Accessing an IP Camera via The Internet

[rtbcomp]

I'm nearly there - I've got the camera addressed by it's own IP number over the internet, but as I don't have a static IP address I need to use a domain name.

I have my own domain so question 1 of 1000 is:

Do I need to define a sub-domain for each camera, so I end up with camera1.mydomain.co.uk camera2.mydomain.co.uk and so on?

This is going to turn out to be a long thread

 

[wilbur]

Hopefully it will be a very short thread where everyone tells you not to put your IP cameras on the internet.

But if you insist, then a DNS host name is just a name associated with an IP address, so if you only have one IP address, you only need one DNS name - so like "myvulnerablecamerasishouldnthaveputonthenet.mydomain.co.uk".

You will need to get your router to update your DNS service with whatever your IP address actually is whenever that changes, and you will need to map an address through the NAT in the router so that you (and all the endless hackers, etc) can reach your camera from the Internet.

If that all seems too tedious, you can go to https://shodan.io, and search for "port:554 has_screenshot:true" (without the quotes), where you can see into the homes and bedrooms of all the other people who ignored advice about not putting webcams on the internet....

 

[rtbcomp]

Thanks, but that's one camera 1 sub-domain and 1 domain, so the answer to my question is "yes" ?

Frankly if people want to watch my yard all day & night they're welcome to.

 

[wilbur]

Thanks, but that's one camera 1 sub-domain and 1 domain, so the answer to my question is "yes" ?

It's not a subdomain, it's a host name.

For camera.mydomain.co.uk:

uk is a top-level domain
co is a sub-domain of uk
mydomain is a sub-domain of uk

mydomain.co.uk is a domain.

camera is a host name in the mydomain.co.uk domain.

So the answer is you need one host-name per host, but only one domain to have all your hosts in. You don't need any sub-domains.

Because you only have one IP address, you only need one hostname. You might as well call it 'myhouse.mydomain.co.uk', because all your cameras will have to share it anyway. (You will have to arrange to map different ports on your router to different private IP addresses within your network for the different cameras)

Joking about cameras aside, you shouldn't really be too relaxed about people hacking bits of kit on your network, because that's frequently a jumping-off point to do other nasty things, either to the rest of your kit or to other people.

 

[rtbcomp]

It's not a subdomain, it's a host name.

For camera.mydomain.co.uk:

uk is a top-level domain
co is a sub-domain of uk
mydomain is a sub-domain of uk

mydomain.co.uk is a domain.

camera is a host name in the mydomain.co.uk domain.

So the answer is you need one host-name per host, but only one domain to have all your hosts in. You don't need any sub-domains.

Because you only have one IP address, you only need one hostname. You might as well call it 'myhouse.mydomain.co.uk', because all your cameras will have to share it anyway. (You will have to arrange to map different ports on your router to different private IP addresses within your network for the different cameras)

...

I think you've got that back to front

https://uk.godaddy.com/help/what-is-a-subdomain-296

"It’s easy to create a memorable Web address for unique content areas of your site by using subdomains. For example, you could create a subdomain for pictures on your site called "pics" that is accessible through the URL pics.coolexample.com in addition to www.coolexample.com/pics."

 

[skotl]

I think you've got that back to front

https://uk.godaddy.com/help/what-is-a-subdomain-296

"It’s easy to create a memorable Web address for unique content areas of your site by using subdomains. For example, you could create a subdomain for pictures on your site called "pics" that is accessible through the URL pics.coolexample.com in addition to www.coolexample.com/pics."

Nup - Wilbur is correct.

It's very easy to get confused as there is nothing that tells you whether a collection of words, joined up by dots, is a domain, subdomain or host, unless you query a DNS service directly.

Top Level Domains (tld) are always the right-most word, so .com, .uk, .money etc. After that, you get at least one secondary domain name so:

amazon.com is a second level domain called "amazon" in the ".com" tld
mycompany.co.uk is something in the second level domain "co", under the ".uk" tld

After the second-level domain, though, it gets a little murky. It is likely that "mycompany" in "mycompany.co.uk" is yet another domain, and then there might be things beneath it. These might be:

www.mycompany.co.uk, where "www" is a host pointing to an IP address
mail.mycompany.co.uk, where "mail" is a cname (like an alias), pointing off to an exchange server in an office365 domain
salesforce.mycompany.co.uk, where "salesforce" is another cname, pointing to another application
demo1.sales.mycompany.co.uk
demo2.sales.mycompany.co.uk
demo3.sales.mycompany.co.uk - demo1, demo2 and demo3 could be additional web hosts under yet another dns zone called "sales"​

Unless you take the trouble to look up DNS records, you can't tell from looking at any of these URLs / DNS names whether they are domains, hosts, devices, aliases, or whatever.

Back to your question, the owner of the domain gets to allocated hosts underneath his/her domain. So if you have a domain called "rtbcomp.co.uk" then you can create host DNS entries underneath that. In DNS parlance, these are "A" records.
You could then create (for example):

57.43.22.11 garage.rtbcomp.co.uk
57.43.22.12 backgarden.rtbcomp.co.uk
57.43.22.13 frontgarden.rtbcomp.co.uk​

These are all host (or "A") records under the rtbcomp.co.uk domain

​

 

[rtbcomp]

...

Back to your question, the owner of the domain gets to allocated hosts underneath his/her domain. So if you have a domain called "rtbcomp.co.uk" then you can create host DNS entries underneath that. In DNS parlance, these are "A" records.
You could then create (for example):

57.43.22.11 garage.rtbcomp.co.uk
57.43.22.12 backgarden.rtbcomp.co.uk
57.43.22.13 frontgarden.rtbcomp.co.uk​

These are all host (or "A") records under the rtbcomp.co.uk domain

​

That's great, I just wanted to make sure before creating "things" under the one I've got

The URL I use to access the camera is http://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 because the camera is connected to port 80, so I'd need to set up something like

xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 camera1.rtbcomp.co.uk
xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:81 camera2.rtbcomp.co.uk


This is my first foray this deep into the internet, so there'll be more questions to follow I don't doubt.

BTW if there is a domain called "rtbcomp" it's not me!

 

[brewdexta]

To answer the OPs question, you don't need a host name per camera. You don't even need DNS.

Most broadband users have an external public IP address allocated dynamically by their ISP to their broadband router's external interface. This IP address isn't fixed but rarely changes i.e. it's allocated via DHCP with a long lease time and when the lease renews the same address is usually reallocated. If you change ISP or if they make major network upgrades or if you turn your router off for a length of time then you will probably get a new external IP address

So you can just use the IP address or DNS. If you want to guarantee that a dynamic address doesn't change then you can either buy a fixed IP from your ISP and use the address directly or standard DNS. Or you can use Dynamic DNS if your router supports it, typically this is a paid for service. The DNS provider gets a notification of the external IP address change automatically and then dynamically changes the DNS entry. Apart from some apps, operating systems and browsers caching DNS for different times, this means DNS tracks changes pretty instantly.

Given you only have one external public IP address, mapping that to multiple internal cameras means you have to use PAT (port address translation) as we'll as NAT (network address translation). So say the standard port of a camera is 5432, the external IP address is 156.44.33.1 and the internal address of three cameras is 192.168.1.11, 192.168.1.12 and 192.168.1.13 respectively.

To NAT the first camera you can just use NAT to map 156.44.33.1 to 192.168.1.11. To connect to it from the web you would append ::5432 to the end of the external IP addresz i.e. 156.44.33.1::5432 or to the DNS name. If your using an application it may do this or you. It will get translated via NAT to 192.168.1.11::5432 by the router.

However to get to the last two, you would change the external port number from 5432 to say 5433 and 5434 respectively. So to get to the second using NAT and PAT you would translate 156.44.33.1::5433 to 192.168.1.12::5432 and the third camera would be 156.44.33.1::5434 to 192.168.1.13::5432 To access these from the web you would need to add ::5433 or ::5434 to the external IP address or DNS or reconfigure the app.

But it still may not work, depending on the router you may have to add firewall rules to allow connections initiated externally into your network. Usually connection initiation is only allowed outbound.

If your camera OS is crap and/or your FW is cheap and the camera gets compromised now you have allowed inbound connections, then at a minimum it could be used as a spam or DDOS bot but can also be used to compromise your now naked laptop, PC etc. At a minimum I would put externally accessible devices onto a separate LAN to you other stuff I.e. a DMZ and control access between the two with a FW or router.

Enough for now me thinks The above is very general as routers and FW differ and there are loads of other tools and solutions.
Cheers
Andy

 

[skotl]

That's great, I just wanted to make sure before creating "things" under the one I've got

The URL I use to access the camera is http://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 because the camera is connected to port 80, so I'd need to set up something like

xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 camera1.rtbcomp.co.uk
xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:81 camera2.rtbcomp.co.uk


This is my first foray this deep into the internet, so there'll be more questions to follow I don't doubt.

BTW if there is a domain called "rtbcomp" it's not me!

The "80" and "81" bits at the end are (to add to the confusion!) port numbers, and can't be represented in DNS.

So you would register the IP addresses, but still need to put the port number at the end of the URL, so:
http://camera1.rtbcomp.co.uk:80 (or just "http://camera1.rtbcomp.co.uk", as the default is port 80)
http://camera2.rtbcomp.co.uk:81

Note that you'll also have to ensure that your firewall (aka ADSL/broadband router) is configured to allow traffic to these addresses, on these ports.

 

[addjunkie]

If I could understand swaheeli I may have a chance, glad I dont feel the need to have cameras.

 

[rtbcomp]

The "80" and "81" bits at the end are (to add to the confusion!) port numbers, and can't be represented in DNS.

So you would register the IP addresses, but still need to put the port number at the end of the URL, so:
http://camera1.rtbcomp.co.uk:80 (or just "http://camera1.rtbcomp.co.uk", as the default is port 80)
http://camera2.rtbcomp.co.uk:81

Note that you'll also have to ensure that your firewall (aka ADSL/broadband router) is configured to allow traffic to these addresses, on these ports.

I had a feeling that might be the case. Presumably I could just set up cameras.rtbcomp.co.uk and use that for all my cameras. Just to keep things tidy, eventually I might end up with familytree.rtbcomp.co.uk and other such stuff. I've sorted port forwarding and can access the camera directly using the IP address. The router firewall is set up to reject unsolicited incoming data.

If I could understand swaheeli I may have a chance, glad I dont feel the need to have cameras.

TBH I don't have the need I thought it might be interesting to have a dabble . I think the most interesting bit is going to be dealing with my domain supplier's billing department, or maybe the fortnight's conversation I'm having with the camera supplier to help them get their client software working properly. Their last release is v12 and I'm currently working with v15.

 

[brewdexta]

Some of the other ways of doing it is to set up VPNs (virtual private networks) to your router either directly from the device(s) you want to access the cameras or via a VPN provider. These virtual services just set up encrypted strongly authenticated tunnels to your router making access by nefarious persons harder. Or access some IP camera server on the inside that manages multiple cameras so you only have the one IP address of the server to access. You can mix and match the above to get a secure service.

 

[frank horton]

all to complicated, don't thinl I'll bother..............hahaha

 

[MoreWellie]

Presumably I could just set up cameras.rtbcomp.co.uk and use that for all my cameras. Just to keep things tidy, eventually I might end up with familytree.rtbcomp.co.uk and other such stuff

Not given what you have said so far (or at least it would be pointless) you currently have an IP address (whether static or dynamic is irrelevant) let us say for example it is 132.142.152.162 (chosen at random)

Think of DNS like the internets signposts

you would set up cameras.rtbcomp to point to 132.142.152.162 as you only have one IP address no matter how many other names like familytree.rtbcomp.co.uk you set up they could only usefully point to 132.142.152.162 as that is the only address you have

bit like housenames, if you call your house "The ploppings" and also decide to call it "elephant house" it doesn't matter as they are just names and you still use the rest of the address to arrive at the same house

if you extend the analogy the port numbers could be used to say, knock on the front door, the back door, a side door etc

now if you bought an entire row of houses it would be worth giving them all separate names

 

[tommullin]

could you use teamviewer or similar to get to a PC / laptop at home (you can do this from your phone too) and then you have a secure way to connect to your home network. you can get out to the cameras from there?

 

[rtbcomp]

@MoreWellie The other sub-domains wouldn't involve the cameras or my IP address, just a way of organising websites, emails &c as suggested in post #5

(From GoDaddy)

...
"It’s easy to create a memorable Web address for unique content areas of your site by using subdomains. For example, you could create a subdomain for pictures on your site called "pics" that is accessible through the URL pics.coolexample.com in addition to www.coolexample.com/pics."

 

[MoreWellie]

The other sub-domains wouldn't involve the cameras or my IP address, just a way of organising websites, emails &c as suggested in post #5

This is a Godaddy specific function and in order to do this you HAVE to use the godaddy Nameservers so you may not be able to achieve this

 

[rikrobson]

so you have a public ip address set dynamically by you ip when oyu connect. this will tend to change on a regular basis if its adsl or the ilk or tend to stay with you if its a Virgin cable service.
to avoid having to check and change ip addresses you can you comething called dynamic dns. this is a service that will keep you changing ip address in the dns for a domain loke rtpcom.dyndns.org .
Most routers can use this and should have a section onit or you can use an app on you pc.

OK that will give you an address from the internet to your router.

So now we need to get your router to send the traffic back and forth to each camera.

to do this we use port forwarding and NAT

so NAT is Network address translation and allows you to have multiple devices on your network 192.168.1.x but only one public ip address.
you will nned to set up each camera with a static local address. this could be done on the camera or done via the local routers dhcp giving a fixed ip address linked to the hardware address of the camera's interface (mac)
Each camera will be on its standard port 80
on the router you setup the port forwarding so thet each camera has a port e.g. 8081 for camera 8082 for camera 2 etc.
you then assign the port to go to the ip address (internal) is the camera on port 80 e.g. 8081 -> 192.168.1.231:80
Exactly how you do this will deend on your router, some are easier than others and which dynamic dns service you use.

so to access camera 1 externally you go http://rtpcom.dyndns.com:8081 your router will then translate this internally to 192.168.231:80 and you will be connected

 

[R-D-R]

If you have multiple cameras have you thought of using an NVR (Network Video Recorder)? I went the hardware route for mine but I believe you can run software versions on a PC. This would allow you to record, create triggers that email you and most importantly access the whole lot through one interface remotely.

 

[skotl]

...So now we need to get your router to send the traffic back and forth to each camera.

to do this we use port forwarding and NAT

I had a feeling that might be the case. Presumably I could just set up cameras.rtbcomp.co.uk and use that for all my cameras. Just to keep things tidy, eventually I might end up with familytree.rtbcomp.co.uk and other such stuff. I've sorted port forwarding and can access the camera directly using the IP address. The router firewall is set up to reject unsolicited incoming data...

Sounds like you've got the hardest bit licked, then

Presumably I could just set up cameras.rtbcomp.co.uk and use that for all my cameras...

If they have different ports then, yes, you can just go with a single DNS name / IP address