One app to view differnet brand cameras

I want to make a correction to something that I said earlier about Cam Viewer Pro. I said that it was not able to export and import configuration settings and that it forced you to set each device individually. This is not true. I'm pretty sure that it used to be true but it I just looked and now it does allow me to email settings from one device to another. the author has frequent upgrades so maybe this funtion was added since I first started using the app or maybe I just didn't see it.
 
Mike.
 
On the hardware, it just depends on how many IP cameras you want to monitor, how complicated you get with the motion detection (masking areas) and how much pre-event trigger buffer you define.  Blue Iris has a generous trial period, I suggest you set it up and see how it performs.  The hardware you have may be more than adequate.
 
RTSP standard port is 554. If you go down the Blue Iris path you can define whatever port you want to forward for remote access.  I have mine set to a weird port #.  I'm not sure I'm answering your question though. I know you stated that you want to be able to direct view each camera but I would offer that you are more secure by having the cameras all feed into Blue Iris and then opening a single port on your firewall to remote access the Blue Iris server. 
 
BI allows you to set up camera groups, so for example I have an all exterior camera view, an interior camera view (restricted access) a doors view, a back yard view, and then the individual cameras.  Depending on what you define a user account has access to only those views / cameras are available for viewing on any given account on the mobile application or the desktop if you choose to require logon credentials to access your internal home network.
 
-Ben
 
Ben
 
Do you access BI via a browser with http or with the ios app?
 
I did install BI this morning and have two cams installed that I can view locally but having limited success viewing from outside the gateway using a browser. I get the log in screen so I am getting through the firewall but the login times out.
 
i did get to view the cameras from outside the gateway once using chrome on my iphone but only once. Now it ttimes out.
 
Mike.
 
I found my problem with slow response. I forgot that I havve problems with what I think is called double NAT? I have to turn off wifi to test accessing my router from outside the firewall. It is so that my laptop or iphone does not connect to the router via wifi and instead uses LTE sat connection.
 
Thanks all for your help and patience, I learned a lot and I'm getting there.
 
Mike.
 
mikefamig said:
Ben
 
Do you access BI via a browser with http or with the ios app?
 
I did install BI this morning and have two cams installed that I can view locally but having limited success viewing from outside the gateway using a browser. I get the log in screen so I am getting through the firewall but the login times out.
 
i did get to view the cameras from outside the gateway once using chrome on my iphone but only once. Now it ttimes out.
 
Mike.
Click to expand...
 
 
I access primarily by the Blue Iris app both on Android and IOS.  I also access via the web browser at home if near a computer but even then primarily through phone or tablet using the app. I do not access via the web when mobile.
 
For web access I've installed a free third party web interface UI2 that is much better than the stock.  Link here
 
I started out with the web browser at home originally and once I got comfortable that it was a good solution I bought the license for BI and the companion mobile apps. They don't cost much and it supports future development.
 
Consider sticking with internal access to get a feel for BI and then work through the remote access. Once you get it running internally to your satisfaction the group here can collectively help you through getting it working remotely.
 
OK I made some good of a rainy day today. I installed BI with two cameras, one Hikvision and one Foscam. I downloaded the BI app to both my Iphone and Ipad and both installed and configured seamlessly. I also installed the UI2 from IPcam talk on the host BI machine and it is a huge improvement over the BI web interface.
 
Now to intall the other three cams and go plug up all of those holes in  my firewall.
 
I still have a problem with addressing/accessing the external address of my router when sitting at home getting internet access from that same router. The packets have to go from internal to extenral and then internal again and I think that I read that some routers have trouble doing this and that it has to do with the NAT in the router. I understand that the NAT associates MAC codes with IP addresses but I don't know it's workings. Is this something that can be corrected through router settings?
 
I keep getting closer to buying a capable router and bridge this Frontier device.
 
Mike.
 
mikefamig said:
I still have a problem with addressing/accessing the external address of my router when sitting at home getting internet access from that same router. The packets have to go from internal to extenral and then internal again and I think that I read that some routers have trouble doing this and that it has to do with the NAT in the router. I understand that the NAT associates MAC codes with IP addresses but I don't know it's workings. Is this something that can be corrected through router settings?
Click to expand...
 
The trouble you are having is probably due to NAT reflection (also called loopback or hairpinning).  When you are at home, connected to your LAN, and try and access things using the external WAN address of your router, the request gets routed from the LAN to the WAN by the router.  But no one on the WAN side knows that the traffic needs to be turned around and sent back in again to your router.  With NAT reflection, the router recognizes that fact before it sends it out on the WAN, and instead sends that traffic back to the LAN again.
 
Some routers support NAT reflection, and others don't.  Not sure if your Arris NVG448BQ supports it.
 
I'm late to the game here - but there's a lot of good info!
 
First off, I'm not sure if this is the same iOS app you guys are talking about, but I've used this one for years: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ip-cam-viewer-pro/id402656416?mt=8 - it's been able to connect to everything I've thrown at it - worst case I let it scan and figure out the camera itself.
 
BlueIris is also a great product.  How much horsepower it needs on the machine depends on what you're doing.  Pre/post buffering takes up more resources as does motion detection.  If you want nothing more than a simple bridge to see all your cameras and no recording, it needs very little. 
 
Recording aside, one major difference between using something like BI vs. the IP Cam Viewer is the firewall.  With BI, you only have to connect to one system (although I think you have to open two ports on your firewall for it to work).  With Cam Viewer, you'd need to set up ports for every camera as the app connects to each camera directly.  This is a ton of extra work - plus I'm not sure i'd trust the security of a lot of the cheaper cameras out there.
 
mikefamig - you're definitely having NAT issues...  different brands of router handle it differently.  Netgear allows you to use the external IP seamlessly.  Cisco makes it damned near impossible; I'm not sure about other brands.  As RAL mentioned, hairpinning is the most common term I've seen for this.
 
Testing via a camera's web interface can be misleading - because you open the interface on port 80 but the video streams over the RTP port.  To test the RTP directly (and not even forward the web portion), I always use VLC - it lets you open a video stream. 
 
RAL said:
The trouble you are having is probably due to NAT reflection (also called loopback or hairpinning). 
Click to expand...
Arguably, the cleanest solution would be to use a VPN such as OpenVPN in which case there would be no difference whether you access your cameras from LAN or from outside -- you'd use the same  private camera(s)/BI server LAN address because  an OpenVPN client would assign a private IP address to your mobile device and ensure it is routable inside your LAN.  An additional advantage is that you do not need to open any ports in the firewall other than the OpenVPN port.  A disadvantage is that you'd need to run a VPN client on your phone each time you want to connect "home".
 
Asus makes popular routers that come with OpenVPN server software included (https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008713/). As far as I know, Arris does not support any VPN, unfortunately.
 
Work2Play
 
I've been using Cam Viewer Pro for years and love it but I just traded up to Blue Iris. The setup for BI is so much simpler and more secure. It's the fact that I no longer have to configure port forwarding for each cam and it prevents a camera from phoning home that cinched the deal.
 
Mike.
 
vc1234 said:
Arguably, the cleanest solution would be to use a VPN such as OpenVPN in which case there would be no difference whether you access your cameras from LAN or from outside -- you'd use the same  private camera(s)/BI server LAN address because  an OpenVPN client would assign a private IP address to your mobile device and ensure it is routable inside your LAN.  An additional advantage is that you do not need to open any ports in the firewall other than the OpenVPN port.  A disadvantage is that you'd need to run a VPN client on your phone each time you want to connect "home".
 
Asus makes popular routers that come with OpenVPN server software included (https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008713/). As far as I know, Arris does not support any VPN, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
 
That is very good to know. I have the same problem logging in to my Elk from thIphone when I drive in to the yard and try to login and disarm it. Thanks for that.
 
What is the Iphone app like? Is it convenient to use?
 
Mike.
 
mikefamig said:
That is very good to know. I have the same problem logging in to my Elk from thIphone when I drive in to the yard and try to login and disarm it. Thanks for that.
 
What is the Iphone app like? Is it convenient to use?
 
Mike.
Click to expand...
The Iphone app is pretty easy to use: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openvpn-connect/id590379981?mt=8  The server (ASUS)  generates a configuration file (client.ovpn) with the required information which is imported by the iphone client app. After that, you just click "connect" in the app to open a VPN connection, and your iphone can acces your lan.
 
The Asus router server part configuration is pretty easy too (see the FAQ), it's much much easier than the raspberry setup above.
 
P.S. With VPN, you might need to use a dynamic dns service if your broadband provider did not assign you a static IP address.  In my case, I use a free version of  https://www.noip.com/
.
 
Mike.  I also use OpenVPN on both an IPhone and Andriod.  I have an Asus RT-AC88U router and downloaded the Asus Merlin firmware on it.
 
I can see all of my internal cameras using their 192.168.1.xxx addresses.
 
One thing to note.  I noticed you were thinking about NordVPN.  Not sure how this would work when you wanted to connect via OpenVPN to your home (am I overthinking this?)
 
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