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Setting Up An IP Camera For WiFi & Internet Access By Nicholas Vinen & Greg Swain Setting up an IP camera for WiFi is usually pretty straightforward. Often, it’s just a matter of plugging it into a router via a Cat5 cable, figuring out its IP address, then logging into the camera’s web interface and entering the details for your WiFi network (SSID & password). It’s not always plain sailing though, especially if you want to access your camera on a PC, tablet or smartphone via the internet. A S STATED in our feature article this month on IP cameras, it’s invariably necessary to set up a camera using a wired (Cat5) connection before it can be used on a wireless network. That’s because certain information is required for the camera to be able to “join” your wireless network and accessing the camera via a cable allows you to enter this information. Wireless networks are identified by their “SSID” name so you’ll need to know the name of your network. If in doubt, check the settings of a device already connected to it, eg, a smartphone. There will almost always be an accompanying password required to gain access to your WiFi 22  Silicon Chip network. The security protocol should be either WPA or WPA2 but you can only choose the latter if all other WiFi devices on the network support it. Once you have these details, it’s just a matter of logging into the camera’s web interface and entering the necessary details to enable it to join the WiFi network. That’s typically done by typing its IP address into a web browser and going to the relevant setup menu. After that, you can unplug the Cat5 cable and continue to access the camera over the wireless network. By the way, if you don’t have a password for your WiFi network, set one up now! An open network is an invitation to get viruses, have your personal files accessed or have random strangers use your internet connection (possibly for illegal purposes!). What’s the camera’s IP? The first step in the setting-up procedure is to connect the camera to a spare port on your router. Assuming that your router has DHCP enabled (usually the default setting), it will automatically allocate an IP address to the camera (just as it does for other devices on the network, such as PCs, laptops and smartphones). For the uninitiated, an IP address is a unique set of numbers allocated to each device on your private network to identify it. It usually contains four siliconchip.com.au numbers separated by dots, starting with either “192.168.” (eg, 192.168.0.5) or “10.” (eg, 10.0.0.1). Each device on your network ends in a different number, so that each device has its own unique number. There’s one small detail though – how do you know which IP address has been “handed out” to the camera, so that you can log into and set it up for WiFi and to change other settings? Basically, you need to figure out which address the camera has been allocated and if you have multiple cameras, they will have different addresses. By default, the addresses are allocated by your modem/router to ensure there are no “collisions” (ie, devices with the same address). It will also often be configured to “hand out” addresses in a specific range. For example, if the router itself has an internal IP address of 192.168.1.1, then it may be configured to hand out IP addresses in the range from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.20. Some cameras, such as the TechView QC-3834 (and the QC-3832) are supplied with utility software which will tell you their IP address once you’ve connected them to your network. If so, use this as it’s probably the easiest method. In the case of the TechView cameras, this utility is called “IP Camera Tool”. It’s simply a matter of installing it on your PC and running it. The utility will then show the camera’s IP and its port number. If there is more than one TechView camera on the network, it too will be listed. Fig.1 shows a typical example. In this case, a camera has been detected on 192.168.1.5 and port 80. Doubleclicking on the listing will then bring up the camera’s web interface and you can then log into it by entering in the user name and password (the default user name is usually “admin”, while the default password is usually just left blank or can also be “admin”). Typically, an IP camera will have a default port number of 80 or 81. Note that each camera must have a unique port number, so if you are setting up two or more cameras be sure to change the port numbers to avoid conflicts (eg, to 8888, 8080, etc). Making a guess Another method of determining the camera’s IP is to simply make an educated guess. That’s done by first siliconchip.com.au Fig.1: TechView’s “IP Camera Tool” app shows the camera’s IP and port number. You can then log into the camera by double-clicking the listing. Fig.2: typing “ipconfig” in the Command Prompt dialog gives you the PC’s IP address (in this case 192.168.1.2) and the router’s IP (192.168.1.1). You can then make an educated guess as to what your camera’s IP might be after allowing for other devices (eg, smartphones) on the network. checking the address allocated to your PC or phone. For example, in Windows you can determine your PC’s IP address by pressing the Windows Key + R, typing “cmd” and pressing Enter, then typing “ipconfig” and pressing Enter. The display will be similar to that shown in Fig.2. Here we can see that the computer’s IP address is 192.168.1.2 and this has been allocated by the router (also acting as the Default Gateway) which is at 192.168.1.1. The camera might therefore be 192.168.1.3 or 192.168.1.4 or something similar – unless these addresses have already been used by other devices such as smartphones or smart TVs. Anyway, chances are that the number allocated to the camera will not be too different from that of your PC so it should not take long to find. To test an address, type both it and the camera’s port number (the two separated by a colon) into the address bar of a web browser. If it’s the right one, the camera’s web interface will quickly come up. How do you know the port number? Well, the camera will be allocated a default number and this will be listed in the instructions supplied with the camera or printed on the camera body. For example, if the default port number is 80 and you want to test an IP address of 192.168.0.7, it’s just a matter of typing 192.168.0.7:80 into your browser’s address bar and pressing Enter. Get it from the router Yet another method for determining the camera’s IP is to login to your router’s web management interface The EasyN S9014 720p scanning camera from Altronics has its own set-up utility but can also be configured as described in the article. Its default port is 81. March 2015  23 Many IP cameras come with a DDNS hostname (see text) on a label attached to the base. This lets you access the camera via the internet without having to know your public IP. Once set-up as in Fig.7, you just type the address into a browser and substitute the camera’s port number for “xxx”. IP address and possibly the name of each device on your network. It’s then just a matter of finding the camera’s listing. If you just set it up, it will probably be at the bottom of the list – see Fig.3. Getting the WiFi working Fig.3: logging into your router will show you which IPs have been handed out to devices on the network. If you’ve just installed your camera, it will probably be the last one in the list (some routers even list the device name). Fig.4: once you’ve logged into the camera’s web interface, you can change the port number if necessary (eg, to 8888) to prevent conflicts with other cameras. (assuming you know the login details). You should then be able to find a page called “Attached Devices” or “DHCP 24  Silicon Chip Client Table” or “LAN IP” or similar (typically somewhere under the Status or Advanced menu). This will list the Once you’ve determined the correct IP, you can then use this interface to get the camera on the WiFi network. Note that it will be assigned a different IP address on the wireless network than the one allocated on the wired network, so once you unplug the fixed cable, you will have to figure out its new wireless IP (using the same procedure as before). If you can then access its web interface with the Cat5 cable unplugged, you know it has successfully joined your wireless network. If you’re sure that you’ve correctly enter­ ed the WiFi settings into your camera (and rebooted it, if necessary) but you still can’t access it via the wireless network, you may have a security feature called “MAC Address Filtering” enabled in your router. You will have to log into its web interface and either disable this feature or add the camera’s unique MAC (Media Access Control) address to the list of allowed addresses. Most routers make adding a MAC to the list quite easy; once you’ve found the right menu and chosen to add a new address, it will normally give you a list of discovered devices to add, possibly with names alongside. It’s then just a matter of choosing the right one (ie, your camera’s MAC), adding it and saving the changes. You may also find the MAC address printed on the camera. If so, it will be in the form of six pairs of letters/numbers siliconchip.com.au separated by colons or dashes. For example, “12-34-56-78-9A-BC”. Security Before going any further, make sure you have set your own user name and access password for the camera via its web interface. And don’t make it too easy – “password” and “12345” are terrible passwords, as are single dictionary words or a person’s first name. These are the first things any potential hacker would try if they want to access your camera. It’s especially critical to set a good password for indoor cameras, unless you like the idea of strangers watching you! There are internet databases of many thousands of unsecured webcams which can be found with a simple web search – don’t find yourself among them. If you can change the user name, you should do that too as it makes it that much harder for someone to guess the login details. Once you have everything set up, you can view the camera’s video on the local network simply by entering its IP address and port number into your browser and logging on. Of course, if the router is switched off, then it might allocate a different IP to the camera when it is switched back on again. The same applies if the camera is switched off and on again. One way around this is to allocate a static IP address to the camera but make sure that this is outside the router’s DHCP range. However, there are other methods which don’t require a static IP, as we shall see later. Viewing via the internet In most cases, a WiFi camera will come with a unique DDNS hostname to enable you to view it from a remote location. DDNS stands for “Dynamic Domain Name Server” and it allows you to log on to your home network without knowing your home network’s public (or WAN) IP. It can be as simple as setting the camera up, as described above, then typing in the website address printed on the bottom of the camera (or scanning a barcode which takes you straight to that address) and away you go. As before, you have to include the port number at the end of this address. If it works, then your modem/router has automatic port forwarding (more on this shortly) and you don’t have to do anything else. In some cases though, siliconchip.com.au Fig.5: here’s where you set up wireless networking for the TechView cameras (the interface for the EasyN cameras is similar). It’s just a matter of adding the SSID (network name), encryption protocol & password (share key). Fig.6: if your router doesn’t support automatic UPnP port forwarding (see text), then it may be necessary to manually assign a static IP to each camera so that you can manually enter the port forwarding details into the router (see Fig.9). Fig.7: this is the TechView’s DDNS service set-up dialog. Entering in these details lets you log-in to the camera via the internet without knowing your public IP. March 2015  25 Fig.8: if your router supports UPnP port forwarding, make sure it’s enabled if you want to access the camera via the internet. The router will then automatically port forward any UPnP devices (such as IP cameras). Fig.9: alternatively, if your router doesn’t support UPnP port forwarding, it will be necessary to manually add port forwarding for each device. Here, two IPs have been port forwarded: 192.168.1.5 on port 8888 and 192.168.6 on port 8080. you will need to manually set up the port forwarding on your modem/router to allow you to make a connection from the public internet to your camera which is on your private network. Basically, a software “firewall” is built into the modem/router, designed to prevent worms, viruses and hackers from accessing your PC or other 26  Silicon Chip equipment on your network. In order to make a connection to the camera, you have to open up the relevant “port” in this firewall so that data can pass through. We’ll look at this shortly but first, let’s take a look at dynamic DNS. Dynamic DNS If your camera does not offer an easy way to connect remotely, the first thing you will need to do is figure out your public internet IP (or WAN) address as this will be required to make a connection from another location. It’s akin to your home address (basically, it’s your address on the internet) and as with a private IP address, it’s typically four numbers separated by dots. How do you determine your public IP adddress? Easy – just type what is my ip into the Google search engine and press Enter. Once you have your IP, try typing it into a web browser followed by a colon and then the camera’s port number. Provided port forwarding has been set up correctly (see later), you should be able to log onto the camera. Unfortunately, in many cases, your WAN IP isn’t a fixed address. Provided you leave the router on, it may stay the same for days, weeks or even months but unless you have been allocated a static IP address by your internet service provider, power cycling your modem may well result in it obtaining a new address. And if that happens while you’re away (eg, due to a power failure) you will then be unable to view your camera feeds. The first step here is to determine whether or not you have a static IP. You may need to ask your internet service provider (ISP) to find out. Alternatively, a quick Google search will confirm whether they offer this service and whether it’s an extra-cost option. In some cases, you may get a static IP if you’re on a long-term contract. If it turns out you do have a static IP, then you’re in business. Otherwise, you will probably need to set up DDNS (Dynamic DNS) yourself. This is a scheme whereby your computer or router contacts a fixed server on the internet each time your IP address changes and informs it of the new address. This static server can then send you to the right place. Just about all routers have support for DDNS built-in. If yours doesn’t, you will need to leave a PC or laptop powered on and active at all times in order to provide this service. However, a better solution is to upgrade to a router which does have DDNS support – it will almost certainly consume less power for a start. You will also need to sign up for a DDNS provider. There are several free ones such as www.noip.com/free and www.dnsdynamic.org Once you have siliconchip.com.au signed up via their website, the DDNS provider will then give you an address such as www.myip.noip.com/ or myip. dnsdynamic.org (where “myip” is a name you have chosen) and you then use this to connect to your home network from anywhere in the world. Note, however, that you also need to program the DDNS log-in information into your DDNS client (ie, via the router’s web interface) for this to work. Alarm, Email & FTP Services UPnP & Port forwarding Now that you have your home IP or DDNS address, try accessing your camera by typing that address into a web browser, followed by a colon and then the camera’s port number. If it works, then your router has inbuilt support for automatic port forwarding via UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and that’s the end of the story. Of course, your WiFi camera must have inbuilt UPnP support but most do. If it doesn’t work, log in to your router’s web interface and check to see if it has a set-up menu for UPnP. If it does, it might be disabled. If so, enable it and try connecting to your camera again. Unfortunately, not all routers with UPnP support automatic port forwarding, so it may still not work even after UPnP has been enabled. And if your camera doesn’t support UPnP, then it won’t work in any case. Either way, you will have to manually set up port forwarding on the router in order to gain remote access via the internet. In greater detail, “ports” are part of the Internet Protocol, along with the IP addresses mentioned earlier. Each IP address has 65,536 different port numbers associated with it. This allows a given computer on the internet to host many different services such as web (HTTP), file transfer (FTP), chat, camera streams and so on. By the way, when you have a home router with multiple computers on the home network, these ports are also used as a way to share your single public IP address among the various computers. Each connection made from a computer on your private network to the internet is associated with a specific port, so that when the router gets a response it knows which computer or device on the LAN (local area network, ie, private network) it is intended for. This is known as “Network Address Translation” or NAT. Similarly, the router needs to know siliconchip.com.au Fig.10: checking the “Motion Detect Armed” box triggers the unit if the video image suddenly changes (eg, if there’s an intruder). You can also set the alarm sensitivity and send alarm notifications (with pictures) by email. Fig.11: the TechView camera’s Mail Service Settings dialog. The “Sender” is usually your current email address and the unit can email up to four recipients if the alarm is triggered. Apart from their basic video functions, many WiFi cameras (including the TechView QC-3834 and the EasyN S9014) also feature an alarm function plus in-built email and FTP servers. The alarm function on the TechView QC-3834 is activated using the menu dialog shown in Fig.10. Its just a matter of “ticking” the Alarm box and selecting the sensitivity level. The unit will then trigger whenever it detects a rapid change in the video image. Provided you’ve also entered your email details into the menu dialog shown in Fig.11, the unit will then send an email to warn you that the alarm has triggered. It will also send several (usually up to six) photographs, so that you can see what it was that triggered the alarm. You can also set the unit up to upload an image to an FTP site and even set up scheduling for the alarm (eg, to prevent it triggering during office hours on weekdays). Another feature of both the TechView QC-3834 and the EasyN S9014 units is a 4-pin I/O connector for an external alarm. Two of these pins are used as an input pair for an external sensor (eg, a PIR sensor), while the other two pins are the output pair (eg, to trigger a house alarm or an external powered siren). March 2015  27 Viewing On A Smartphone Want to monitor your camera using a smartphone? – just install the relevant app. The photo at right shows TechView’s “IP Cam” running on an iPhone 5 while the photo above shows the set-up dialog. which device a connection should be routed to when you connect to your public IP on the camera-specific port. This is especially important if you have two or more cameras; they must be assigned different port numbers, otherwise the router will not know which camera you are trying to view from your remote location. Manual port forwarding Just how you go about setting up port forwarding depends on the router you’re using. Most routers only do port forwarding to a specific LAN IP address rather than a specific device. As mentioned earlier, by default, LAN IP addresses are handed out by the router using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). The key word here is “dynamic” – it’s liable to change over time. Again, this commonly happens when there’s a power outage but a DHCP-assigned address may change for other reasons, too. If you have this type of router, you’ll have to assign each camera a static (ie, fixed) internal address. You will then need to set up the port forwarding entry to the camera’s new fixed IP address. There are two ways to assign a fixed IP address to a device and again it depends on your router. If your router has the ability to assign fixed IP addresses using DHCP then this is the 28  Silicon Chip some modem/routers let you set up IP address/port pairs. To forward a port, two IP address/port pairs are required – the original address/port and the forwarded destination address/port. In this case, the original address is your public internet address which the router already knows, so you only need to provide the port for the router to “listen” on for its public address (ie, the “external port”), the IP address to forward the connections to (ie, the camera’s address) and the camera port to which the connection should be routed (ie, the “internal port”). Once the port forwarding settings have been saved, you should then be able to connect from a remote location by entering your public IP address and the camera’s port number into a web browser. Alternatively, you should be able to connect by entering in the DDNS hostname printed on the bottom of the camera. No dice? best method. This may be listed under a heading such as “DHCP Reserved Addresses”, probably under a menu titled “LAN Settings”. Assuming your router has it and you’ve found it, enter the camera’s MAC address and its current IP address (which may already be filled in for you), then save the change. Its address will always be the same from then on. Fig.9 shows the port forwarding set-up for two cameras on a Netgear WND3700 router. The external port number should be between 1024 and 65535 and as stated earlier, 8080 or 8888 are commonly used. Or you could use say 8000 for one camera, 8001 for another etc. Note that the start and end port numbers should be the same, since each camera device only uses a single port. On the other hand, some routers allow you to only forward a specific external port number to one device on your LAN as determined by its DHCPprovided name (ie, the name in the list of attached devices). If that’s the case, all you need to do is find the router’s port forwarding settings page, then set up a port forward from a number of your choosing which is associated with the camera device, selected from the list of attached devices. IP address/port pairs There’s one further wrinkle here – What if your router is unable to assign a static IP to a device based on its MAC number? In that case, you will need to use the camera’s web interface to assign it a fixed IP address outside the range of addresses your DHCP server is configured to hand out. This is important since otherwise, you could easily end up with an address collision, rendering both the camera and the other device temporarily unusable. This isn’t too hard to do. First, via the router’s web interface, determine the range of addresses it is configured to supply for DHCP. This will normally be found in the “Basic Setup” or “LAN Settings” menu, under a heading titled “Network Address Server Settings (DHCP)” or similar. For example, the router may be configured to hand out IP addresses ranging from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.20. In this case, any static address you assign to the camera should be no lower than 192.168.1.21. The last number in the address can go as high as 254, eg, 192.168.1.200 would be OK but 192.168.1.255 is invalid. Be sure to use a unique IP for each device. Once you’ve assigned this address to the camera and checked that you can access it locally, set up the router’s port forwarding to go to this new IP address. As before, make sure you pick a unique (and memorable) external port and that the internal port is set to that which is SC required by the specific camera. siliconchip.com.au