How to connect a computer to a private chain using Wifi and MetaMask

Question

I've set up a private chain on computer A. I'm using geth and the following two command lines:

geth --identity "MyNodeName" --rpc --rpcport "8545" --rpccorsdomain "*" 
--datadir Users/TestChain --port "30303" --rpcaddr "127.0.0.1"  --
nodiscover --rpcapi "db,eth,net,web3,personal" --networkid 123 init 
/Users/CustomGenesis.json

geth --identity "MyNodeName" --rpc --rpcport "8545" --rpccorsdomain "*" 
--datadir Users/TestChain --port "30303" --nodiscover --rpcapi 
"db,eth,net,web3,personal" --networkid 123 console

I want to connect another node/computer B to this chain, so it can send transactions/contracts to it. On both machines, I have installed Metamask.

For machine A, I Googled my public IP. Let's call it IP_A. Then on machine B, in MetaMask, I created a custom RPC as follows: IP_A:8545

But, it cannot connect to computer A, it says:

   connecting to unknown private network.

and nothing happens after that.

Question: How can I resolve the above issue? How can I connect two computers using wifi and metamask?

Edit: Please see my other question here, I've answered this question as well. Thanks to @Achala Dissanayake.

try --rpcaddr "[A's ip address]" instead of --rpcaddr "127.0.0.1" -- — Achala Dissanayake, Oct 12 '17 at 11:32
make sure B is also connected to the same wifi network, if you are using private ip addresses — Achala Dissanayake, Oct 12 '17 at 11:36
@AchalaDissanayake Thanks. I tried that but it's not working. I even tried to use public IP. — Aydin, Oct 12 '17 at 11:54
I'm not sure whether you can use public if you are inside a NAT. Is A's ip address starts with 192.168....? and B is also in the same network and have 192.168.... address? — Achala Dissanayake, Oct 12 '17 at 11:58
@AchalaDissanayake great hint: No it doesn't, time out. Does it mean I'm not using a correct IP address? — Aydin, Oct 12 '17 at 12:21
@AchalaDissanayake I cannot reply on the chat room. It's disabled. — Aydin, Oct 12 '17 at 12:30

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 13 '17 at 04:16

2

Use the --chainId flag and set it to the same thing as your --networkId value. These two things have a different meaning for some clients, but MetaMask requires you set them both to the same value.

answered Oct 13 '17 at 04:16

DanF

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Achala Dissanayake · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-13T12:26:56.213

1

As mentioned in the comments,

since you ping to the computer A from computer B gives a time-out, the error of connecting to unknown private network probably due to computer being unable to find the network specified in Metamask as IP_A:8545.

Then you need to change use --rpcaddr "[A's ip address]" instead of --rpcaddr "127.0.0.1" to make the node accessible by B.

Resolving these will fix this.

edited Oct 13 '17 at 12:26

answered Oct 13 '17 at 12:02

Achala Dissanayake

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How to connect a computer to a private chain using Wifi and MetaMask

2 Answers2