Hi all.
I have just started getting some WiFi smart switches and an iHost zigbee bridge to use some zigbee sensors.
Until I got the iHost, I could control my smart switches with Google home. How do I get these WiFi switches into iHost control?
Secondly, how can I get my Zigbee sensors visible in Google Home when I’m away from home?
Thirdly, how can I access iHost from outside my home Wifi range, e.g via my Android phone?
It’s a shame you didn’t check this forum before you bought the ihost. 
Now the problems will start.
Integrating the ihost with other devices is not as easy as sonoff says in the ads.
after reading this forum I would never decide to buy ihost, or you would be aware of what you are deciding on.
Congratulations on wasting 100 bucks on the ihost. For the love of God and all that is holy under the Sun please return the iHost if you can. Sonoff is a Chinese hardware company. Their SNZB series with P at the end is good bang for the buck thing. Simple, honest and easy to recommend, but their gateways are “meh” and the Ihost is atrocious.
Ihost was meant to run locally, so you bought the wrong thing for yourself in the first place.
Secondly, there is Matter Bridge feature, so you may want to expose local devices to Google Home through that. Try Tailscale if you want to access ihost securely over the internet.
Fortunately, I didn’t pay anything like $100 for it.
But thanks for the heads-up. I’ll try Tailscale -whatever that turns out to be to see if I can make sense of that.
If not, I’ll learn some more before going down another rabbit hole.
I like the idea of local processing and storing of my info - as long as I can monitor sensors and operate switches remotely.
I’d like a bridge between Zigbee sensors and my wifi switches, powerpoints and globes. Running it local seemed like a good idea when the power goes off (often), since my house is battery backed, but not the internet or the cell/mobile phone network.
Tailscale is a good, enterprise-level VPN with zero configuration. It’s clever, modern technology. I believe that processing data locally is the way to go for many reasons; hence, iHost. The hardware is fine-ish, but the firmware doesn’t do it justice."
iHost/Docker/Tailscale
Got it and it works. Thanks.
So now I can “see” my iHost webpage on my phone…
What step am I missing to get the switches, sensors and smart plugs and widget (weather) on my phone in a layout that I can call up easily? rather than having to page through the menu of iHost? Do I need to create some kind of page in the sonoff ewelink app ? I can see my ihost on the home page there, but nothing else…
Use eWeLink Smart Home add-on to sync eWeLink Wi-Fi devices in your LAN
Enable Matter Bridge, and add it to a Matter-supported Nest device like Nest Mini Gen 2/Nest hub
Tailscale would be a good solution as other users suggested above.
- Is seems to be a circular failure: I have eWeLink add-on installed already. But I can’t get access to my switches there…
- I enabled Matter bridge added my Nest Hub - it shows Google LLC now and lists my Zigbee sensors in it’s device list. On Google Home, they are not visible however…
- Tailscale works but prevents my phone from doing anything else other than connect to iHost…
Time to give up, I think.
I’ve ordered a Tuya Multi-Protocol Bridge and try my luck there. iHost will be on FB Marketpace if it works out.
I changed my mind and have read all the posts I can find about flashing the Home Assistant OS onto my iHost. So far I’m running HA in Docker to get a feel for it…
I see that it’s possible to run it either off the SD card or flash it onto the iHost’s EMM…
I’ll eventually figure it out I think.
Is there an integration option for Tuya Wifi Devices or the Tuya App into the ihost?
There’s no such a feature at the moment.
some Tuya Zigbee devices should work with iHost though.