Controlling Gerootte Toon remotely — port forwarding or VPN

A rooted Toon has a built-in web interface that allows you to control it locally. If you want to do this from outside your home network — whilst travelling or at the office — there are two options: port forwarding (quick, but slightly riskier) or VPN (the secure solution).

This article explains both options and walks you through the configuration step by step.

First of all: do you have a static IP address?

Many internet connections are assigned a dynamic IP address — this address can change every few days. For remote access, you need a stable address, or you can solve this by using a DynDNS service (such as DuckDNS or No-IP) that automatically tracks your public IP address.

Exception: Caiway or Delta customers are behind Carrier Grade NAT. Port forwarding will not work in this case, not even with DynDNS. Ask your provider for a static IP address, or go straight to the VPN option below.

Option 1 — VPN (recommended)

If your router supports a VPN server (Synology, pfSense, MikroTik, OpenWrt), this is the best approach. You do not open a port to the internet — you first connect your phone or laptop to your home network via VPN, and then simply access the Toon using its internal IP address.

Mobile phone → VPN tunnel → home network → http://192.168.1.10/mobile

Advantages:

• No open port for the Toon
• Encrypted traffic
• Access to your entire home network

On a MikroTik, you can set up WireGuard or L2TP/IPsec. On a Synology, the VPN Server app is a quick option.

Option 2 — Port forwarding

If you don’t have a VPN, you can set up port forwarding on your router. This allows you to forward incoming traffic on a specific port to the Toon.

Step 1 — Find your Toon’s internal IP address

On the Toon itself: Settings → Internet → IP address

Make a note of this address, for example 192.168.1.10. It is best to set the address to static (assign it in your router based on the MAC address) so that it does not change after a restart.

Step 2 — Set up port forwarding on your router

Log in to your router (usually 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.254 or 10.0.0.1 — the login details are on a sticker). Look for Port Forwarding, NAT or Firewall → Services.

Use a port between 30000 and 45000 instead of the standard port 80. This significantly reduces the amount of automated scanning traffic.

Example:

Useful links if you’re having trouble:

• Port forwarding with Ziggo
• Port forwarding with KPN
• For other routers: search for portforward [router model]

Step 3 — Setting up Mobile Login on the Toon

Open the Toon’s home screen. The TSC button is in the top left-hand corner.

Tap the settings tile in the app menu.

Go to the TSC settings menu.

Scroll down to the Mobile Login section.

Enter your username and password.

Then click on Flush Firewall to apply the change.

Step 4 — Testing

First, locally (within your network):

http://192.168.1.10/mobile

Log in using the details from step 3. Does this work? If so, switch off Wi-Fi on your phone and test using the public address:

http://<YOUR-PUBLIC-IP>:30030/mobile

You can find your public IP address at siekman.io/ip or by running curl siekman.io/ip.

Safety advice

• Use a strong password for Mobile Login — this is available directly on the internet
• Choose a non-standard port (not 80, 8080 or 8888)
• Consider whitelisting your IP address if you have a (semi-)static IP
• Check regularly to see if the Toon software has been updated
• The very best solution remains a VPN

Summary