Anyway to log into a Dahua camera remotely

I was trying to dial in my night-time settings last night and when I got to work this morning I noticed the profile did not change to day - the picture is totally blown out.

I have my OpenVPN server setup and running, but when I type in the Cam's IP, no luck via a Pixel 3.

Any ideas?

If your vpn clients are not on the same subnet as the cameras, then you won't be able to connect them. You will need to either have your vpn server assign addresses in the same range as the cameras or depending on your physical setup, create a static route in the router pointing to the camera network. If you're not familiar with vlans, routing and networks, it could get a little overwhelming and complicated.

To break it down for you, I'll describe how I have my network configured:

I'm using a managed POE switch (HP 2620) to power the cameras and this has 3 vlans set up on it. This switch has a physical connection to my home router on one of those vlans. The cameras are set up on their own vlan. The pc running Blue Iris is set up on it's own vlan. Since this switch is a managed Layer 3 capable switch, I have configured inter-vlan routing to enable the cameras and the BI pc to be able to talk to each other.

On my router, I have 2 static routes set up. One pointing to the network on which the BI pc resides and the other to forward all traffic from the vpn not on its network, to the router. Since the router has a route for the BI pc, I can connect to that pc using remote desktop.

On the POE switch, I have set up a static route that allows traffic destined for the vpn network to reach that network, from the BI pc's network. I have also locked the network down so that traffic from the camera network can only reach the BI pc and the cameras cannot get out on to the internet. This means that I can only connect to the BI pc when I'm on my home network or using the vpn when I'm out and about.

I have the OpenVPN client installed on my phone along with remote desktop. Remote desktop is installed to allow me to access the cameras directly using the BI pc if I need to.

While it might seem a little overkill for a home setup, it works for me and it's secure enough to reassure my paranoia.

Thank you very much for the detailed response. Unfortunately, after reading this several times (and also reading online about it), I feel this is way above my head. But again, thank you very much for your time!

TheE said:

Thank you very much for the detailed response. Unfortunately, after reading this several times (and also reading online about it), I feel this is way above my head. But again, thank you very much for your time!

Click to expand...

You're welcome. If you want to post your setup, I'll try and I help you if I can, that is if you want to have a go at setting up something similar.

TheE said:

I have my OpenVPN server setup and running, but when I type in the Cam's IP, no luck via a Pixel 3.

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

You need a way to connect to your server first. Make sure it is a VPN server & not VPN client, as many people confuse the two. And then from there navigate to your camera.


So you could have "OpenVPN Connect" app installed on Pixel 3 & once configured this would connect to your OpenVPN server, with your server being either static IP or DDNS. Once connected from here you could remotely log in via browser to whatever IP device on your network provided relevant credentials are configured ie username+login. Alternatively set up Dahua's gDMSS mobile app.


Have read of VPN Primer for Noobs . Took me several reads & attempts to understand & get working, but worth it.

I promised a couple of friends that I'd send them some details of my setup, so yesterday I created this 2 page document. Hopefully it gives folks a visual view and a better understanding.