Help with external access to wirless ip cam

[Studio12]

Hi, I recently bought a wirless IP camera that works fine locally on my network. I can view it on my computers within the house.

I am struggling to work out what I need to do to make the camera accesible from my phone or other device when outside of the local network.

I think it has something to do with DDNS, UPnp or someting but my knowledge of these network things is none!!

If anyone could give me some guidance I would appreciate it.

Many thanks in advance
Studio12

 

[DistortionNat]

Yes you will probably need to setup DynamicDNS if your IP is dynamic.
The problem with accessing your IPCam remotely is that you need know your home IP address... great if you have static, but a lot of us have dynamic. This is where DDNS comes in. Instead of loggin in to your home network using an IP address you use a domain name instead. You enter the DDNS details into your router and the router tells the service if your IP address changes so you always are able to log in to your home network.

Check out DynDns, they are the most popular service. It costs a couple of quid per month for the service. There are free ones, but most routers seem to only like DynDNS. Its what I use and its great.

 

[DistortionNat]

As far as the software for your phone is concerned I use IP Cam Viewer.

If you have any questions just ask

 

[Eddie-head]

the best way in my opinion to do this:

(this is how I have mine set up)

1) on your IP cam give it a static IP for your network (most probably a 192.168.x.x address)

2) on the router, take note of your external IP address. This can be found by temporarily turning on remote management. Yes it's dynamic but chances are it'll never change. If it does you can always find it again by going back into remote management

3) also on the router go into port forwarding and open up a port on http protocol to point to the static ip you assigned to the IP cam (the port doesn't really matter but avoid using the common used ones on other services (80, 443, 21, 23, 587, 465 etc)

4) on the phone pump in the settings for the external ip address and the port you have just forwarded and try to connect. If you've set up a username/password for the cam then that'll need to be entered too

so what you should end up with is:

an external IP address (lets pretend its 71.17.123.321)

a static ip on your network for the IP cam (pretend its 192.168.1.200)

a port forward on http (or https) for the camera's IP (so port 3035 goes to 192.168.1.200)

and what you would then put into the cam app or a web browser to see the camera would be:

http://71.17.123.321:3035

71.17.123.321 = ip address
3035 = port

hope any of that helps. Like I said, that's how I set mine up and it worked first time

 

[YitEarp]

you can simply setup a dns easily enough and have an easy to remember address that resolves your ip each time such as myipcamera.com etc etc

Research mydyns it is simple and free when your trial is over simply cancel and you will be asked to update via email link each month to keep the dns live (still free)

then you enter the dns address into your phone settings and voila access to your camera

before this comes some faffing about with your router however - if you need help on this check back in

 

[Eddie-head]

a straightforward dns record is not going to be the best way, because for that to work properly you would need a static ip address. most dns companies will charge to change a dns record, and also you then have the time taken for it to propegate the globe.

DDNS is a good shout because at least it'll contact your ISP through the router to find the IP and then populate the changed dns record into a new dns for you. again though this will cost and take time to propegate

The only time your home public IP address will change is if you get a new modem/router or reset the existing hardware (;although this is rare) and the benefit of doing it this way is that it's all free. no paying for dns records and changes to them etc. And as you'll still need to port forward in the router regardless you might as well save the hassle of trying to change three different things and getting something wrong along the line

 

[mickevh]

You might also care to think about "access security" (for want of a better phrase.) If you make your webcam available on the Internet, you make it available to everyone on the Internet. (There are folks who spend their lives searching for Internet hosts with "interesting" stuff to play with.)

Some IP cam's have a mechanism where you have to enter credentails before you can gain access to view anything or change any settings. I'd suggest you set such up if possible.