connecting DVR so it can be monitored via internet.

[chesters1]

we decided to up our surveillance camera to a more sophisticated system with night vision and 24 hour recording.

Now it works fine and i think its now see able on my LAN but my son cannot see it via his PC via the internet.

the instructions are dire and although theres tons of vids on youtube showing how to do it i have been merrily buggering up my existing set up fiddling with the settings on the hub! (to the point i lost all contact with the outside world!)

 

Anyway the idea is (perhaps) you give it a IP address (i used DHCP to find it then switched it to static) so i have that.port forwarding is a mystery but i think i have done that? the MAC number is displayed in the port forwarding page on my BT V3 homehub.

 

when i logged into the ip address of the DVR a activex componant asked to be installed and then i had the log in page for the DVR ,i set up a user account password for remote viewing etc.

 

BUT i think i am only using my LAN not the outside world to see it .i think you must (gets hazy now) connect with my pc first (its external IP address?) then the DVR's IP address?

so how would my son get to see my DVR via the internet ,it must be like Remote assistance etc so i am going wrong somewhere (norton firewall?) (hub firewall?)

 

OH and another thing the DVR activeX install thing pops up if you use IE 64bit and firefox ,it asked to install and allowing it seems OK but nothing happens! i guess its only for IE 32 bit (i have V9) but despite it saying in the book it works in XP with IE 6/7/8 it doesnt appear when my son types the DVR IP address so i guess its not that simple whereas i am and i am missing something

 

HMM just a thought he cannot see my LAN if the PC is off so the DVR must be able to be seen just via the BT hub which can be left on permanently if required ,the DVR has a built in browser ,can send emails ,be viewed by smart phones etc so this must be direct from the DVR via the hub so the fault is the hub or DVR settings

Edited April 23, 2012 by chesters1

[Andy_1984]

sounds like the dvr is setup correctly

 

im assuming you are using http://192.168.1.x. to view it from your own pc ?

 

for your son to view it you need the external ip address of the router. see here: http://www.whatismyip.com/

 

thats the one your son will use to connect to the dvr from his own house or other end of the world.

 

you also need to append the tcp port number you setup in port forwarding to the end of the ip. so the final address to put in the browser will resemble http://81.32.228.37:1234

 

1234 being the port number. if that doesnt work then port forwarding hasnt been setup correctly. browsers use port 80 as default if no other is specified.

 

ive setup dvr's in the past that wouldnt work with anything but internet explorer. i remember firefox just used to display a blank page without giving you the active x installer.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Andy_1984

[Steve Walker]

Was that a linksys IP videocam, Andy? I've got one of those somewhere and it requires an activex control to use the built in website. It is actually possible to open the stream directly with windows media player, though.

 

Chesters, what you want to do should be pretty straightforward, I agree with Andy's advice.

[Andy_1984]

never used that one Steve, the ones we installed were very basic, fit for purpose dvr's. i think it was more to do with the web server and Active X control being too out of date (software was from 1991).

 

if you loaded the dvr address up in IE it would give you the popup asking if you want to install the active x control and would work like a charm with all the functions you get for searching old videos and switching cameras. one even had a little PTZ joystick gui.

 

forcibly downloading the active x and attempting to use it in other browsers was a useless experiment, just not compatible with anything.

 

are you having problems with the linksys ?

[Steve Walker]

It's gone to the graveyard of dead tech that I can't bring myself to bin, Andy - otherwise known as the loft! The activex dependency wasn't a big deal, I just used to access it with Explorer, I think the final straw was that some other device needed me to change the wifi authentication to a protocol the Linksys didn't support.

 

I did start writing a program in C# to capture and save the output stream, meaning to build a database that ran multiple cameras, but I could never figure out how to make the captured stream playable.

[chesters1]

sounds like the dvr is setup correctly

 

im assuming you are using http://192.168.1.x. to view it from your own pc ?

 

for your son to view it you need the external ip address of the router. see here: http://www.whatismyip.com/

 

thats the one your son will use to connect to the dvr from his own house or other end of the world.

 

you also need to append the tcp port number you setup in port forwarding to the end of the ip. so the final address to put in the browser will resemble http://81.32.228.37:1234

 

1234 being the port number. if that doesnt work then port forwarding hasnt been setup correctly. browsers use port 80 as default if no other is specified.

 

ive setup dvr's in the past that wouldnt work with anything but internet explorer. i remember firefox just used to display a blank page without giving you the active x installer.

 

cheers i will have another play later

 

 

hmmm adding the port number to the end of my external IP address gives :Oops! This page appears broken. DNS Error - Server cannot be found

 

whats this DMZ dooda on the BT hub page use it or no?

 

if i use the DHCP setting on the DVR its a different IP address to the static one ,i can see i have been away from the internals of networked stuff for far to long!

 

Do i use the DHCP settings which are just 3 lines (DNS ,IP address and auto DNS) or static which has 4 lines (DNS ,a different IP address ,subnet mask and gateway)?

It also has 2 ports, media and web

 

According to the hub its connected to it

Edited April 24, 2012 by chesters1

[Andy_1984]

you cant use the external ip to connect to a device (dvr) while you are both on the same network. external ip address is only for use by people outside of your network. you use the local ip (192.168.1.x:1234)

 

if you have port forwarding setup correctly on the router you wont need the DMZ option. heres a good article that can explain it a wee bit better than me: http://www.homenethelp.com/web/explain/por...warding-dmz.asp

 

when setting up DHCP on the dvr the local ip address will change from time to time. so any port forwarding you setup on the bt router for the dvr's local ip address will be useless when the dvr gets a new local ip. so stick to static ip address.

 

if you were able to see the dvr in your browser while the dvr was using the STATIC ip option by going to 192.168.1.x then you have setup the static ip correctly on the dvr.

 

just to check though.

static local ip address should be 192.168.1.x (i usually make the x a high number up to 250. stops other devices using the same ip if dvr is ever offline as dhcp on other devices go for the lowest number first)

Subnet should be 255.255.255.0

dns & gateway should be routers local ip. BT have always used 192.168.1.254. double check that if you can.

 

i havnt seen the port options you mentioned on a dvr before. im going to assume that web is for web viewing and media is for software thats compatible with the dvr (did you get a cd with any software ?)

 

port number can be what ever you want it to be. so long as you have the same port setup in port forwarding on the router.

 

then check on the router for the static ip and make sure the port forwarding rules are applied to that static ip address of the dvr.

 

it might be worth while checking over the dvr manual as they sometimes require a few other ports to be forward to. if it doesnt say then it will just be the port number you see on the dvr.

 

hope this makes sense Chester. if you cant get anyone to check the external ip send me a private message with ip and port and ill see if it gives me the active x installer. if i get that far its working.

 

dont send me any dvr passwords i dont want to see you walking around the house naked.

[chesters1]

cheers ,great info all sorted now son can see house from the other end of the country and then rush down in 13 or 14 hours to punish intruders

thanks

[Andy_1984]

glad its sorted. was it the wrong ip you gave your son ?

[chesters1]

glad its sorted. was it the wrong ip you gave your son ?

 

yes my fault entirely instead of using : i used .