3G Cctv - Anyone Had A Play ?

[Steve Howard]

Remember that Three also offer the all-you-can-eat unlimited data package at £25 a month (30 day notice) if you want one less headache.

 

They are one of the better mobile data providers atm.

 

Do you have a link for that unlimited plan please, can't find it on three.co.uk? Thanks.

[Joe Harris]

The One Plan - 1 Month SIM

 

You will notice the 'Ultimate Internet' SIMs on the same page at £12.90 a month but the One Plan is less headaches as tethering is fully supported.

[matthew.brough]

Remember that Three also offer the all-you-can-eat unlimited data package at £25 a month (30 day notice) if you want one less headache.

 

They are one of the better mobile data providers atm.

I loved 3, until I disabled the wifi on my daughters Ipad and forgot to tell her to stay off Netflix. It was on the 1gb per month tariffs and £1 a MB after that. Her love of movies cost me dearly that month!

[MrHappy]

The One Plan - 1 Month SIM

 

You will notice the 'Ultimate Internet' SIMs on the same page at £12.90 a month but the One Plan is less headaches as tethering is fully supported.

 

 Not really a business tariff ?

[Adi]

I tried using 3 for a 3g sim using a solwise 3g router.

 

It wouldnt work as it does not have a fixed IP, i had to get a 3g sim through http://www.aa.net.uk/ which is more costly.

 

I have had an issue with the data running high for some reason, i'll post it later.

 

 

Are we sure a standard 3g sim will work for remote dialling in??

[Joe Harris]

 Not really a business tariff ?

 

No - For any decent amount of SIMS I would of course recommend speaking to the guys in Glasgow to sort out an account with support and implement SLA's

[emsgeorge]

Thanks for the replies gents.

 

Ive had a look at standard sim's. It would appear that they are no good for static IP's, and you need specialist cards for a static IP, which are called m2m cards - usually used in electricity meters, gas meters etc, for sending readings back via the network. Problem with these cards, although they are available (and it did take me about an hour to get someone at o2 who knew what they even were), have very small data packages attached to them, and cost a fiar deal if you want a decent sized package - imagine for our use, it would be streaming live monitor cctv footage, for anything up to 24hrs a day.

 

The brief is to be able to have a 'second controller' sat at an off site location (maybe even at home), open up the laptop, plug in their headset, and be able to use the cctv, and radios on the event site. Or, to give the police cctv room a laptop, so they can see an event site, if its just out of range of their town cameras, to give them at least an idea of whats going on, on the site.

 

Adding in the complication that the trailer unit is only used perhaps 20 times a year, and is sat unused for most of the winter / spring season, makes a big bandplan static IP sim card, an unattractive option to the client.

 

So, it looks although its back to a normal pay as you go data sim, and a rack server in the trailer rack, to handle the ddyns and port forwarding - Ive had a look around for 3g routers that will do ddns properly, but even the draytek vigors of this world arent any good it seems -  the best way is to have a server sat there running the routing for me.

 

If anyone finds a decent 3g router which can sort this out, please, let me know !.

 

Ta,

[Steve Howard]

How about implementing a VPN over the 3G link - you would need a pretty good networking knowledge, but it makes the 3G router config almost irrelevent as long as its not doing anything nasty like blocking ports (although you could just VPN over port 80). It also means you can be a little bit naughty if needed and just shove PAYG / consumer / phone SIMs in it the 3G router if needed - as outlined above.

 

Something like a Miktotik would be fine - if this means nothing to you (no offense!) its probably time to 'get a man in' - although once you have a standard working config, flashing it to a new router is no different to an alarm panel firmware upgrade.

 

Some of the 'run and gun' location TV news kit works this way - they go even further and bond multiple 3G routers together for faster upload speed. Its also the way 'wifi on trains' works.

[munroekelly]

are there ANY payg sim cards that are nattable?

 

every sim ive tried has always had a non accessable public ip - typically 10.0.0.whatever or what looks to be a normail public ip - eg 89.172.109.whatever - but again is non nattable - you cant reach the router if you try it in a browser 

 

 

re: steve howards implementing vpn on 3g - would this actually work ?

since payg sims dont offer a nattable public ip -  the remote camera would have to go on the clientside of the vpn - 

client vpn connects to known public ip of vpn server - 

 

but now youve got a vpn client connected to a vpn server - then what?

 

i always thought a vpn client is a vpn client - it doesnt connect you to anything - its just for a p.c/laptop  to reach anything on the vpn server side - not the other round- i believe this is why there are no cctv cameras about with a built-in vpn client .... and ive checked all the usual brands.

 

 

still , if youve done this - would you mind telling how you did it ?

 

i want to install a camera on a 3g router , router configured as vpn client - main adsl router with vpn server port forwards to the client  - and somehow ..... (thats the hard bit) to anything plugged into that 3g router .. havent figured out how to do it tho

[james.wilson]

You do vpn access by dialling from the remote site into either the clients network or into your own network setup and the viewer also dials this. Then in effect they are both local