can-router — manual

can-router lets your WiFi-CAN bridge connect to your equipment (car, motorbike, machinery) from anywhere and be reached securely over the internet. The bridge makes an outbound TLS connection to our relay server; you and people you trust connect to it using tokens — no port forwarding, and it works behind NAT or phone tethering.

Roles

• Owner — registers and owns an adapter (the bridge device).
• Technician / guest — someone the owner shares an adapter with, who can connect to diagnose or repair.

How it works

• The bridge dials out to the relay over TLS and identifies itself with its auth-token.
• A consumer (you or a technician) connects to the relay with an access-token.
• The relay matches both sides by adapter and transparently pipes CAN traffic between them — each side has its own encrypted TLS connection.
• The bridge verifies the server by its public key (pinned in the token), so no certificate authority is needed — this works even on tiny microcontrollers.
• Either side may connect first and waits for the other; the connection is held open until the peer arrives.
• One active session per adapter at a time.

Tokens

A token is handed out as the URL you configure a device with:

tls://canbus.cleverfox.org:1324/?pubkey=04…&token=…

• auth-token — the device's identity. One per adapter. Keep it secret: anyone who has it can impersonate your device.
• access-token — grants a user a way to connect to an adapter. Each user creates their own; it can be revoked at any time.

Getting started

1. Register & confirm your email. Confirmation enables sharing.
2. Add an adapter: on the dashboard, enter a name and click “Register”. Copy its auth-token URL (eye icon to reveal, clipboard to copy) and configure your bridge firmware with it.
3. Power the bridge and connect it to WiFi (e.g. phone tethering). It connects automatically — the indicator turns green.
4. Status: a green dot means the bridge is online. Owners also see the currently connected user and last-connection times.
5. Share: open the adapter → “Sharing” → enter a username or email (both accounts must have a confirmed email).
6. Connect as a technician: on an adapter shared with you, create an access-token, copy its URL, and use it in your CAN tool to connect.

Indicators

• Green dot — bridge online.
• Connected user — who is currently using it (owner view).
• Last connection — when the device / each user last connected.

Security

• Keep auth-tokens private. If one leaks, rotate it (“Rotate auth-token”) and reconfigure the bridge afterwards.
• Revoke access by removing a share or deleting an access-token.
• All traffic is TLS-encrypted end to end through the relay.

Password & email

• Forgot your password? Use “Forgot password?” on the login page.
• Confirmation and reset links arrive by email.