Remote Access to View EmpireTech Camera?

[Noober]

Finally got my camera up and running locally and it's great and the PTZ works well. Would like to be able to access the camera remotely now, but my network is a bit complicated (at least in my mind).

The camera is connected via ethernet to a POE switch which is connected to Router #1 which is running VPN software. Router #1 is connected via fiber to Router #2 which is also running VPN software. Router #2 is connected to Starlink directly (no Starlink router).

Any tips on how I should go about trying to make this camera remotely accessible? Many thanks!

 

[TonyR]

The devices you access remotely now over VPN.......to which router's LAN are they connected to?

 

[Noober]

The devices you access remotely now over VPN.......to which router's LAN are they connected to?

I don't currently access any devices remotely unfortunately. This would be my first attempt.

The routers run VPN software just to encrypt and hide my IP address of internet traffic. At least that's the only way I've used it.

 

[Noober]

Years ago when I set up something similar I used port forwarding, but I only had one router and it was connected directly to the Internet and wasn't running VPN software on the router. I read elsewhere on this forum that port forwarding isn't very secure, so figured I'd ask for pointers in case there is a better way to do it before I go about cobbling things together and introducing unnecessary security risks.

 

[bp2008]

Currently you have not given us enough information to allow us to be very helpful. We don't know why you have two routers at the same location or how those are configured or how they interact. We don't even know what brand or model of routers they are.

When you connect your router to a privacy VPN in the cloud, you are using your router's VPN client functionality. That does not typically assist you in providing remote access. When you want to remotely access something on your home network, typically you'd use your router's VPN server functionality instead. Then your phone/laptop etc would run a VPN client and connect to your router's VPN server. You can read a bit more about that here: How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

You said you're using Starlink. It is well known they use CGNAT for IPv4, so in order to accept an incoming connection you would need to use IPv6 (which makes eyes glaze over faster than throwing a donut at them) or some cloud-based tunneling service (which is hard or impossible to do directly on most routers).

 

[Noober]

Currently you have not given us enough information to allow us to be very helpful. We don't know why you have two routers at the same location or how those are configured or how they interact. We don't even know what brand or model of routers they are.

When you connect your router to a privacy VPN in the cloud, you are using your router's VPN client functionality. That does not typically assist you in providing remote access. When you want to remotely access something on your home network, typically you'd use your router's VPN server functionality instead. Then your phone/laptop etc would run a VPN client and connect to your router's VPN server. You can read a bit more about that here: How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

You said you're using Starlink. It is well known they use CGNAT for IPv4, so in order to accept an incoming connection you would need to use IPv6 (which makes eyes glaze over faster than throwing a donut at them) or some cloud-based tunneling service (which is hard or impossible to do directly on most routers).

I appreciate the info and apologies for my lack of detail. I'll do more research and try to get a better idea of what I have going on. When you say "privacy VPN in the cloud" that might be what we have. The routers run the ExpressVPN software so that when we connect to the router(s) the IP address is masked and the traffic is encrypted without us having to run ExpressVPN software on our individual laptops. We have two routers because we have two locations on either side of the large 600 foot fiber cable and so we have two WiFi routers so we can connect wirelessly at either location.

 

[samplenhold]

Look into either Tailscale or Zerotier.

 

[Noober]

Look into either Tailscale or Zerotier.

Will do, thanks.