Remote Access of DVR s Contents Overview... 1 Introduction... 1 Dynamic DNS... 1 Network Settings... 8 Port Forwarding... 10 Router Setup... 10 Overview This document covers the principles and basic steps required to be able to view a DVR over the internet. Assumption is made that the installer has a working knowledge of computer networks. It is recommended that an IT person familiar with the particular network be present to assist during the configuration outlined below. Introduction This guide is divided up into 4 major parts, which will be dealt with separately: - Dynamic DNS - DVR network setup - Port Forwarding - Router Setup It is suggested that the installer read and familiarise himself with each of the steps. Dynamic DNS Why Dynamic DNS? When a router connects to the internet, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) allocates a dynamic IP address to the Router. The ISP has a range of IP addresses available and one of these addresses will be allocated to the router. The ISP will however, change this IP address on a regular basis This is due to security reasons and to the fact that the ISP only has a limited range of addresses which can be allocated. 1
Dynamic IP address = an IP address that will be changed on a regular basis by the ISP Fixed IP addresses are available from the ISP s. These have the advantage that they will always be the same and that the ISP will not change them for a specific router. Therefore, there would be no need for DYNDNS! This feature comes at a price and will increase your monthly premiums to your ISP. There are also inherent security risks once a hacker finds your IP address, he has plenty of time to breach your firewalls, and then come back as often as he likes! What is DYNDNS? DYNDNS.com is a service available on the internet that provides an easy and convenient way of accessing your Router over the internet without worrying about changing IP addresses. DYNDNS.com offers both a FREE service and a subscription service. We will only deal with the free service as it provides everything we need. In a nutshell, DYNDNS.com allows you to give a fixed name to a dynamic IP address. So, you would use the same name every time to access your Router, irrespective of any changes that your ISP has made to IP addresses. You only need to remember one name. Let DYNDNS.com worry about tracking the dynamic IP address. From your remote PC on the internet enter the hostname that you have created. The PC then connects via the internet to the DYNDNS.com servers (see Fig 1). Fig 1. PC connects to DYNDNS server The DYNDNS server then looks up the current IP address of your router and returns this IP address to the client PC (see Fig 2). 2
Fig 2. DYNDNS returns Router IP address The client PC can now connect to your router using the IP address provided by DYNDNS (see Fig 3). Fig 3. Client PC connects, via internet, to Router The next step would be for the Router to forward the inbound connection to the DVR (see Fig 4). We will discuss Port Forwarding a little later. 3
Fig 4. Router forwards inbound connection to DVR As mentioned earlier, your ISP will change the IP address of your router. Whenever its IP address changes, the router will communicate this change to DYNDNS. DYNDNS updates its records and then informs the client connections of this change, so they can maintain the connection over the internet. Getting a DYNDNS hostname Getting a unique hostname for your router is a 2 stage process Register a DYNDNS account, and then register your desired Hostname. Step one is to connect to the DYNDNS.com site. Open up your web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc) and enter www.dyndns.com in the address bar. Click on the SIGN IN button on the top, right of the screen (Fig 5.). Then click on Create an Account. This will take you to screen (Fig 6.) where you can create your account: 4 Fig 5. DYNDNS.com Sign In
Fig 6. Dyndns.com account creation page Fill in the Username you want for your account. (it is often useful to use the site name!). Then enter and confirm your Password in the 2 fields provided. Next, you will need to enter and confirm a valid e-mail address in the provided fields. (This must be an e-mail address you can access readily, as a confirmation e-mail will be sent to it The clients e-mail address could be used.) Next, you can select/deselect various publications that will be e-mailed to you if you want them. Then you need to enter the Security Image code. Once this is done, you can answer any of the other questions if you want to. These are just used for market research. Click CREATE ACCOUNT at the bottom of the screen. Wait for the confirmation e-mail to arrive and follow the link to finish the creation of your account. Make a note of the Username, Password and e-mail address you have used, as you will require them if you need to make any changes to your DYNDNS account and hostnames in the future. Now that you have a DYNDNS account you can create a hostname for your router. Go back to www.dyndns.com. 5
Click on the LOG IN button. On the login screen enter your account name and password (see Fig 7.). Fig 7. Log into your Dyndns.com account This will take you to the My Services page (Fig 8.) : Fig 8. My Services page select Add Host Service 6
Select My Hosts on the menu. Then Click on Add Host Services. The Add New Hostname page will open up (Fig 9.): Fig 9. Create your Host name Enter the Hostname you require for the router (eg mydvr). Then, from the drop-down box, select the extension you would like (eg.dyndns.org, or.homedvr.org or dvrdns.org). Choose something that is relevant to the site, and is easy to remember. Typically, you would create a hostname like mydvr.dyndns.org. Then you would enter mydvr.dyndns.org into your browser address bar (or client software) to access the router over the internet If the hostname you require has already been taken, the system will inform you and you will just have to repeat the step above, with a revised hostname. Select your Service Type as Host with IP address. In the IP Address field enter the IP address that your ISP has allocated to your router. It is displayed in blue under the box - just click on the blue text. At the bottom of the screen, click on the check Out button. This will take you to your shopping cart. (Don t panic : the invoice will have a value of $0.00). Check out. DYNDNS will send you an e-mail to confirm that the hostname has been activated. Note : the dyndns.com site is updated on a regular basis and the screens may appear different to those shown here, but the fields and required information will be the same. 7
Network Settings Hardware Getting the DVR connected to the Local Area Network (LAN) is the next important step. Once the DVR is connected to the LAN it can be connected to the internet via the router on the LAN. The DVR needs to be connected to your network switch. This is accomplished by using a standard network fly-lead. One side of the fly-lead is plugged into the Network port on the DVR. The other end is connected to your network switch. You should see a Link light come on the switch to indicate that the DVR is connected to the switch. Network settings If you are unsure of the required settings, then speak to an IT person. He should be able to give you all the information you need. The method of setting up the various network parameters varies from DVR to DVR, but the principles remain the same. All devices will require an IP address, a Subnet mask, a Default gateway, and some Ports to be set. These settings have to be compatible with your existing network settings. If you are unsure what they should be, then consult an IT person! For a PC based DVR running MS-Windows (such as with Hikvision ivms2000), the main network settings are set in the Windows control panel: Go to Control Panel and then to the Network Connections menu. Choose the Local Area Connection. Select Internet Protocol IPV4 Go to Properties and enter the required IP address, subnet mask and Default gateway. Save the settings. You will then have to set up Ports on the DVR software (see below for details) On embedded DVR, one usually goes to the Main Menu. Then to Settings Then to Network Settings Then enter the IP address, Subnet Mask and Default gateway. You will also have the option to set up Ports in this menu. (See below for details) The Default Gateway is usually the internal IP address of the Router. You can check this by running an IPCONFIG on another PC on the network. This will also tell you the Subnet mask and IP address range. 8
Ports What, why, how? A port is a sub-address of an IP address. We communicate with a Device (PC, DVR etc) using an IP address. We then communicate directly with a specific application on the device by using a Port. The DVR webserver application runs on a specific port on the DVR. When we want video feed from the DVR we have to address it with its IP address and Port number for the webserver. Usually the default Ports are fine, if one only has 1 DVR on the network. Some typical default ports are : Hikvision 8000 Sesco 9091-9112 Securiprod 37777 and 37778 These Port numbers need to be set and checked on the DVR setup. On Windows based DVR s, one needs to open the DVR software, go to the Config screen and then to the Network menu. On embedded DVR s the Port setting is usually part of the Network Settings Screen. When one goes to the Network settings screen, you will notice that there are 2 ports to set up A HOST port and a HTTP port. The Host port is the port where all video streaming, playback etc will happen. When one uses the supplied client software, then this is the port everything will point too. If you want to use your web-browser (Internet Explorer) then by default this will go to Port 80. Port 80 is the HTTP port and by default it is set up as such on the DVR. If you have multiple DVR s on your network that you will be accessing via the internet, then, not only should each DVR have its own, unique IP address, but the Port numbers should be changed accordingly. For example, the first DVR would have an IP address of 192.168.0.64, a Host port of 8000 and an HTTP port of 80. The second DVR may then have an IP address of 192.168.0.65, a Host port of 8001 and an HTTP port of 81. PING the DVR from another PC on the network to check that it is connected to the network 9
Port Forwarding What is a Port? As mentioned earlier, a Port is a Sub-address of an IP address. An IP address is used to communicate with a specific device. A Port is used to communicate with a specific application on the device. Typically, we would communicate with a DVR using it s IP address and it s Port eg : 192.168.0.1:8000. (The DVR client software usually takes care of this!) If we want to connect to a DVR using a web browser then, by default, the web-browser goes to port 80 the HTTP port. If we changed the HTTP port on the DVR then we would need to tell the web browser, not only the IP address of the DVR, but the port as well. To do this we use the : to separate the IP address and port number. Therefore, if the DVR has an IP address of 192.168.0.50 and we changed the HTTP port to 81, we would enter the following into the address bar of the browser: http://192.168.0.50:81 What does Port Forwarding do? When we want to log into our DVR over the internet, we use the DYNDNS host name we created for the router. But, using this host name will take us to the router. The router now needs to make the connection from your client PC to the DVR. This is accomplished by Port Forwarding! The router looks at the request coming in from the client PC and finds the reference to the HOST port on the DVR. It then looks up this port number in its settings and forwards the connection to the device with the corresponding IP address in this case the DVR. Your connection is then forwarded to the DVR. From this point on the router becomes transparent and it will appear that your client PC is connected directly to the DVR. Router Setup There are a large number of manufacturers of routers on the market. Every brand has its own menu structure and settings. Within each brand there are a number of models and there may be differences between the setup of the various models as well. We will not discuss a particular model or brand, but will give an overview of the steps and principles involved in configuring a router. For specific details refer to the manual for your router. 10
Configuration details for almost any router can be found at www.portforward.com This site also has useful information like default passwords, IP addresses etc and is a very useful resource. Accessing your Router settings To access your router setup menu you will need to know the following : - Local IP address of router - Router username - Router Password You should be able to get all this info from the IT guy. You may be able to find the default Username and Password at www.portforward.com. You can find the IP address by doing an IPCONFIG on one of the PC s on the LAN the default gateway is the IP address of the router. Open up your web browser. In the address bar enter the IP address of the router. This will take you to a LOGIN screen. Enter the Username and Password. If this is all correct, you will be taken to the router main setup screen (Fig 10.). Fig 10. Typical Router Login screen Configuring your Router for DYNDNS The first thing we need to do is to configure the router for use with DYNDNS. Look for a DDNS or Dynamic DNS menu option. It is sometimes in the main menu, but may be under WAN, Configuration, Advanced or something similar. Select this option when you find it (Fig 11.). 11
Fig 11. Setting up DYNDNS on the router Check that your service type is set to Dyndns.org Enter the full host name that you created in the appropriate field. Enter the username of the account you created on Dyndns.com Enter the Password for your account on Dyndns.com Make sure that the DYNDNS is enabled either by checking the appropriate tick box, or selecting Enabled from a drop-down menu. Click on the APPLY or SAVE button to complete the DYNDNS set up Configuring Port Forwarding on your Router As noted above, setup of port forwarding differs vastly between the various brands and models of routers. Please refer to www.portforward.com for the specific port forwarding details for you router. Below is an overview of the typical steps taken to set up the port forwarding. Firstly, find the menu for Port forwarding. This menu may also be called something like Port Triggering, Service Rule, Firewall rule, etc. It may be in the main menu, or it may be under another menu such as Advanced, Virtual Server, Applications and Games, Games, WAN, etc. Select it when you find it (Fig 12.). 12
Fig 12. Configuring port forwarding on the Router Select the ADD or CUSTOM RULE option. If it requires a direction, then make sure you select it as Inbound. Enter a suitable name for the rule. Enter the Start and End Port numbers (if your DVR only has one Host port, then this is the Start and End port!). Enter the Protocol It is usually TCP/UDP, but may be just TCP or Just UDP (check on the DVR network settings). If in doubt use TCP/UDP Enter the IP address of the DVR Ensure that the rule is enabled for everyone and that there are no time restrictions. Save the rule. If you will be using a Web Browser to access the DVR, then add a rule for your HTTP port as well (usually 80) Save this Rule. 13
Completing the set up Make sure you have saved all the settings. Reboot the Router. To test the system, use a laptop with a 3G modem to connect to the internet. Use internet Explorer, or the DVR client software to connect the DVR using the host name you created with DYNDNS. If you cannot access the DVR you may need to check your security settings. Switch off the Firewall (there are 3 firewalls in Windows 7!) and try connect again. Also, Check your security settings under Internet Explorer Ensure that all ActiveX components are enabled. If this doesn t work, you may need to speak to the IT guy and make sure that he doesn t have any firewalls that may be blocking your connection. 14