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Getting your streaming video on to the internet and your website can seem a daunting task...especially when your ISP sticks you with a dynamic IP instead of a static One. Some ISP's (Information Service Providers) dont make it easy for you either as they route connections from their routers on the net which has one address to your home connection which is on a different IP address so its hard to tell what your IP address is. Whatever software or hardware you are using, to get your pictures streaming from your cameras on to the internet, the first thing you must do is ensure your home equipment is visible on the internet. So lets work out the best way for YOU to get your webcams or web CCTV equipment up and running. Your current IP address, the one that your ISP is broadcasting is shown on the top bar of this page above the search box. If your computer is directly connected to your broadband modem and not through a router, or a combined modem and router then this will be your internet address at present. you can also find out your home IP address by opening up a DOS window so you can type in DOS commands and type in "ipconfig" followed by return. This will tell you the IP address of your computer. If it is directly connected to the modem with no router then this is the address you will have to connect to to access your cameras and it should be the same number as the one shown on this page. Now if you have a fixed IP address then this number will never change. A fixed IP address is great as it never changes so you allways know what it is and can set your camera systems and web pages to it. A Dynamic IP address is one that can change for all sorts of reasons (BT ones usually are) and usually alters when you turn your modem off and on again. A dynamic IP is allocated by the ISP (Information Service Provider) and you have no control over it. So how do you connect to your cameras when you dont always know what the IP address is going to be? Dont worry if you have a dynamic IP address there are FREE services that allocate a name to your address and update the address number to this name whenever it changes automatically.......yes i said FREE service. Actually this service is very usefull even if you have a static IP address as you can still assign a name to your address and a name is much easier to remember that a long string of numbers. Read on and then check out our Free Dynamic DNS service information section for more help with this. Now what if you have a router. Well a router allows you to connect multiple PC's and equipment to a single source and gives each piece of equipment a local address, (You can find each PC's local IP address bu using the IPCONFIG command from within a DOS window), and It then routes data to the different equipment according to the Ports that are assigned to them. The router prevents users on the Internet from accessing PC's connected to your local network. So you want to access your webcams, but how are people going to get to your cameras if your router is not allowing people to connect to your PC? Well a router has a feature called port forwarding. Port forwarding is a mechanism used to take Internet traffic destined for a particular port and then send it to a computer on your local network. It is also sometime called Network Address Translation (NAT) EXAMPLE 1 (fixed ip with router) Your IP address is fixed. It is 80.30.258.30 this is the fixed address of your router on the internet. Your local PC's have the addresses 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3 (You found this out doing ipconfig at each PC) You have a webcam on machine 192.168.1.3 and it is set to port 8888 To allow your software and ultimately your web pages to access this camera you have to log on to your routers Admin section and set up Port Forwarding (or NAT) to forward port 8888 to 192.168.1.3 Thats it. Now as soon as your application anywhere in the world needs to access that camera, it calls http://80.30.258.30:8888 and appears at 192.168.1.3:8888..........your camera. The more cameras you want the more ports you set up. |
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Now what if you havent got a fixed IP, your broadcast address is not the same as your home address or both? Have no fear, There are a number of FREE services that will allow you to overcome this. They work by assigining your dynamic IP address with a fixed name and work out all the rest for you. All yo have to do is make sure that your router is configured for port forwarding to the correct ports of your choice and the service handles the rest. BUT WAIT i hear you ask.......what happens if my IP address changes. Well the FREE service allows you to manually update the IP address if you want but also provides you with a free program to download called a DUC which means Dynamic Update Client. You load this software on to one of your machines and whenever your dynamic IP is altered for any reason the DUC automatically updates the FREE service so you only have to remember one web name to use to access your cameras or PC's remotely from anywhere on the internet. The reason they can do this FREE service is along the same lines as SKYPE. A great many users will only ever use the FREE service but many more will advance and use additional services that you need to pay for. But for home use, FREE is fine. Time for another example. EXAMPLE 2 (Dynamic ip with different local and net IP's with router) Your IP address is dynamic. Also the fixed address of your router on the internet is different from your dynamic link at home. Your local PC's have the addresses 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3 (You found this out doing ipconfig at each PC) You have a webcam on machine 192.168.1.3 and it is set to port 8888 and you want to access this over the internet. First we need to set up an account with a FREE web redirection service provider. In this example we are using http://www.no-ip.com. Log on and set up your account. "Click Here" to learn more about using this service Once this is done, log back in and select a no-ip free dynamic DNS service. You will have to select a name for it and select a no ip extension for it to allow identification. So lets say we call your cameras "mycameras" and we select an extension from the no-ip drop down list lets say "servepics.com"......add this as your new account. Leave all the settings at default and you dont need to add information to any of the other fields on display. Give it 1/4 hour or so before trying to use it as it takes a little while to set it up. Now instead of typing in an IP address on your viewing software or making your web pages look at an IP address to display your cameras you just use http://mycameras.servepics.com. Thats it, the web redirection service now knows where to send all the information to get to your router via the internet. To allow your software and ultimately your web pages to access this camera you have to log on to your routers Admin section and set up Port Forwarding (or NAT) to forward port 8888 to 192.168.1.3 Thats it. Now as soon as your application anywhere in the world needs to access that camera, it calls http://mycameras.servepics.com and appears at 192.168.1.3:8888..........your camera. The more cameras you want the more ports you set up. Now what if the IP changes. Well you can log in to your no-ip control panel where it will tell you the current setting and show you your IP so you can manually change it. If this becomes a pain simply download their Dynamic Update Client software and follow the instructions to set it up. This will then automatically update your account if your IP address changes. |
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