Section 4 Configuring the Camera for Access from the Internet
You can configure the camera to be accessed over the Internet, allowing you to view camera images and change camera settings from anywhere—even using your mobile phone. This section explains the concepts and procedures for configuring your camera (and other network devices) to allow you to view camera images over the Internet.
Before you can configure the camera for access from the Internet, it is necessary to understand how IP addresses and Internet connections work.
Note
To configure the camera to be accessed over the Internet using IPv6, see 11.5 Allowing IPv6 Access from the Internet.
Understanding local addresses
Each device connected to your computer network (PCs, router, network printers, network cameras, etc.) has an IP address. It probably looks something like this: 192.168.0.100. Each IP address on your network must be unique, as shown in the example below.
In this example, you would enter 192.168.0.253 or 192.168.0.252 in your web browser’s address bar to access your cameras with your PC.
A
Internet
B
Modem
C
Router
Although each IP address on your network must be unique, the addresses are unique only to your network. In other words, your cameras and your neighbor’s cameras may have the same IP addresses. In the example below, the addresses of your devices (on the left) and the addresses of your neighbor’s devices (on the right) are the same, but this is not a problem because the cameras are not connected to the same network.
IP addresses that distinguish different devices on the same LAN (local area network, i.e., personal network) are called local IP addresses. The IP addresses in the examples above are local IP addresses.
So how can you access your camera when you are away from home if other people are using the same IP address as your camera?
Understanding global addresses
The answer is to access the camera by entering the unique IP address assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This address is called a global address, or a WAN (wide area network) address. In the example below, your global IP address is aaa.aaa.aaa.aaa and your neighbor’s global IP address is zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz.
Note that an actual IP address is made of numbers, not letters.
When you are away from home, you can access your router by entering aaa.aaa.aaa.aaa. But now you have another problem—you don’t want to access your router, you want to access the cameras connected to your routers.
Understanding port numbers
Data is sent between devices on a network using different ports depending on what kind of data is being sent. A port is not a physical object; it is a piece of information in the data that helps the data be directed to the intended device. In the example below, the port numbers 50000 and 50001 are assigned to your cameras.
By assigning unique port numbers to your cameras, you can access your cameras when you are away from home by entering aaa.aaa.aaa.aaa:50000 or aaa.aaa.aaa.aaa:50001 in the web browser of a PC. When your router receives information via its global IP address, it passes it on to one of your cameras depending on which port number you entered after the global IP address.
But how does your router know which camera to pass information to?
Understanding port forwarding
If your router supports a feature called port forwarding (sometimes it’s called address translation, static IP masquerade, virtual server, port mapping, or other names, depending on the router manufacturer), the router can be set up to take information it receives on specific ports and pass it on to a specific IP address.
The port forwarding settings needed for the example above would look something like this:
Port No. of Incoming Access
Forwarding Destination
50000
192.168.0.253:50000
50001
192.168.0.252:50001
Now you may be thinking, “do I have to do this programming by myself?”
Understanding UPnP™
If your router does not support a feature called UPnP™ (Universal Plug and Play), you will have to manually configure your router for port forwarding. Refer to the operating instructions included with your router for more information.
If your router does support UPnP™, your cameras and router can communicate with each other so that the router knows which ports are used by which camera. This means you will be able to access your cameras from the Internet without having to configure your router manually.
Understanding Dynamic DNS services
There is one last problem to solve. How do you find out the global address your ISP has assigned to you? The answer is to first contact them. If your provider has assigned you a static IP address (i.e., an IP address that never changes), you can use that static address to access your cameras from the Internet as long as your router is set up for port forwarding.
But most service providers use dynamic addresses, which means your global address may change monthly, weekly, or maybe even every day. If your provider uses dynamic addresses, you will need to register with a Dynamic DNS service in order to access your camera from the Internet.
A Dynamic DNS service allows you to use an easy-to-remember address (such as ***.viewnetcam.com) to access your camera from the Internet. If you have subscribed to a Dynamic DNS service and configured your camera to use that Dynamic DNS service, your camera will notify the Dynamic DNS service each time your provider changes your global IP address. This means your Dynamic DNS service always knows your current global address, so whenever you enter your easy-to-remember address, the Dynamic DNS service automatically passes the information on to your router, and ultimately, your camera.
Example of how a Dynamic DNS service helps you access your camera over the Internet
A
Internet
B
ISP
C
Dynamic DNS Service
D
DNS Server
1.
Your ISP assigns a new global IP address to your Internet access account.
2.
The camera notifies your Dynamic DNS service of its new global IP address.
3.
The Dynamic DNS service notifies the DNS server of your new global IP address. The DNS server updates its information so that your URL (for example, ***.viewnetcam.com) is registered to your new global IP address.
4.
You try to access your camera from outside (i.e., over the Internet) by entering ***.viewnetcam.com.
5.
The computer contacts the DNS server and requests the global IP address registered to ***.viewnetcam.com. The DNS server looks up the global IP address of your URL.
6.
The computer receives your current global IP address from the DNS server and accesses the camera.
Summary
In order to access your camera over the Internet, you need to do the following.
1.
Configure your router for port forwarding. If your router supports UPnP™, this can be done automatically. Refer to the operating instructions included with your router for information on UPnP™ support (the router’s UPnP™ feature may be turned off by default) or for information on setting port forwarding.
2.
If your ISP has assigned you a dynamic global IP address, register with a Dynamic DNS service. We recommend using Viewnetcam.com, a Dynamic DNS service that is designed for use with Panasonic Network Cameras. (For more information, refer to the Viewnetcam.com website at http://www.viewnetcam.com.)
3.
After you have registered with a Dynamic DNS service, configure the camera to use that service.