Connecting to ESP32 based board WiFi different network

[PeterR]

Cool & thanks. That makes q's easier.
@Jojopidosa
So there are various stategies for linking networks, VPN or Cloud server etc.
I would suggest that ESP eco system has good MQTT client support (although the documentation is weak e.g. transport designation & preference for non const uri/host etc character strings etc).
But a day in and once you know the voodoo...
HiveMQ and others have perfectly good servers, browser clients & rock solid documentation & guides.
IMHO MQTT is a chicken dinner!

[Ritesh]

Cool & thanks. That makes q's easier.
@Jojopidosa
So there are various stategies for linking networks, VPN or Cloud server etc.
I would suggest that ESP eco system has good MQTT client support (although the documentation is weak e.g. transport designation & preference for non const uri/host etc character strings etc).
But a day in and once you know the voodoo...
HiveMQ and others have perfectly good servers, browser clients & rock solid documentation & guides.
IMHO MQTT is a chicken dinner!

Thanks Peter for providing quick response.

[rossyduck]

Ritesh,

Was trying to follow your thread and some of the replies were confusing. Did you ever get a clear response - or what was the outcome of your original post

"Is it possible to use OpenVPN or Tiny VPN service inside ESP32 to connect or access ESP32 based device from different network like Virtual LAN concept?"

Assume you were wanting your remote devices to check into a cloud server, regardless of the network ? Did you come up with an alternative approach to VPN ?

[rossyduck]

I have been trying to follow this thread which seems to pop up over the years with no clear conclusion. We have a similar requirement - multiple devices running on multiple sites not under our control where we want the devices to report in on activation, and to then be able to go in an update firmware, tweak settings. our initial thoughts were to use some sort of VPN - but with memory limitations that might be a hard ask of the device. I have also seen suggestions of using MQTT - but don't understand it well enough to accept that it would work globally, and don't have the time to unnecessarily read up on it.

Did anyone come up with a solution allowing for device "check in" once it is set up on a remote wifi network ? If yes - would hugely appreciate any guidance/ links - or even getting your details to contact you offline.

[ESP_Sprite]

The generic answer still is: you need a server somewhere. If you have two networks where two devices live that have no public IP addresses (and at this point in time, almost no networks use public IP addresses for WiFi devices anymore), it is impossible for them to talk to eachother without a 3rd party (usually a server with a public IP) augmenting this communication somehow. With such a server in place, the communication method can be anything: VPN would be an option (but as far as I know, no one has written an ESP32 implementation yet) but generally people tend to use TCP, HTTPS or MQTT connections and let the server do the work.

So yes, it's actually pretty easy and there are more than a dozen ways to achieve this, but you need a server somewhere.

[Ritesh]

The generic answer still is: you need a server somewhere. If you have two networks where two devices live that have no public IP addresses (and at this point in time, almost no networks use public IP addresses for WiFi devices anymore), it is impossible for them to talk to eachother without a 3rd party (usually a server with a public IP) augmenting this communication somehow. With such a server in place, the communication method can be anything: VPN would be an option (but as far as I know, no one has written an ESP32 implementation yet) but generally people tend to use TCP, HTTPS or MQTT connections and let the server do the work.

So yes, it's actually pretty easy and there are more than a dozen ways to achieve this, but you need a server somewhere.

Yes. you are correct.

We have used our own MQTT based server and able to access devices from any where.