New PTZ user for backyard wildlife

[backyardPTZ]

Hey all,
My name is Tony from southeastern MA. I recently bought a Vikylin IP-PTZ cam that im using for viewing wildlife, more specifically the great horned owls that hunt in the yard, and its fascinating! Im very new to anything technical/ computer/ IT etc. Setting up the camera wasn't too difficult. The app that the manufacture recommends is Danale, which works great when im connected within my home network where the IP camera is connected to, however, when im outside my LAN i will only be able to view the stream for a few seconds, it shows speeds around 600-800kb/s then it freezes and shows 0.0kb/s. If i close the app and re open it just repeats. Through the cameras online UI it shows P2P is in fact enabled and online. Ive tried to port forward also and use the IP cam viewer app with limited success; the camera loads but will not show video, just a black screen with only audio. A little frustrating, since i would like to be able to view the video stream remotely on an app. I have opened a support ticket with Danale but have not heard back from them. Anyways, i will create a separate post for this issue! Look forward to learning all i can! cheers!

-Tony

 

[sebastiantombs]

I would suggest using either OpenVPN which is available on many modern routers or Zerotier which is also a VPN but works through additional VPN servers. Note that this is not the type of VPN designed to hide your IP address while you're surfing the internet. OpenVPN and Zeroteir basically create a dedicated, encrypted tunnel from the client machine back onto your local LAN. This has the effect of making the remote device able to access everything on the local LAN safely as if there is a physical connection.

Apps used by these types of cameras use port forwarding and open you LAN up to hackers. They're not interested in the video but are interested in using your equipment in botnet attacks and stealing as much private information as they possible can.

Secure Network

How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

Many camera networks are unsecure, even those installed by professionals. This guide gives basic instruction in how to secure a camera network from the most common types of attacks. Perhaps the most important rule of securing a computer network is to not forward ports to unsecure services...

ipcamtalk.com

VPN Primer

VPN Primer for Noobs

The internet is a force of nature; no video surveillance system made was designed to be exposed to those forces.. NEVER FORWARD PORTS to your NVR or Cameras, doing such things not only exposes you to severe security problems, but everyone else on the internet too.. Hackers dont want your video...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[backyardPTZ]

Thank you for this information! ill read both of these.