Connecting A Dvr To Network

[arfur mo]

Hi,

firstly i'll explain why,

Like many, i've messed with hundreds of computers over many years, firstly out of interest and a curiosity with anything that had buttons starting with the iconic Sinclair ZX81, then as the hobby progressed with experience, semi professionally to some extent. this has been in making, upgrading and repairing them.

any comments/recommendations from the more knowledgeable which improves/clarifies/corrects what i've wrote, will be greatly appreciated. for those who want only to express ill will, i have agreed with James to let this run for a short period to allow contributions, then he will lock it and delete any unhelpful comments. if you want to add anything after then contact James

i have no 'expertise' in this area, well meant suggestions will be treated respect, i promise i will not go into 'arfur's combat' mode for anyone being constructive - if some of what i wrote is over mundane my apologies, the idea is for a complete novice to be able to follow it, so here go's nothing.

those who know me say i'm considered useful at it (so yes some act), so while i can handle a computer, a network configuration guru in any way shape or form am i, getting bent out of shape when discussion gets into MAC addresses, Sub Net Masks, domain names DDNS, DDYNS, DDS DCHP and so on, as hard as i try to grasp it with synonyms (which is meant to make it easier grrr), i just cloud over mentally and it all dissolves into the devils gobbledygook.

I liken it to my dear wish to be able to play just one simple instrument - say a tissue over a comb, but try as i might i have been blessed with two hands that sport 10 thumbs, so when i try, frustratingly i son realise thats never going to happen.

some of the phrases use are blatantly plagiarised from those with far more knowledge, having patiently talked me through problems, i've no chance of claiming any credit because or writing this article and that is definitely not the point of it as you will see when you read on.

having suffered many agonies over setting up DVRs on networks, i decided to put what i understood and learnt so far into notes on how it was done, so i can do it again 'parrot fashion' in the future. then i though i'm not alone in this so why not let others read and hopefully benefit from my toils? hopefully in some way you will find this a fairly useful 'dummies walk through guide', to help others simularily 'afflicted' wth blind spots.

Setting up a DVR on a local network

any machine on your network has to have a reference so any other machine can 'talk' to it, so just like a human name "john.henry.bloggs.2nd" this allows us to find so access the target machine, possibly n example is the continental method of addressing, using CONTRY.TOWN.STREET.NUMBER.

this is called the Internal IP address, which in DVRs the IP address is usually fixed at the factory, but can be changed in the DVR oe PCs programming. On network attached PC's it can be fixed by the IT engineer or left randomly allocated by the hub/switch in a so called 'peer to peer' network, this kind of network is simple to set up and used in many homes and small businesses. All it means in short there is no set 'master server' controlling all the other machines access as it would be in big offices. any machine could actually be working invisibly as the 'server' as decided at random by the operating system.

ok, so we need the internal IP address and something called the Sub Net Mask of the DVR are needed, an example will look like this

DVR

IP Address 192.168.1.68

Sub Net Mask 255.255.255.0

now don't ask me what that really all means or how to use it, the Sub Net Mask defines the number of computers on the network, and often will be 255.255.255.0

Your better off to 'log in' at the DVR and look at the network settings in it, as often the 'getting started' advice supplied is wrong or out of date, leading to total confusion and miserable failure.

If the network is connected onto a shared internet connection then you will also have a 'Gateway' which most people know as the 'router', this unit also has it's own internal network IP & Sub Net Mask settings, and will be needed.

example

Internal IP = 192.168.1.1

255.255.255.0

The router will also have an external IP address either a fixed number allocated by the Internet Provider if it is a Static IP, or more commonly in homes and small businesses a Dynamic IP (i.e. random number supplied by he Internet provider) is used.

Your 1st job is to hook up the network cable to the switch or hub, with the DVR turned on, it's best to check the green activity light on the hub/switch for the socket your using, and if it has one the network connection indicator on the DVR will show connection is made to the network if lit.

Many faults are caused by mistaken patching or poor patch leads, that is why this check is very important and can be very time saving, but won't mean at this point the PC's will work with the DVR.

Note.

it is very important the 1st, 2nd and 3rd numbers in the IP addresses match throughout all the machines which will be in the same group for viewing the DVR locally, the last number is the actual machine number, the 1st thee sets of numbers are like the city.town.street. commonly on a secure business network with a true server '1' will be reserved for the network main server, so i suggest to use '99', which will be just like the number on your front door in the forth position, and must be unique on all the machines in this group, if you set two machines to the exact same same number you will get an error message warning you.

at this point having connected the DVR and setup the IP details, it is wise to 'ping' it from a fellow network connected PC, by 'pinging' your running a simple communication test a bit like calling out down a long water pipe "are you there yet Mr DVR" and if it is and listening to you, it will report back "yes Mr Dummy, i'm on the left six pipes along from you".

So, from the start menu click 'RUN'

type in 'CMD' return, a few moments you should see a black 'dos' window appear, just ignore what is printed in it for the moment as it is of no consequence for our needs.

now type 'ping 192.168.1.68' (or whatever your DVR IP address is set to in its network settings) and press return, if all is well it will report 4 packets sent and 4 packets received which is good, if you get a fail with 4 packets sent, 0 packets received you have a connection or configuration issue or or conflict to deal with.

alternately, you can do another test by directly typing in the DVR's IP address into the address bar at the top of your preferred browser, but better for this exercise to use Internet Explorer, if the DVR responds with the 'log in' web page page then we in business, and have established contact and you can proceed to configure you PC client viewing software, if the 'network time out' message appears we have a problem to resolve, so go back over the steps above again.

Having got access established, we can move on to remote access over the internet using a fixed IP.

This requires a technique called 'port forwarding', you can simply 'google' port forwarding and find many articles on it, often relative to the actual router used,. not all routers support 'port forwarding" (also called 'port triggering'), and some are harder than others to configure.

My advice here is, ff there is a delegated IT network admin engineer (look for spotty kid in the stores), then get him/her to set it up for you, far better than risking shutting down some or all their network through a mistake (my risk assessment policy - let someone else take the risk).

You will need to know which ports you DVR uses along with its internal IP address, often Port 80 is used for internet access, and 1 or 2 other ports for data, PTZ control, sound etc. depending on the make of machine used.

This info should be in the instructions for the DVR, but a look in the network configuration of the DVR it should reveal all and the real ports used. once you know these then you can set up the router.

in short, your allowing a tunnel through the routers security, the 1st stop after the external IP is addressed remotely is commonly Port 80, (but others can be used). this is like the opening of the tunnel, any traffic getting through will be picked up by the router and directed to the appropriate PC or in out case DVR, the next setting at port 17777 having been forwarded to out DVRs internal IP address means the remote computer can now access it.

Some alternatives

You could place you DVR into the DMZ (DeMilitarised Zone) this will remove it from the routers fire wall protection, and exposing the DVR to the internet. at this point any defense against hacking is offered only by the DVRs log-in name, password and operating system, there is usually no way to load AV software into most of them. Many DVRs run on the LinuxOS platform which is intrinsic very hard to hack.

the port forwarding will present far less risk to the DVR and minor risk to the other PCs due to the port forwarding directing traffic to the DVR and nowhere else.

You will meet many models of router, it has to be set to bridge mode to work with dynamic IPs a suggestion today was to obtain a router your familiar with and connect that into the clients router, this way you won't need to configure thw clients router, interesting idea but not tried it, others will know what ever that techy actually meant - i hope

if i get it sorted, i want to do an apendem for dynamic IP remote access using DynDNS, i might be some time while i seek further help and get a handle on it, anyone wants to lend a hand i'd be very obliged.

Regs

Alan

[james.wilson]

Good post Arf.

I have closed the topic for now, if anyone would like to add anything please start a new topic to discuss this.

James