Siren app + VPN

[jjuneau]

Trying to get the Siren app (on iPhone) to stream audio outside my home network, until Uniden decides to release this nice feature.

I have done the following:
-Configured L2TP VPN connection on my home network and iPhone connects just fine from external network
-Siren app sees the scanner, displays scanning data, etc. All appears good

Problem - No audio. Volume is turned up, closed and reopened the app, tried pressing the "Mute" button in app, checked the volume/mute rocker switch...Tried "Settings -> Connect -> Accept"... running out of ideas.

Note - Audio plays in the app when I'm on my local network.

Question - PPTP (VPN protocol) appears to have been disabled in Apple IOS 10.x. Those of you who got VPN to work with your iPhone and BCD536HP, what VPN protocol are you using now and are you still getting audio through VPN?

 

[jjuneau]

For what it's worth, I just created, configured and connected to an OpenVPN tunnel on my home network and still cannot get audio. The app (Siren) sees my BC536HP but that's about it.

In other words, the audio issue doesn't appear to be isolated to the L2TP protocol.

It's no wonder this is a dying hobby.

 

[JohnL999]

I just tried this on my android LG G4 on Verizon. I have a PPTP VPN server in my Asus router. I set up a PPTP VPN connection from my phone and the siren app worked fine.

Take a look at:
http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/312812-siren-app-tcp-ip-port.html

There's a fairly good explanation of the the traffic between the siren app and the scanner. I'm guessing that for some reason your VPN is not passing some ports and/or requests. My router doesn't have the ability to setup a L2TP connection so I can't try that.

My guess is that your problem is with IOS. Things like removing support for PPTP to protect you from yourself. I'm not hating on Apple, but I find some of the things they do a little frustrating.

As far as this being a dying hobby, the transition to digital comms makes purchasing a scanner much more expensive and that will exclude a portion of the population. In some areas all comms are encrypted so there's nothing (exciting) to listen to. It appears that some jurisdictions are turning off encryption at least on the dispatch channels so that should help in those areas. Since everyone now has a cell phone it seems that interest in radio is at an all time low, at least in my lifetime.

 

[radio00]

Works fine on our Android devices

 

[jjuneau]

Works fine on our Android devices

What VPN protocol are you using? OpenVPN? L2TP?

 

[jjuneau]

I just tried this on my android LG G4 on Verizon. I have a PPTP VPN server in my Asus router. I set up a PPTP VPN connection from my phone and the siren app worked fine.

Take a look at:
http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/312812-siren-app-tcp-ip-port.html

There's a fairly good explanation of the the traffic between the siren app and the scanner. I'm guessing that for some reason your VPN is not passing some ports and/or requests. My router doesn't have the ability to setup a L2TP connection so I can't try that.

My guess is that your problem is with IOS. Things like removing support for PPTP to protect you from yourself. I'm not hating on Apple, but I find some of the things they do a little frustrating.

As far as this being a dying hobby, the transition to digital comms makes purchasing a scanner much more expensive and that will exclude a portion of the population. In some areas all comms are encrypted so there's nothing (exciting) to listen to. It appears that some jurisdictions are turning off encryption at least on the dispatch channels so that should help in those areas. Since everyone now has a cell phone it seems that interest in radio is at an all time low, at least in my lifetime.

Thanks for the reply. I'm curious if PPTP is the only VPN method that's working.