Using the iPhone app away from home
At home the phone talks to your computer directly. Away, it meets the studio at a relay, with nothing to set up.
Away from your home network, the iPhone app reaches your studio through a relay: a small program at relay.aigopilot.com:47700 that hands bytes from the phone to the studio and back. Once the phone is paired you do nothing to switch it on. The phone tries your computer directly first, and if that fails it goes through the relay by itself.
What the relay is and is not
Your studio connects out to the relay. Nothing is opened on your computer or your router, and you need no fixed address. What passes through is locked between your phone and your studio, so the relay cannot read it, and none of your projects is stored there. It is not a VPN and not a copy of the studio in the cloud.
One limit: the phone has to connect once at home to learn the studio's address. Pair it at home before you leave.
Where it is switched on or off
In the studio, click the gear, then Computers, and scroll to The phones of this studio. The line Reached from outside the home holds the relay's address. Beside it you read waits at the relay when all is well, or connecting, or the relay does not answer. Empty the field and the phone works on the home network only; the line then says home network only.
On the phone, the tab Studio says the same: Reached from outside the home too, through relay.aigopilot.com:47700, or Reached on the home network only.
The computer has to be there
The phone is a window onto your computer, so the computer must be on, awake, with the studio running. Two settings help. In the same window, tick Start AigoPilot when this computer starts, so the phone always reaches it. And in the top part, each computer has Stays awake while a session works on it, followed by a number of minutes after the last work. A computer in the middle of a job does not fall asleep on you.
A computer that sat idle for a long time may still sleep, and the phone cannot wake it or start one that is off. More on this in Staying awake, starting with Windows, tray and backups.
Check the connection
On the tab Studio, tap Check the connection. The sheet tests four steps one by one and marks each with a tick or a cross:
- The phone's network: does the phone have a network at all.
- Reaching the address: your computer's home address.
- The relay.
- The studio's answer.
Away from home, a red cross on the second line is not a fault. It only says the direct way failed and the phone went through the relay, which is what you expect on another network.
When the studio does not answer
The phone says The studio does not answer and keeps trying by itself. Try now tries at once. Read the check from the top. No network on the phone: the fault is the phone. The relay red: at home you do not need it, and away you wait until it is back. The relay green and the studio's answer red: the computer is off or asleep, or the studio is closed. That one is mended at the computer.
If your computer's home address changed, tap Change the studio's address on the tab Studio and give the new one. You do not pair again. When another computer of the studio does not answer, see A computer says it is out of reach.
Small tips
Give the studio a new address without pairing again
If your computer's home address changed, tap Change the studio's address on the tab Studio and write the new one. The pairing stays.
Tap Try now instead of waiting
When the studio does not answer, the app tries again by itself. Try now makes it try at once, for example just after you woke the computer.
Questions
Do I need to open a port on my router for the phone?
No. The studio connects out to the relay by itself, so nothing is opened on your computer or your router.
Can the phone wake a sleeping computer?
No. The computer must be on and awake with the studio running. The setting Stays awake while a session works on it keeps a busy computer awake.