HOW TO SET UP A NETWORK CAMERA (AK.A. IP CAMERA) Neework configuration Enable ONVIF Services (for some models of Axis, ‘Contgure Apps Convigure WAN Access (ke, Remote Access) Dynamic ONS Network cameras (a.k.a IP cameras) are gaining popularity rapidly among consumers due to their ever improving quality, features and declining prices. An HD network camera that normally cost over $200 in 2012 can be bought under $60 in 2016. Traditional typical users of network cameras are enterprises that have professionals for installation and maintenance. Many consumers choose the DIY approach to set up their cameras. This article is meant to help these Users. It by no means can replace the help from professionals that is needed for a variety of reasons - complexity of a video surveillance system, user lacking required basic computer/network knowledge, demanded expedition. ‘There are literally thousands of models of network cameras in use. Its impossible to have @ set of instructions fitting, every model perfectly. We use a popular model (M1034-W) by the network camera inventor ~ Axis -in this article, The setup steps for the vast majority of other network cameras are either identical or very similar to the ones described here, ‘Aword about ONVIF. Detailed explanation about ONVIF is beyond the scope of this article, An average user may only need to know that ONVIF is an international standard. An ONVIF conformant camera offers the maximum compatibility and interoperability with many software and hardware on the market. Generally speaking, ONVIF conformant cameras have more features and better qualty than traditional non-ONVIF network cameras. For this article, we assume the reader has very basic computer and network knowledge. Technically sawy users may find many parts are too rudimentary for them, NETWORK CONFIGURATION Network cameras are different from web cams and analog CCTV cameras. Web cams are connected to computers by USB cables. Analogy CCTV cameras are connected to servers by coax cables. Network carneras are connected to a network for access just like computers are connected to networks. Each network camera is actually a computer with a CPU and ‘memory. | process images from CCD (Charge-coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal-oxide Semiconductor) sensors, send to clients (e.g. apps) and hosts a web server. 1. Connect the network camera to your Local Area Network (LAN). A LAN is often the home network of a consumer. Plug an Ethernet cable (a.k.a. Cat 5 cable) into the Ethernet socket of the network camera, then plug the other end to the router (a.k.a, gateway or access point) If this network camera does not have WEF, this may be the only step needed for the network configuration. 2. Find the IP address of the network camera. There are a few ways to do it. © Use a utility program from the camera's vendor to find the camera. Please make sure Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Is used for now to ensure the network camera obtains an appropriate IP addressfrom the router. The following is fram AXIS IP Utility (http://www.axis.com/us/en/support/downloads/axis-ip-utility} Bsus vsiity - a x File_View Tools Help Sas Tyee ter x | Name IP adress Serio Number ‘View Home Page } | Assign IP Address. TestiP Address Propetios Intetace 192168059 Assign Network Parametes x OD O nesan Fe G FR Padiese [19216862 | sstne nase | oxo nate i Camera IP The following is from IPCSearch for the generic network camera: a rceren = F Use DHCP (i.e. Dynamic IP Address) (oe PaaS Beso © For ONVIF cameras, you can run an ONVIF client application to discover the camera. The following are from ‘Onvifer for Android, IP CENTCOM for Windows 8.1/10 and IP CENTCOM for Windows Phone. Android app Onvifer discovered network cameras on a LAN Neescen enue) Perea eae Renesas eiae aaa) eee a end Fae) Prasad aL Real} Peete] Rete eee ayaa) Many generic network cameras do not allow changing the manufacturer set location. IP CENTCOM for Windows Phone Ct meee eee Reh Select a devi ery en eet ae ae SEPA RUA} Count/y/China Hi3518 HDIPC 192.16}.0.9:1028 RENCE ae Rees Re) Many generic network cameras do not allow changing the manufacturer set location.TERETE moR3ooooos eons © Use your router's configuration page to find the camera's assigned IP, You can unplug, then plug in the Ethernet ‘cable to see which device shows up on the list to determine the device's IP. The following is an example: © > ¢ Dime NETGEAR’ wy 3. Configure Wi-Fi, Use a browser to visit the camera's web Ul with its IP address and port (eg. http://192.168.0.20:81), Please note that if the camera uses the default HTTP port 80, you do not need to specify the port in the webaddress. Some cameras uses a different port for HTTP (e.g. the generic network camera referred to in this article uses port 81), ‘The following two figures show the Wi-Fi configuration pages of an Ax’s network camera and a generic network camera respectively: asa ‘AXIS M1034-W Network Camera @0 AXIS M1034-W Network Camera Wireless » video & Audio tne er wees » Applications x20 eo sie [eco rd Ce Cored : or eS Es S My 89% pare) a cao eis Ces erste Pome ec oon 4, Fix the IP address (ie. make the IP address static). Since the IP address is dynamically assigned, it may change after a power cycle of the network camera or the router. Many routers try to use the same IP address for a device by default, but you should not rely on this for fixing the IP address. There are two ways to achieve this: 1. Configure then network camera to turn the dynamically assigned IP address to a static IP address. You can use a utllty program to do this, The following is from AXIS IP Utility (http://www.axis.com/us/en/support/downloads/axis-ip-utility}: x6 os samuatical F * Name ‘xs N1031-W - 0400qGf-@ Aso te along arse: E ‘ax M1034. - 00400C8% = E sutowt meas [252552550 eroserauees 19236806 os Cancel oeenees ere 192 168.099 The following is from IPCSearch for the generic network camera:You can also use the network camera's web Ul. The following is from the Axis camera's web UlISM, AXIS M1034-W Network Camera ve ven GeO) ic TCP/IP Settings e » poste Setup + Video m Auuio ew ere er tinge ater] + Live View Contig (© to-wit ta le » Detectors ind feat oly » Applications, 1 eesteme © eam aie ve DCP © ate oloune D ate: eee a ‘srs nas Se er jzsas | eve nbs Cotton amet pase eet Ales Cotigwton iden oars » storage $ Ports & Devices ‘aitenance = About (seve [nee The following is from the generic network camera's web Ul:Load ones eras peas ee forenee Le 5, Start using the WEFi, Unplug the Ethernet cable, move the camera to your desired location (unplug and plug in the power cable if needed). 6. Find the new IP again. Some network cameras obtain new IPs for Wi-Fi different from the ones for wired connections, You may need to know new IP for configuration, ENABLE ONVIF SERVICES (FOR SOME MODELS OF AXIS). Some ONVIF cameras (e.g. some from Axis) have ONVIF services disabled by default. You will need to enable ONVIF as, shown by the following figures for Axis 1031-W: Isa, AXISAXIS M1031-W Network Camera Live view |Setuo| Hale ‘The pin config page allows dinect acceso all he configusable proneters supported by the ANIS M1031-W Network (Camera Tis page ses no exis series Javasenpt or othervse) and sould funcuon sonsely may browser or PDA Seler the parameter aroup re modify and configure the semings dec “For belp oa peracters, please cefe tothe selevutBelp page avlable soca te standard setop oo. 1 Enable psn config as defn setup pases Swe] Selecta group of parameters to modify WeiSenice >See gon) iserviee le Web Servic ‘Welders UseraxecTolen Enable repay attack protection Save page changes [save || Reset © Writ for eyncronized time fom NTP serv before allowing ONVIF user authorization: () ‘Axis cameras require a set of users for ONVIF services different from that for other types of access (e.g. web UL, proprietary APD) Itis critical to add users for ONVIF services because these cameras have no users for ONVIF services by default. The following figure shows how to add ONVIF users. AXIS@, = AXIS M1034-W Network Camera ONVIF CONE Version: Profile S Basic Setup » Video & Audio Live View (Setup) Help e Users List » Live View Config [user Name User Group » Detectors peat Operator » applications » Events » Recordings Languages ‘System Options HTTPS IEEE 602.1% Certificates Audio Support Date & Time » Network » Storage » Ports & Devices Maintenance » Support » Advanced (Cpe) eaifyes [Remove] About CONFIGURE APPSMost users want to access their network cameras outside their LANs (e.g. outside their homes). The next section will explain how to access the cameras via Wide Area Network (WAN) (e.g, via cellular connections), Unless you are ‘experienced with the camera and its configuration, itis extremely important to make sure the camera works on your LAN first. This is because the WAN access will never work if the LAN access does not work, If it works on your LAN, it will be very easy to diagnose any issues with the WAN access, Many apps have automated the setup process to a great degree, and it usually takes less than 1 minute to set up a ‘camera before starting enjoying its video, The following is for setting up a camera with apps Onwifer for Android, and IP CENTCOM for Windows 8.1/10 and Windows Phone. ‘The first step is choosing the type of device for the configuration as shown by the following figure:Network Camera Setup GLa Note: It is important to set up the camera on your LAN first to ensure everything works even if you want to access the camera via WAN ONVIF Setup RTSP Setup Select Generic RTSP to start the setupmanual, vendor or an online source, 2. Enter name, RTSP URL, user name, password. 2, Test Video. No. MJPEG Setup /Select Generic MIPEG to start the setup process: 1, Find the camera's MIPEG URL from its user's manual, vendor or an online source. 2, Enter name, MUPEG URL, user name, password. 2, Test Video. 4, Save <_Does it support MPEG? >—*SS_,] No Alternative CONVIF is the recommended one. Almost all new modern network cameras are ONVIF conformant, Please nate most ‘ONVIF cameras can also be used as generic RTSP stream or generic MJPEG. Older network cameras support RTSP, MIPEG, or both ‘Once the type is selected, input the few required parameters (e.g. user name, password), the setup will usually be completed in seconds, The following figures show the setup screens for Onvifer, IP CENTCOM for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1/10 respectively So Pan ‘TEST VIDEO Cool Berens LPAI) ae usualONVIF camera setup screen of IP 1 pa BN Tale em aes fT ; PXoloP Nae) Nal Pleo Nee AXIS M1034-W A 192.168.0.2:8080 rey ace aedWee dd ONVIF De oa CONFIGURE WAN ACCESS (LE. REMOTE ACCESS) Most users want to access their network cameras outside their LAN (e.g. home network). They may access via a cellular connection, a Wii hotspot, workplace network, etc. We have received far more questions about this topic than any others, Ifyou just want (https://plus google.com/+Ipcent/posts/PeQvijundiV) know the quick steps to set up WAN access, please take a look at this post of ours with a few slides. It may look daunting to configure the WAN access, but it actually takes only a few minutes to do it once you know how. ‘This section may be a bit long because we try to help you understand the principles behind the process. The specific steps highly depend on your camera and router. ‘et us have some basic understanding of how network cameras are accessed first, Every network camera has an IP address (e.g. 192.168.0.100) on a LAN. Non-technical users can treat this IP address as a street address, and their LAN (e.g. home network) as a city. Every computing device on your LAN can find the network camera by its IP address, just like everyone in your city can lacate a home by its street address, Annetwork camera may use more than one port (the default port is HTTP default port 80), Each port offers a unique service, For example, one port for web UI, one port for RTSP. Non-technical people can treat ports as doors of a home, You get different services by entering different doors, The IP address of a network camera is a private IP. The most common range is 192.168.0.0- 192.168.255.255, followed bby 10.0.0.0- 10.255.255.255, They are least likely in the private IP range of 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255. Private IPs are good for a LAN. Itis lke that a street address "101 Sth Avenue" is good for locating a home in a city, but you cannot use it to locate a home in another city because every city may have "101 Sth Avenue", Every LAN may have a device using a private IP address such as 192.168.0.101 Now, we can talk about how to access a network camera outside its LAN, or access a home outside its city ich LAN is behind a router (or gateway), and the router has an IP address and that IP address is public IP address, not a private IP address like that of a network camera though the IP address's format is the same. Since itis a public IP, the router can be accessed on the Internet anywhere in the world. How do we tell a router that we want to communicate with a specific network camera on the LAN behind it? The trick 's port forwarding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port forwarding).The only way to access a computing device on a network is through its IP address and ports If there is only one network ‘camera on a LAN, we can ask the router to forward everything to the camera, and everything will be the samme as accessing the camera on the LAN except using the public IP address of the router. This would not work for multiple network cameras, To deal with multiple cameras, we need to allocate different ports for different cameras. In other words, you will access every network camera with exactly the same IP address - the public IP address of the router, but with different ports Using the city analogy, you will send/request packages to different homes ofa city by using Is diferent doors. For example, doors 8080 and 5556 of the city to doors 80 and 556 of address 101 Sth Ave, doors 8082 and 5558 of the city to doors 80 and 556 of 102 Sth Ave, and so on, Most cameras allow modifying Its used ports. Port 80 Is usually used for HTTP and ONVIF, and port 554 is used for RTSP. Though itis not necessary theoretically itis the best to change a camera's ports to match their external forwarding ports. For example, if port 8080 is forwarded to a camera's HTTP port, it would be the best to change the camera's HTTP ort to 8080; if port 5554 is forwarded to a camera's RTSP port, it would be the best to change the camera's RTSP port to 5554, The following two figures show how to configure port forwarding for multiple cameras after modifying their ports to match the external ports. 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For exam reste kos WATSIEN ust earch "inky WHTSION port Tosi 2h snportat oforard exer prs tothe same prof camera fg BD a 800.5554 19 3854), Though ile mot necessary nto, tle not hl reed by eames bcs hey ep ues steaming UR set cent aplatins sch PCENTCOM, One, a those rt utes rebel por rb Comers so nat ga whi ports oe award te trl pars Apps Scho Onto [Couronne the port rambers nthe eave steomig Ut vie streaming Most networ cameras se the sme por for both HTP and ONVE nother wad thle UI and ON eres a acess tho the Some pert On smo number of modes us erent pet ft ne Usd ON Seve Same rnin’ etn oy low rate cuca pot They wal Sack pons sucha the fal UDP pot $68 HTTP raat set port 0 se sys ows Tse uty USP ve TP the mort obey for remete ideo tren ‘Some cameras do not allow the modification of their ports, in this case you can forward different external ports to the fixed ports of cameras, but itis critical to tell apps to overwrite the RTSP ports informed by the cameras with their corresponding external RTSP forwarding ports (e.g. 5554, $556..) in apps. This is because the cameras are not aware of port forwarding, so they always tell apps to use their ports. All of our apps support RTSP port overwriting, The following figure shows the port forwarding configuration of this scenariPort Configuration for ONVIF devices without modifying their ports Mca Port Forward Configuration oer are eral Camera Access Address ‘www ipcent.corn:808x 97.202.112.4:808x Oniter Andros toaasearon Co a SP Pett Router External Address: ‘wwewipeent.com i Be 972021124 are S .. tensseniy | hnrleprtonnung setup suction Feta ari ices) Sees Cece ts or every commen outer, eases tablet ely sreecthemoral Cir sss 5 sponse [3 wontnctwnkcareras othe same por forbth MTiPand ON nctber wate web end ON sees races hehe ne pr: On asa eof woe ere pra rth wa ON ste Some orontatrs retort owe oud etn prs They vl Bock pots auth othe dest UOP pre 55, HTT ti a Rs Seat pran se aay showed. buy RSP ve MTT thetos east may fo emte dc sewn. Each router has its own port forwarding UI. All of them have the same pattern - each port forwarding entry allows forwarding one port or a range of ports from the router (called external or public) to one port or a range of ports of a device. The following is the port forwarding page of Netgear N300 Wireless Gigabit Router WNR3500LV2, a popular low cost router. > secuty > Admiitration == eI + Advanced Setup eee eee poeonctAll network cameras of major brands use one port for everything - Web UI, ONVIF services, RTSP and snapshot because they use only one transport protocol - HTTP, They support RTSP over HTTP. Some cameras, especially many made in Shenzhen, China require up to three ports - one port for web Ul and maybe snapshot, one port ONVIF services, and one port for RTSP. Finding the required ports sometimes is a bit tricky. Fortunately, all of our apps list the required ports as shown by the following screenshots: CO Vigan eee Onvifer on Android Showing Required Ports s Rec Damas PEG video: not available. Cee UM UN mC may save this device now (click the save Prenton) Required ports: Oem aes Sara) Please ensure these ports are forwarded properly if you intend to have WAN Ered Ue aes eer ec Meia eigen a 0K PAs ia id TxesNikee aca Museau Soi P Transport Protocol:Mies. Ports: CNV RL) a ce ers Device Informatiot Now you can use your router's public IP address to access your network camera. If you do not know your router's public IP, there are a few ways to find It + Use a browser to visit http://whatismmyipaddress.com (http://whatismyipaddress.com/) + Visit the Internet configuration tab of your router's configuration page. + Use command “nslookup myip.opendns,com resolver'.opendns.com' in Windows Command Prampt. The address for “myip.opendns.com is your public IP. Suppose your router's public IP is 109.173.137.12 and you have forwarded external port 8080 to the camera's ONVIF port 80, you can set up your camera with address 109.173.137.12:8080, and access it anywhere in the world,DYNAMIC DNS ‘The above method of WAN access assumes the public IP address of the router is static (Le. does not change). This is not the case for most consumer homes. Public IP addresses are dynamically assigned to home routers except for those who obtain static public IP addresses by paying fees to their ISPs, Fortunately, there is a way to deal with this. It is Dynamic DNS (ODNS) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_ONS). The details of DDNS are beyond the scope of this article, For the purpose of network camera WAN access, users only need to know that DDNS offers a static host name (e.g. mycamera.mycicins.com) to replace a router's public IP address, so the address to a network camera remains constant. When a DONS host name is used, its resolved to the dynamically assigned IP address of a router. t essentially tracks the change of the router's IP address. Many network camera manufacturers offer free DDNS service. One can also subscribe to pald or free DDNS service such as dyndns.org (dyndns.org), freedns.afrald.org (freedns.afrald.org) ‘There are three common ways for DDNS services to track routers' IP address changes: 1. DONS support of a router. Here is how to Setup a NETGEAR Dynamic DNS account (http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detall/a_id/23860/~/how-to-setup-a-netgear-dynamic-dns-account) 2, DONS support of network camera, ‘The following is the Axis camera's DDNS configuration Ul: ee ° Advanced TCP/IP Settings Video 8A ee + ve View Conta tae ng mr * Applications Sean 0 er crac 2 cen mara = = = 1D Sistem Optons/AKSintemet DamicONS-.. ~~ OX i 7 ons internet Dynamic DNS ° oe Begg thane SEE = = an aumessgergcarstetn oe ea Feel Sra ‘The following is the generic camera's DDNS configuration Ul:ey ce 3. Running a small client app on a computer on the LAN gated by the router. 's dynamic IP address to a DDNS server upon its change or All of them use the same mechanism - sending the rot periodically, Each DDNS or service or router usually has detailed setup instructions. Some network camera manufacturers also provide detailed instructions for DDNS. Please see the last section "The Axis Internet Dynamic ONS service” of this Axis docurnent (http://www.axis.com/files/tech_notes/oneclick pdf) for an example.