Curious about integrating VPN, DDNS and gDMSS push notifications

steve_

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Hey folks,
Thanks to all the helpful messages on here, i'm 95% online with my new camera setup. Wiring diagram attached, if you're curious, not that it really matters here. Just need to mount them outside and run wire and i'm done. Spent some time diagnosing a bum router, but i'm past that with some new hardware.

I have been able to do the following:
- Generate VPN config via home router and use Android OpenVPN to access my cameras via gDMSS Plus (Dahua Andriod App) from an LTE connection (Woo!!).
- Generate push notifications for IVS line crossing.
- Connect my router to no-ip DDNS service because I don't pay for a static IP.
- I've checked that no ports are forwarded, DPnP is off on my NVR & router, and all security measures I can think of are in place.

My confusion:
1. When phone WIFI is off, LTE on, and VPN tunnel is off, I still get gDMSS push notifications - HOW? This is exactly the functionality I want, but I don't see how information makes it from my NVR (with no internet) to my phone on LTE. Did I screw up and my NVR has internet? Does gDMSS maintain some connection to my home?
2. Will I have to generate a new VPN config from my router once my IP address changes? For my router, VPN config file doesn't seem to incorporate my no-ip DDNS. This seems like a headache waiting to happen as I have to keep re-setting configs every couple days or weeks to access my cameras remotely.

----> Maybe this depends router to router. For example, someone on VPN megathread says Asus routers will generate VPN+DDNS config files. (I'm buying an Asus AC1900 this week). Can anyone confirm?
 

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steve_

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Don't know how I missed this thread in my searching: Dahua NVR/ gDMSS getting to cameras from internet

Looks like I need to double check these functions and confirm back:

- UPnP disabled
- P2P functionality
- Port forwarding disabled
- Easy4IP

Damn... I really want to get push notifications from gDMSS without being connected to VPN 24/7 - am I leaving gaping security holes by allowing this?
 

spoonek

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From my understanding, Push notification is from the cam to your email server (outbound) on the standard smtp ports. VPN won’t matter in this case.
 

Spudz

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Also interested to know about this as well as I want to switch to VPN from using P2P soon and don’t want to miss out on push notifications.
 

steve_

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I got a raspberry pi and installed OpenVPN on it then created the key and installed it on my laptop and cellphone. I can now vpn to my Pi and view my cams/ nvr. This was all new to me and worked.

Building A Raspberry Pi VPN Part One: How And Why To Build A Server - ReadWrite
I'm confused at the purpose of a Raspberry Pi if you can just maintain a secure connection directly to your router via OpenVPN, unless you don't have a router in this equation. For my setup, it seems like the Pi and router would have the same job.


Spudz, you're gonna have to wait for the weekend for a better answer from me, new hardware has to arrive and I need the free time :D
 

spoonek

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Correct, my router doesn’t do vpn duties.
 

DavidDavid

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The only downside I see to being connected to my VPN server all the time is a slight speed decrease (my upload speed at home is piss poor...but it works just fine and it's worth it to me to be able to open my camera app at any time and see my feeds right away)

I use Tasker to automatically connect my phone to my VPN when I leave home and disconnect when I get home. It works great.

Have Tasker automatically connect/disconnect your VPN connection

Also I can recall getting alerts from my NVR when I wasn't on my VPN which was worrisome because I had parental controls on my WiFi router set to block it from the internet. It didn't happen all the time and I don't really recall the details because I'm rarely not on my VPN while away from home as I've had Tasker doing this for me for 10 months now. And anyway I recently got a new router so I'm sure it's blocked now.
 
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