Victron Connect on PC cannot see Cerbo GX on the same wired network while PC buildin firewall is on

Q&A and troubleshooting
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1

Both the PC and the Cerbo GX are on the same local wired network. On the same subnet 192.168.1.40 for the PC and 192.168.1.70 for the Cerbo GX.
The Cerbo GX is talking to VRM all day long without any problems.
The interesting thing is that Victron Connect v6.19 on the PC can only discover the Cerbo GX when the build-in PC firewall is switch off.
PC firewall ON and the Cergo GX goes missing.

So… is there anyone out there that knows which ports on the PC firewall to open which will allow the Cergo GX in?

I tried some of the most common ports but without any luck.

2

I assume you are trying to use the remote console?

There are several ways besides Victron connect.

Have you tried just typing venus.local in the browser instead of using the ip address?

3

No.
With the firewall switch off I open Victron Connect, Scan for devices and find only one device - the Cerbo GX. I then connect to the Cerbo GX and navigate to the left of the screen to the list of devices where I can interact with them in exactly the same way as when using a phone with bluetooth. Doing it this way also allows for non bluetooth devices to showup and be viewed/managed/updated it the same way. I must say it is brilliantly done by Victron.

The only question is which network firewall ports must be opened on the client PC to allow it to work while the PC firewall is on.

4

Ah right, so you are using the VRM to configure the stuff. It is something over the internet side definitely, not local traffic.
Will have a look if anything weird is used when i get home. Hopefully someone can answer that sooner though.

Do you have the same issue when using the phone the same way?

5

No It is not internet. The PC and Cerbo GX are in the same room 6inches apart. There is a network cable from the one into the other.

The PC like all modern computers has a firewall by default which work no matter where you plug it in which is a good thing as there are many ways someone can gain access to it. It is general practise to then open just selected ports on the PC to make exeptions for one applications or devices to get in from outside the PC.

So it is just a matter of finding out which port numbers Victron Connect PC software needs open to allow the Cergo GX in.

6

Ah right, so a direct connection to the ethernet on the cerbo. No router in between for clarification.
In this case it is a peer to peer connection. Did you set the network connection to private?
Of it is not something you do often then the easiest way is just temporarily disable it.

7

So you are using the Cerbo with both its wifi and LAN connection?
If so, it’s not intended to work that way.
You will need to set the gateway on the cerbo LAN interface to 0.0.0.0

8

You may need to add an application exception for VictronConnect in your firewall rules

Or if you know the ports then make rules for those