Hi everyone,
In this I reported how much I liked Piper. Well, things have gotten a little odd. What I reported is correct. But I wanted to share what I have found during a week or so of use. Including while I was traveling away from home. First I need to mention that it did not work outside my house. I was a little surprised since I have a number of other home automation and security tools and they do. I was only a little surprised since I noticed during the setup it set some ports in – I think – my Apple Wireless. So I knew things were different. It turns out that a quick check in the Piper forums confirmed this issue and the solution. I had to map a TCP port – 7477 to Piper. That was harder than it sounds as I did not know what IP address it was using, and my firewall will not map an open port to all or no IP addresses. Which makes sense. I checked my DHCP server and found the IP address Piper had used. Not hard since the name of the Piper appliance is in fact Piper. Once I had the the rule in place I tested it. The first test failed but I think it was due to me being too close to the house and Wireless impacting things. From the airport, or here in San Francisco it works fine. I should point out that if your firewall is UPnP capable you will not have to work through this silliness.
I really like this product. I like how it provides more info – like inside / outside temperature, humidity, and yet it monitors sound, and motion as well. And the rules are simple but cover off a lot of different situations without complexity. When it can handle more than one Piper, which is supposely this month I will buy another. They are also working on geofence enable / disable of security. So that is pretty exciting too. And I have a number of Z-wave devices that I can attach to it so that is pretty exciting too.
BTW, I talked to support. Turned out it was the QA guy. So pretty handy and it was smooth as well. Also, I am tagging these articles about Piper with the tag Piper to try and make it easier for you folks to browse.
Michael
=== END ===
Notes from MWhite 
I am looking at purchaing a Piper as well. Is there a user forum for Piper consumers to talk about issues?
Hi there,
You can find forum like support in the support area.
https://getpiper.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
Michael
Very interested in Piper especially now as the product has improved in the eighteen months since the last post. Does anyone know if there is a Piper Forum now? I have searched and cant find one.
You are quite correct. I cannot find a forum either, and I think that would be quite useful for us customers!
I also agree that it has improved a lot!
Michael
How can I map a TCP port 7477 to Piper? Should it be done on my android tablet or somewhere else?
And how to find what local IP address Piper is using?
In my world, I did this in my firewall. The Piper support guys can help if this is complex issue in your lab. I found the IP address by looking in my DHCP scope but not sure how else to find it. Again Piper support should help with that.
Michael
Hi, I googled Piper Cameras and open ports. I recently installed Fing app that does a home network vulnerability scan (Premium access). I scanned some devices for open ports. For example, my IoT hub has 443 open port. Piper cams (which I’ve owned for at least 5 years) have 53 for an open port. Other brand cameras don’t seem to have an open port. What does this mean? Is port 53 a secure port, like 443?
Sorry, but I do not know. I would guess however no.
Michael