Remote access to ip camera

I am trying to set up remote access to an ip camera I've just bought. The camera is tuned wirelessly to my Huawei HG520B router and works fine on my LAN. My ip address is public, so I've set up a dynamic DNS and set up port forwarding to the port the camera is on. The checker on Port Forward.com shows that the port is open and is able to ping the router. I've put the camera ip address into the Nat DMZ. However I still can't get access to the camera on a remote computer.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Mike Chapman

Posted 2012-06-20T15:28:20.600

Reputation: 1

If you've set up port forwarding on your router, you shouldn't need to put the camera in a DMZ. Just for troubleshooting purposes, try hitting the camera by typing your actual public IP instead of going through the Dynamic DNS service. Have you ever successfully port-forwarded to any other devices with your current network setup? – JoshP – 2012-06-20T15:39:16.067

If I type in the current public ip followed by the port number, it still won't connect to the camera and I haven't ever port forwarded to any other devices before, so I'm not sure where the problem lies. – Mike Chapman – 2012-06-20T15:52:20.973

The Huawei router is connected to my desktop computer by an ethernet cable, as the computer hasn't got a wireless card fitted, but I assume that this doesn't affect things and that it is probably the router settings that are causing the problem. – Mike Chapman – 2012-06-20T15:59:11.750

Perhaps use something easy to test your NAT. Setup lightweight webserver on your desktop then serve it to the internet. Hit your IP address from remote (say your phone on its network) and you should be able to see it. Once this works, figure out the camera? – Chris K – 2012-06-20T16:11:59.750

Forgive me if this seems too basic, but, are you sure you're forwarding to the correct port? Does the camera have one set automatically, or do you get to choose it? Hitting it from the LAN doesn't require a port, so LAN connectivity still doesn't guarantee proper forwarding. Perhaps some specifics (minus your public IP of course) regarding your networking setup would help. – JoshP – 2012-06-20T17:02:26.303

Answers

I'd still doubt the fact, that your port is forwarded correctly through ISP.

The fact, that you need DDNS suggests, that you connect through VPN of some sort, and most ISP by default provide you with a shared external IP, that makes things complicated. In some cases they even have a pool of IPs and some lucky people get individual fully forwarded and others get a shared at random. Reconnecting VPN until you get one you want sometimes helps. Usually if you call your ISP they can help you forward some port or sell you a static/white IP for additional $1-10, depending on ISP.

Having a shared IP gives you exactly the symptoms you describe.

Ofc some other obscure scenarios are possible too, like router shutting down VPN by timeout etc.

IcedLance

Posted 2012-06-20T15:28:20.600

Reputation: 136

It seams you done correctly the network part of the problem...

If the network router is working and port forward, nat and dmz are well setup... more, you can use it in your LAN then I would guess that the problem is in the viewer... some video codec is missing in the remote machine...

to solve this you can install the CD software in the remote machine (this usually installs the needed codecs) and then try again...

ZEE

Posted 2012-06-20T15:28:20.600

Reputation: 571

Many thanks for that - I hadn't thought of that and it gives me new hope !! - I was thinking I was going mad !!. – Mike Chapman – 2012-06-20T16:11:48.493