Hi All!
New and a Noob here trying to learn. About 8 months ago, I searched and found recommendations here and bought cameras and a NVR 16 channel POE (purchased 6 but 4 cameras connected now). I bought everything from B&H for full warranty auth dealer, Dahua cameras and NVR. All cams are outside only. Got everything wired and the systems seems to be fine, except when it comes to networking and VPN. I'm really struggling and I read there are very knowledgeable folks here. I had the NVR connected to the internet for a few days and then when reading the noobs section and the NVR system is a 27/7 Linux system exposed to China, so I unplugged the NVR from the router for network connection until I can figure out how to do VPN, which has not gone well. So after many hours of trying with my Linksys router for VPN, it just does not work with my note 4 phone (downloading the open VPN app and using the file from router, etc). The ASUS 3100 didn't work for VPN either. All I want to do is receive email alerts and able to view my cams from mobile phone and that's all. Got to a point it went on the back burner for a while. Unfortunately the China news makes me nervous, but at the same time this was not cheap and it would be nice to use more of it's potential. So now I'm jumping back into it and the same thing -still cannot get VPN working on note 4 on the Linksys WRT3200 router after firmware updates - so then I added a netgear router I already had AC1900 - R7000 (perhaps use dedicated to the NVR if VPN worked or just keep it with one router whatever works with VPN), and seen with firmware update they offer VPN now, going through the set up Netgear suggest setting up DNS prior to setting up VPN. UPnP is turned off and aware most all post say never port forward. Did all that and still cannot get VPN to work on note 4 with either Linksys or Netgear routers. Maybe its problems with the Samsung note 4, I don't know - it is getting old and most likely limited with no more android updates. I'm going to be going on a different cell plan carrier soon anyway so maybe it is time to change phones to something more VPN friendly?
At this point with VPN, I guess my options are:
1. Try VPN with a different cell phone (maybe LG stylos or perhaps note 8)? I'm not a heavy cell phone user so really the LG is probably all I need, but even the camera on my note 4 is really nice so who knows.
2. When setting up the netgear router, they have partnered with noip.com for DNS service and I think it is free for one account using Netgear router? It looks like it is an alternate to VPN and done from website in three steps: create hostname, download dynamic update client, then port forward router. Once all these steps are done, it seems like access can be done through that website. So the question is, is port forward safe with this company noip.com that is partnered with Netgear? Or, is port forward still a no-no? Have mixed feelings about it and what access they have.
3. I can just buy a couple wireless cameras to send notices (Arlo or similar). They don't record 24 hours, but would send notifications and I can see camera on cell phone and if it is something I wanted to see - can go back to NVR for longer video recording.
I would really prefer to use the Dahua without being paranoid over being hacked and pretty obvious I'm a noob with all this. My cameras are all outside so if someone hacks into them it would be very boring, but I'm much more concerned about hackers using the NVR as a weapon for other bad stuff or get into my computer somehow.
Sorry, I know this is pretty long but if anyone has some insight on the options above, greatly appreciate any suggestions!
New and a Noob here trying to learn. About 8 months ago, I searched and found recommendations here and bought cameras and a NVR 16 channel POE (purchased 6 but 4 cameras connected now). I bought everything from B&H for full warranty auth dealer, Dahua cameras and NVR. All cams are outside only. Got everything wired and the systems seems to be fine, except when it comes to networking and VPN. I'm really struggling and I read there are very knowledgeable folks here. I had the NVR connected to the internet for a few days and then when reading the noobs section and the NVR system is a 27/7 Linux system exposed to China, so I unplugged the NVR from the router for network connection until I can figure out how to do VPN, which has not gone well. So after many hours of trying with my Linksys router for VPN, it just does not work with my note 4 phone (downloading the open VPN app and using the file from router, etc). The ASUS 3100 didn't work for VPN either. All I want to do is receive email alerts and able to view my cams from mobile phone and that's all. Got to a point it went on the back burner for a while. Unfortunately the China news makes me nervous, but at the same time this was not cheap and it would be nice to use more of it's potential. So now I'm jumping back into it and the same thing -still cannot get VPN working on note 4 on the Linksys WRT3200 router after firmware updates - so then I added a netgear router I already had AC1900 - R7000 (perhaps use dedicated to the NVR if VPN worked or just keep it with one router whatever works with VPN), and seen with firmware update they offer VPN now, going through the set up Netgear suggest setting up DNS prior to setting up VPN. UPnP is turned off and aware most all post say never port forward. Did all that and still cannot get VPN to work on note 4 with either Linksys or Netgear routers. Maybe its problems with the Samsung note 4, I don't know - it is getting old and most likely limited with no more android updates. I'm going to be going on a different cell plan carrier soon anyway so maybe it is time to change phones to something more VPN friendly?
At this point with VPN, I guess my options are:
1. Try VPN with a different cell phone (maybe LG stylos or perhaps note 8)? I'm not a heavy cell phone user so really the LG is probably all I need, but even the camera on my note 4 is really nice so who knows.
2. When setting up the netgear router, they have partnered with noip.com for DNS service and I think it is free for one account using Netgear router? It looks like it is an alternate to VPN and done from website in three steps: create hostname, download dynamic update client, then port forward router. Once all these steps are done, it seems like access can be done through that website. So the question is, is port forward safe with this company noip.com that is partnered with Netgear? Or, is port forward still a no-no? Have mixed feelings about it and what access they have.
3. I can just buy a couple wireless cameras to send notices (Arlo or similar). They don't record 24 hours, but would send notifications and I can see camera on cell phone and if it is something I wanted to see - can go back to NVR for longer video recording.
I would really prefer to use the Dahua without being paranoid over being hacked and pretty obvious I'm a noob with all this. My cameras are all outside so if someone hacks into them it would be very boring, but I'm much more concerned about hackers using the NVR as a weapon for other bad stuff or get into my computer somehow.
Sorry, I know this is pretty long but if anyone has some insight on the options above, greatly appreciate any suggestions!
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