Remote connection to Neo4j server

Question

I believe the way to creating a remote connection is by changing this line in conf/neo4j-server.properties, specifically by removing the comment and restarting the server.

org.neo4j.server.webserver.address=0.0.0.0

My URL is https://0.0.0.0:7473/browser/ and works on the local machine, but when I test the URL in Safari on iPhone over 3G, it cannot connect.

What do I set the address to in the properties file?

I thought it was the IP address of my computer, but after trying the remote address which I got from Googling “ip address mac” that didn’t work, nor did (obviously) the local IP address of my machine, 192.168.0.14

I should point out that setting it to the IP address from Google throws an error and the log reads:

2015-01-29 17:10:08.888+0000 INFO  [API] Failed to start Neo Server on port [7474], reason [MultiException[java.net.BindException: Can't assign requested address, java.net.BindException: Can't assign requested address]]

Answer 1

With default configuration Neo4j only accepts local connections

In neo4j-community-3.1.0 edit conf/neo4j.conf file and uncomment the following to accept non-local connections

dbms.connectors.default_listen_address=0.0.0.0

Answer 2

By setting

org.neo4j.server.webserver.address=0.0.0.0

enables Neo4j on all network interfaces.

The remainder of that reply is not Neo4j related at all - it's regular networking. Double check if port 7473 (and/or 7474) are not blocked neither be a locally running firewall nor by your router. You local IP 192.168.0.14 indicates you're behind a router doing NAT. Therefore you have to setup a port forwarding in your router for the ports mentioned above.

Please be aware that this is potentially dangerous since everyone knowing your external IP can access your Neo4j instance. Consider using either https://github.com/neo4j-contrib/authentication-extension or use a VPN in favour of port forwarding.