How to access a DVR on a different LAN?

Question

I need to access a DVR that it's located on a different LAN. I have both the public and private IPs, but I do not know how to connect to it.

The DVR is connected to HikVision cameras, and I tried using HikConnect and iVMS-4200 to have access to those cameras, but I need to be connected to the same DVR LAN or the device appears Offline. Any advice?

Answer 1

There are two ways.

Open ports

Create a portforwarding for the ports used by the DVR camera, and connect to the camera using the WAN IP address and port. Use different ports for each camera and don't forward the default port

For example, if the default port is 8000, you would want to create the following port forward:

Lets assume you have 3 camera's with IP 192.168.25.21, .22 and .23

You would then create a portforward as follows. Lets assume we use port range 2800x where x is the camera. These would be your portforwarding rules:

Port in: 28001, Port out: 8000, IP out: 192.168.25.21
Port in: 28002, Port out: 8000, IP out: 192.168.25.22
Port in: 28003, Port out: 8000, IP out: 192.168.25.23

Lets say, your WAN IP address is 123.45.67.89, you would now add the camera's as follows:

Camera 1: Server IP: 123.45.67.89, Port 28001
Camera 2: Server IP: 123.45.67.89, Port 28002
Camera 3: Server IP: 123.45.67.89, Port 28003

Some software requires you to specify the server and port as: 123.45.67.89:28001

With this setup, you can now connect to the camera when you are outside of your network. Keep in mind that some routers do not support NAT hairpinning. As such, you cannot view the camera's with these addresses when you are INSIDE the network. If this is on your mobile device, turn off wifi and switch to your mobile carrier to test this. Once you confirm that this works, you can add the camera's a second time with thier LAN IP addresses and port 8000 so you can choose which connection to use depending on where you are.

Keep in mind that opening ports like this is insecure. Others could connect to your camera's and spy on you. If your router does support IP Whitelisting, it is strongly recommended to setup IP Whitelisting to only the locations where you want to watch the camera's from. If IP Whitelisting is not possible on your router, consider using the 2nd option below instead.

Using a VPN server

If you setup a VPN server in your network, and you connect to this server before connecting to your camera's as if you are at home, you have a secure way to access your camera remotely.

The downside is that you need to connect to the VPN server before you can view the cameras and you need a device/server that can run a VPN server. Some routers offer to turn on a VPN server.

Do note, that you need a VPN server that runs inside your network. A cloud VPN solution people use to watch a streaming service from another country is not going to work.