Manual Connection

Manual Connection

Connect to radios on routed networks where UDP broadcast discovery doesn't reach.

When to Use

• Radio on a different VLAN or subnet
• Radio behind a VPN
• Remote access via public IP with port forwarding (without SmartLink)

How to Connect

1. In the connection panel, scroll to Manual Connection
2. Enter the radio's IP address
3. Click Go
4. AetherSDR probes TCP port 4992 (3-second timeout)
5. If successful, the radio appears as "Available (routed)"
6. Click Connect

Port Forwarding (Remote Access)

For remote access without SmartLink, forward these ports on your router:

• TCP 4992 → radio's LAN IP (command channel)
• UDP 4991 → radio's LAN IP (VITA-49 audio/spectrum)

Then enter your public IP in the Manual Connection field.

Auto-Reconnect

Routed radios are saved in settings. On next launch, AetherSDR automatically probes the saved IP and adds it to the discovered list if reachable. If the probe fails, it fails silently.

vs SmartLink

Feature	Manual Connection	SmartLink
Authentication	None	FlexRadio account
Port forwarding	TCP 4992 + UDP 4991	TCP 4994 + UDP 4993
TLS encryption	No	Yes
NAT traversal	No (need static IP/port forward)	Built-in
FlexRadio account	Not required	Required (SmartSDR+)