IP Cameras

Well it's not boaty, I've got 5 cameras on boat all wired and work well.

I've an IP camera at home and want to log in from a lap top or pc or iPad on the boat and check house/dogs etc.

Will we see you back in Brtn this yr.

Can you log into your home camera when you are on the network at home?

Ref Brighton : no. I've bought a berth in Antibes, so I'm staying put for the time being.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
On wired it has a cd you do a search then open it in browser or type 192.168.2.10

That's an internal address that can't be seen outside your network - so that explains why you can see it at home, but not when away. You need to alter your router settings to expose a public route to the camera. How to achieve this will depend entirely on which model of router you've got, and how comfortable you are with making changes to it.

If public v private ip addresses, port numbers and dns are not your sort of thing then at this point I'd suggest getting someone in to assist, it shouldn't take long to set up. (Normally the instructions that came with your ip camera will provide some general guidance on how to open a route up through your router).

One other approach is to vpn into your router, and you can then see the internal addresses.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Thanks

tried a few things now and the router settings have been made, im now using the instructions and doing the following:

Third Party DDNS
User can also use third part DDNS, such as www.dyndns.com User must apply a free domain name from this website and fill the info into the below blanks (Figure 12) and save the settings. Then the domain name can be used.
Figure 12
Note: Using the third party domain name, if the http port is not 80, the port number should be adding to the domain name with colon. Example: http://btest.dyndns.biz:81. While manufacturer DDNS is no need to add PORT.

its by no means a walk in the park.
 
Thanks

tried a few things now and the router settings have been made, im now using the instructions and doing the following:

Third Party DDNS
User can also use third part DDNS, such as www.dyndns.com User must apply a free domain name from this website and fill the info into the below blanks (Figure 12) and save the settings. Then the domain name can be used.
Figure 12
Note: Using the third party domain name, if the http port is not 80, the port number should be adding to the domain name with colon. Example: http://btest.dyndns.biz:81. While manufacturer DDNS is no need to add PORT.

its by no means a walk in the park.

Suggest you ask your ISP if you can have a fixed IP address.
 
Remote CCTV access is fairly easy "once" you know how. As jfm has explained most folks do NOT have a static ip address for their home or marinas broadband router, hence DVR or IP camera needs to be configured to use one of many dynamic DNS services. This means the DVR or ip camera can query the router to establish its current ip address and temporarily register it with a dynamic dns service coupled to a unique public URL address and port number for your DVR or ip camera.

Remote access tools that run on PC, Mac or smartphones and tablets can then use the public URL and chosen port number to display camera output in real time over the Internet. Some such tools also have a remote playback facility for DVRs or IP cameras with their own SD cards. KMEYE runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac and talks to many popular DVRs.

We find the ability to remotely monitor from smartphones really useful, especially if false intruder alarm is triggered.
 
Setting up remote access to you CCTV is indeed a bit of a pain in the bum. The problem is every router is different. If you only want to see a single camera and not record the footage then ip is good. If you have more than 1 camera and want to store the footage then I would suggest traditional analogue cameras and a DVR.

All our DVRs have a built in network card which allows remote access. We were also one of the first people to offer a remote set up service for remote access via a screen sharing session with one of our technicians.

No need for a static IP address.

You need to do a thing called port forwarding on your router. There will be 2 ports to forward, the Internet port (usually 80) and a control port (depends on the DVR).

You then need to set up a DDNS re-route service. This is a simple little service whereby a site such as dyndns or no-ip (our preferred choice at the moment) gives you a fixed address which is constantly updated with your CCTV system's current IP address. You log onto your no-ip address and it knows where to direct you to your CCTV system. You can choose your own address,something like smithcctv.no-ip.org

There is another way which uses a proxy server be we don't like that method because the servers get busy and things slow down.

When you are logged onto the same network as your CCTV system at home or at work you can bypass the Internet and access directly via the network by typing in the local ip address of your DVR (or ip camera). This would typically be something like 192.168.1.1

Hope that all makes sense. The only tricky bit is doing the port forwarding on your router. Because they are all different we can't do a video tutorial.

For a better understanding of the technical kit (cameras etc), the have a look at our CCTV buying guides

In particular the cctv camera buying guide might be helpful.

I appreciate everything is CCTV related but the kit used (particularly the cameras) is identical.

Hope that explains things a bit clearer.

Henry :)
 
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IMO, opening ports on the router (port forwardin etc) is dangerous.
If you were to monitor the outside connection of your router you will be horrified how many attacks are made on it.
There are systems out there that are specifically trying to penetrate through your router. By default, your router uses NAT (network address translation) which in itself is a robust firewall. As soon as you apply port forwarding, you are "opening a door" to being attacked. For example, my VoIP telephone system was attacked a couple of years ago and telephone calls were being routed from Albania onto my BT telephone line. Thankfully BT monitor for this kind of behaviour and automatically shut down my telephone line but not before running up a couple of hundred quids worth of calls. See it's dangerous to open ports without careful consideration!!.

I now use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) - (OpenVPN in fact which uses SSL - https protocol like the one you would use to your bank). The beauty of a VPN is that your LANs at both ends appear to each computer as if they were on the same LAN so your IP camera could be made to appear to be on the same sub network as your home network. It takes quite a lot of setting up - however, a static (fixed) IP is probably necessary. I've always insisted that my service provider gives me a ststic IP.

I've managed to put my system together without the need for a dedicated server. I've set mine up with OpenVPN running on a cheap Linksys router. The LAN on the boat also has a similar router and the two routers set up a secure "tunnel" between the LAN I have at home and the LAN on the boat. It works really well but I don't leave it switched on whilst I am away from the boat. I would leave it on though (and install an IP camera) if the internet in Spain were better than it currently is.

If anyone is interested in more info on how I got it all working, just ask.
 
Your posting on IP CCTV camera was just what I was looking for. We have an E series Raymarine chart plotter and would like to fit a reverse image camera to aid mooring our motor boat. The cost of a Raymarine camera with fitting is £600! Would be really interested to hear your advice.
 
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