@johndwyer surprisingly the Givenergy forum is still live but might shut down any time soon. But in the meantime you might get an answer from one of the software specialist users there.

https://community.givenergy.cloud  

You could also try the Facebook page that Paul L frequents. He’s the dragon (ex of GE) and is now redundant but might advise still.

Posted by: @judith

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surprisingly the Givenergy forum is still live but might shut down any time soon

I have been in touch with the GE Software team about the forums and they have said that they are part of their business so provided they get enough support for their Premium service the forums will remain live.

@downfield And free, according to the exchange I had with them.

@judith Thankyou I'll try that.

My Dad went full force into GivEnergy ecosystem and is feeling a bit burned. I helped him set up "local access" via a cloudflare tunnel and he's proper happy now. He does now wish he had gone with a Sigenergy system. 

Oh for a Crystal Ball and a polishing cloth… Toodles.

Posted by: @sonosppp

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….

I helped him set up "local access" via a cloudflare tunnel and he's proper happy now.

... 

Cloudflared is my preferred method for remote access too. Good job.

@majordennisbloodnok Pardon my ignorance, but this means nothing to me.

Should it, I wonder?

Posted by: @kevh

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@majordennisbloodnok Pardon my ignorance, but this means nothing to me.

Should it, I wonder?

Quite possibly not, @kevh.

Something that seems to be particularly important for a lot of GivEnergy customers is the ability to control their setup when away from home. This is a big plus for anything cloud-based, but Home Assistant - the preferred plan B for many - is purely locally hosted. There are several ways of making one’s local Home Assistant instance available over t’interweb and Cloudflare tunnels are one option. It so happens it’s my preferred one, too.

If you don’t have something local on your home network that you want to be able to access when you’re out of the house, this is all irrelevant for you. If that is, however, something you want to achieve, it’s a topic in itself and perhaps deserving of a thread of its own; just say if that’s the case.

You can use the home assistant app to easily view your home assistant instance when you are away from home. You have to pay for using home assistant cloud but you are supporting the Home Assistant team. It work well. 

Posted by: @leeshore

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You can use the home assistant app to easily view your home assistant instance when you are away from home. You have to pay for using home assistant cloud but you are supporting the Home Assistant team. It work well. 

Yes-ish.

The Home Assistant companion app allows for an internal and an external address for your HA instance. If it can't connect to the internal instance (e.g. you're away from home) then it'll try the external address. Paying to use Nabu Casa's Home Assistant Cloud facility is one way of getting an external address but it's not the only one. Implementing a CloudFlare tunnel is another way and setting up a VPN between your phone and your own home is another. I've purposely ignored solutions like port forwarding since I wouldn't recommend them, but suffice to say there are several ways to achieve the same basic thing.

You are absolutely right, though, @leeshore, that if you do pay for Home Assistant Cloud then you're effectively donating back to the Home Assistant project overall. Current prices mean that's £65 per year which is not a huge amount especially if you use Home Assistant functionality extensively.

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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If that is, however, something you want to achieve, it’s a topic in itself and perhaps deserving of a thread of its own; just say if that’s the case.

The Cloudflare tunnels sound very interesting and I think it definitely merits its own thread.