; Web Connect over UPnP will only be used when accessing older OvrC enabled devices where there is not an OvrC Pro agent. 

PING ADDED TO PRO TOOLS
Additionally, we have implemented cloud-based Ping functionality into all OvrC Pro Agents. A network ping measures the time in milliseconds it takes to receive a response. OvrC’s secured remote connection to the Customers local network will allow Partners to:

• Ping a website to verify internet connectivity
• Ping a server to check response time for latency or lag
• Ping a local network device to verify it is online
• Ping a local network device to check response time in complex multi-switch deployments
• Ping a local network device to validate that VLAN traffic routes correctly

Ping can be accessed from the Pro Tools tab of the OvrC Pro device for the Customer’s site, or from Site Settings > Additional Pro Settings > Manage.