How to find my external IP address?

[ilan1h2020]

I have a hikvision system and have no problem finding my internal IP address. I can easily see my cameras from within my office by typing the internal IP address in my browser. However, when I am away from the office I can't figure out how to access those cameras from an outside computer or cell phone. How do I find the external IP address?

 

[SeanO]

You need to research the way home networks use a private network of IP addresses within the home that all share one publicly facing IP address that is usually assigned to your modem.

There are ways to punch through the modem and route incoming connection requests to individual devices using port-forwarding but that is pretty risky from a security perspective.

Look up the VPN for Noobs thread for more details.

 

[tigerwillow1]

There are web sites that will tell you your external IP address, for instance:
GRC | ShieldsUP! — Internet Vulnerability Profiling  
https://ip-lookup.net/
Open Port Check Tool

A problem is that this address can change. The common solution is to use a Dynamic DNS Service. As the previous post mentioned, there are security issues you should be aware of.

 

[SeanO]

I'll give you a little bit of the technical details...

You only have one publicly visible IP address which your ISP assigns to your modem.

All internal devices are given standard 192.168.x.x or 10.10.x.x IP addresses that everyone in the world reuses within their own homes.

If you want, you can setup your router to take incoming connections requests to that one publicly available IP and forward it from the modem to whatever device you want. This is called port-forwarding. Incoming connection requests matching a particular pattern are forwarded to the device you choose. You could choose to forward incoming web connection requests to your camera by setting up the configuration in your router.

This is dangerous though, in that there are plenty of security holes in many camera devices and they have been hacked with rather alarming regularity.

A safer way is to invest the time in learning about VPNs. These VPNs punch a hole in your router to a single application called the VPN server which is hardened to a much higher confidence level (not 100% perfect but pretty darn close).

If you have a need for port forwarding, you need to make sure the device receiving connection request is confident to be safe from hacking. Cameras and NVRs are on the lower confidence level. I have Blue Iris (and stunnel) running on a dedicated clean server that I need to make visible to the internet due to my business requirements but I believe my clean windows and only BI is safe enough for my risk/reward analysis.

 

[Q™]

what's my ip - Google Search

 

[ilan1h2020]

So I discovered that my Spectrum ISP does not allow access to their routers and do no allow port forwarding. They told me that for this reason I would not be able to access my cameras unless I purchase my own router and hook it up to their existing router. I could then do port forwarding on my personal router and access my cameras. Does anyone have a suggestion for the most basic router that I could get which would allow me a good view of my cameras? I do not need wifi or any other fancy goals...I just need to access my cameras from an external location.

 

[TonyR]

You can get a router only or combo router/wireless access point ("wireless router") for under $30 on amazon from TP-LINK (and others) to perform the port forwarding but I think you missed some VERY important, previous recommendations about setting up a VPN (see VPN Primer for Noobs) to protect your network, NVR, cams, etc.

 

[ilan1h2020]

You can get a router only or combo router/wireless access point ("wireless router") for under $30 on amazon from TP-LINK (and others) to perform the port forwarding but I think you missed some VERY important, previous recommendations about setting up a VPN (see VPN Primer for Noobs) to protect your network, NVR, cams, etc.

Thanks for your help with this. I did read the VPN primer and other information and I'm investigating this route. My take is that for the most rapid access possible it is somewhat more complicated than port forwarding. My bandwidth at the office is 100MB/sec so it's pretty fast. I have read that unless you use more advanced equipment you can lose some of that bandwidth with a VPN server. I'm not sure I understand it all yet but I am looking into it.

 

[TonyR]

VPN's add a little extra bandwidth because everything is getting encrypted. But with your 100 megs I wouldnt worry about it at all.

Jeez, I'd KILL for 1/2 of his download speed...I'm out in the middle of Bumf**k (rural NW Alabama) and I've got a screamin' 3.0 meg download. That's not a typo...THREE POINT ZERO meg down.

 

[ilan1h2020]

Jeez, I'd KILL for 1/2 of his download speed...I'm out in the middle of Bumf**k (rural NW Alabama) and I've got a screamin' 3.0 meg download. That's not a typo...THREE POINT ZERO meg down.

If you really want to be jealous; I was asked by the ISP if I want to participate in a pilot program for "fiber". Apparently they are laying down fiberoptic cable or something similar and bringing speeds up to 1gig/sec ! Since my needs are modest I declined this since 100 MB/s is already overkill for me. Last year I had DSL which had 3 MB down and 1MB up. Watching my cameras from any external site was an exercise in choppy futility.

 

[Probird79]

So I discovered that my Spectrum ISP does not allow access to their routers and do no allow port forwarding. They told me that for this reason I would not be able to access my cameras unless I purchase my own router and hook it up to their existing router. I could then do port forwarding on my personal router and access my cameras. Does anyone have a suggestion for the most basic router that I could get which would allow me a good view of my cameras? I do not need wifi or any other fancy goals...I just need to access my cameras from an external location.

Did they give you the router (Sagemcom Fast 5260) and modem separate? My parents just got this system and I was able to log in and access the port forward option. I still talked them into getting a different router for VPN purposes though.

 

[Mike A.]

If you really want to be jealous; I was asked by the ISP if I want to participate in a pilot program for "fiber". Apparently they are laying down fiberoptic cable or something similar and bringing speeds up to 1gig/sec ! Since my needs are modest I declined this since 100 MB/s is already overkill for me. Last year I had DSL which had 3 MB down and 1MB up. Watching my cameras from any external site was an exercise in choppy futility.

Unless maybe you have some unusual circumstances you won't notice much of a difference day to day with gig service vs 100. About the only time that I really see it is when I do some massive offsite backups. Does make that a completely different deal now. Mostly you're still limited by whatever site you're hitting and also by the throughput of your local devices. I got it when they had a deal earlier this year since it worked out to be less than what I was paying for 50/50 but doubt that I'd pay much if any premium for it.

 

[copex]

I have a hikvision system and have no problem finding my internal IP address. I can easily see my cameras from within my office by typing the internal IP address in my browser. However, when I am away from the office I can't figure out how to access those cameras from an outside computer or cell phone. How do I find the external IP address?

use hik-connect if your nvr/dvr supports it no need for vpns or port forwarding.............

have a look at this

 

[ilan1h2020]

OK, here's how it's playing out. I accepted the fact that Spectrum does not allow their routers to port forward. I purchased another router, Linksys AC1750 for $130 and then paid Linksys another $20 for "tech support". After putting the Spectrum router into bridge mode I attached the Linksys router but it was unable to detect the cameras. I should mention that with the spectrum modem/router I was always able to see my NVR/cameras internally on the network and access them through a URL or using IVMS. The whole reason why I bought a new router was to port forward and get the external access as well. However, after I installed the Linksys router I could not find the NVR on my network and could not access the cameras either in an internal URL or IVMS. They had disappeared. I powered the NVR on and off several times and checked all the cables but no luck. After 90 minutes on the phone the Linksys tech support told me that it was some kind of DHCP issue between the router and the NVR and that I should call Hikvision to resolve it. I did that but Hikvision told me that my NVR serial number was not U.S based (news to me) and that they couldn't help. Finally, I called a local security camera guy who told met that the best thing he could do for me is simply sell me a new NVR which would interface well with my router. He said that trying to get this one to work with the router would cost more than the $200 to do it on a new NVR. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions?

 

[alastairstevenson]

Does anyone have any alternative suggestions?

It sounds like the new router may be using a different IP address range from the original.
What's the address range used by the new router?
What is the address range used by the old router, now in bridge mode?

DHCP should not really be a feature, unless you are using 'reservations', as your device should be set up with static IP addresses.
Independant of any mismatch in address assignments and ranges, SADP will find your Hikvision devices and allow you to set their IP addresses to match what your LAN is now using : Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd.

*edit*

Finally, I called a local security camera guy who told met that the best thing he could do for me is simply sell me a new NVR which would interface well with my router. He said that trying to get this one to work with the router would cost more than the $200 to do it on a new NVR.

That is total rubbish.

 

[ilan1h2020]

The way I see it is that I could pay someone for a few hours of troubleshooting to deal with this issue, or I could let him install his NVR in place of the current one. It's probably one half dozen to six of the other. He was very upfront in telling me that sometimes problems such as these are solveable but it would require time. I can tell you that the senior tech support (level 2) at linksys spent 90 minutes on the phone with me and tried very hard to solve the problem. He seemed very well informed but was unable to get the two devices to speak together.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Just run SADP and it will find your Hikvision devices and allow you to set their IP addresses to match the changed network.

 

[ilan1h2020]

Thank you so much for the SADP advice. It solved the problem immediately. I had a camera installation guy at my office who did not know to do this and was just about to install an entirely new DVR. I ran SADP and immediately realized that for some reason the IP address of the DVR had been changed. I put in the correct IP address into my IVMS program and the problem was solved. This site is fantastic.

 

[alastairstevenson]

This site is fantastic.

Agreed. Glad that you got the problem fixed.

He was very upfront in telling me that sometimes problems such as these are solveable but it would require time.

was just about to install an entirely new DVR.

Wow! Sledgehammers and nuts comes to mind. And profit.

I ran SADP and immediately realized that for some reason the IP address of the DVR had been changed.

It does sounds like you have the NVR set to use DHCP for network addressing. This is not best practice - it's vulnerable to changing if you re-start your router (or replace it ...). Best to set a fixed IP address outside the DHCP scope so you always know where it is. SADP will do this simply.

 

[fenderman]

Thank you so much for the SADP advice. It solved the problem immediately. I had a camera installation guy at my office who did not know to do this and was just about to install an entirely new DVR. I ran SADP and immediately realized that for some reason the IP address of the DVR had been changed. I put in the correct IP address into my IVMS program and the problem was solved. This site is fantastic.

A "camera guy" who did not know this is either an idiot or a scammer, likely the latter...and you should let him know.