URGENT Need education Ref Blueiris / Blueiris iOS App

[IP001]

I've been searching through the forums. I'm starting to learn enough to be dangerous to myself.

I have an urgent situation, a work situation in which work may bleed back to my residence and attack family members or burn my house down. Who I work for and what I do isn't relevant and would likely put me at further risk, public service has its downfalls... But hopefully someone will read this and sense my urgency. I'm simply trying to harden up my property to give me ample forewarning so I can coordinate a response. This isn't a project I'm just toying around with at my leisure. I've gone through great lengths of increasing lighting, installing driveway sensors, etc.

I have Axis security cameras at every entry point in and around my residence running via POE back to Uniquiti tough switches and then to a router. The cameras aren't supported with firmware updates anymore due to their age (they're as updates as they can get) and I'll eventually be upgrading when funds permit. However, its what I got and I have to make do. They've all been locked down, no UPNP enabled, static IP's assigned, decent passwords, etc.

Running a router and have now figured out to run a VPN (it's working nicely). I do have a DNS service I pay for that I can tap into, but rarely use it. Had it for a business thing. Not sure how I can incorporate that into my overall scheme, if at all.

Have dedicated PC running Blue Iris 24/7, works well. Footage is saved local and then archived on a Synology NAS inside the home. I haven't gone through great lengths to customize the features in it that its capable of, that will come with time. Right now it does what I need it to do. View/Record footage.

I need the ability to use the Blue Iris App on my iPhone (or any type of similiar App). I've set up my iphone to use my VPN, so I can access my LAN from wherever I am, that's pretty handy. When my 25 Uniform and I went to try to set up the Blue Iris App on the phone via the Blue Iris program on the desktop, the setup wizard wanted us to use UPNP - big red flag. So we stopped. It was his experience (and further backed up with the research I've done on this site) UPNP bad bad bad. So we didn't do it. I'm not a network guy, so I still don't understand the science behind it all. If you guys say its bad and he says its bad, nuff said.

At the moment, the only way I can see my cameras on my phone is if I log into the IP address given to me by the Blue Iris program on my desktop via the use of Firefox or Safari on my iphone (it acts as if my iphone is on wifi inside my house on my local LAN). But I can only see one camera at a time via drop down menu. I don't get the luxury of iOS App functionality like I was hoping. No pop notifications means I literally have to pay attention to my phone constantly, and that's just not feasible based on what I do. I don't sit at a desk very often, sometimes my only connectivity is my iphone.

Can someone please explain to me another way of getting the Blue Iris App to work? Or am I SOL? Is there another App out there that will work? I wish I could use Crossfire like we do at work, but work won't let me have a license since its for certain customers only and I don't qualify as an individual entity...

I'm trying to find the right balance of being secure, but having access. I'm willing to take risk in some areas, but how much of a risk is something I still need to be educated on, thus my asking you all. I highly doubt the would-be-bad-actors I'm beefing security up against are going to be hacking me - its just not realistic, but at the same time I don't want to take the risk of being exposed to some college kid combing for targets with ample time to do some damage such as format my NAS after penetrating my network due to something like UPNP related setups...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[IP001]

Thankfully I've discovered this thread: Network Security Primer which has a boatload of information.

 

[TonyR]

You're wise to turn off uPnP in router as well as do no port forwarding.

Don't use the setup wizard. Give your BI server a static IP, either reserve that IP in the router or chose an IP outside the router's DHCP pool; BI will find the WAN IP. Since you have a VPN set up on LAN and on iPhone, in the BI app on the iPhone where you enter the WAN IP instead enter the LAN IP of the BI server. Do it manually, use no wizards.

 

[Q™]

If this is so urgent and may put your family in danger and result in your house being burnt down, why are you not calling security professionals along with the police.

 

[Terk]

What TonyR and Q said. The app should work fine through your VPN connection, that's how I use mine as well. I have my BI server assigned a static IP outside of the DHCP range and I use that IP for both the LAN and WAN addresses in the app. I had turned off UPNP on my router years ago, but made sure no other ports where being forwarded and I had originally setup STunnel on the BI server so I use HTTPS on both the LAN and WAN addresses in the app which adds extra security to the internal traffic.

But if your worried about your families safety you may not have time to learn everything you can do to increase your warning, including perimeter sensors and an alarm system separate from BI, so hiring a professional would likely be worth the extra cost.

 

[IP001]

Tony R, thanks for that suggestion. We had talked about that Friday, but stopped to research further before proceeding, thus my post. So I guess I'll address it on Monday. I know of a local Sheriff's Office with the exact same setup as mine, but their IT folks were able to make it work, I wasn't around to learn how. I'm going to follow up with them too to see if that's what they did.

Q, Until an overt act is committed random phone calls and online harassment isn't enough, my locals have my back, but can't be here 24/7 - that's TV, not real life. Regardless, I've put forth hardening effort in areas that I do excel at elsewhere on the property to deter trespassing, increase detection, etc. Digital hardening just isn't my strength and I've already asked for help, but those folks I'm asking help for aren't used to what I'm asking help with, especially BI. But thanks to good folks like Tony R, I was banking on someone having experience with BI to the point they would make recommendations that I could take back to the people I've asked for help. We don't have any "security professionals" in my area IMO, I live in an area where it would be cost prohibitive for someone to drive an hour south to get to me and while I'd love to just swipe the card, damned the cost, I still have to live within the confines of reality. So far have I experienced one "security professional" who's thoughts on security where a subscription to CPS and their "$900 value package with a camera and a door bell with a DVR addition with a few crappy foscam/off brand cameras." It didn't give me the warm and fuzzy when I asked him about using a PC to operate the system instead of the DVR which appeared to be something bought straight out of Sams Club / Walmart - I got the deer in the headlights look. It made me want to do it on my own, but I kept falling into that, "Eh, I'll deal with it next weekend" rinse/repeat - that was like ten months ago. Now I'm in a slight pickle.

 

[IP001]

What TonyR and Q said. The app should work fine through your VPN connection, that's how I use mine as well. I have my BI server assigned a static IP outside of the DHCP range and I use that IP for both the LAN and WAN addresses in the app. I had turned off UPNP on my router years ago, but made sure no other ports where being forwarded and I had originally setup STunnel on the BI server so I use HTTPS on both the LAN and WAN addresses in the app which adds extra security to the internal traffic.

But if your worried about your families safety you may not have time to learn everything you can do to increase your warning, including perimeter sensors and an alarm system separate from BI, so hiring a professional would likely be worth the extra cost.

Thank you for the feedback. I'm going to take that back to my guru.

I've got a lot of standoff, which is a good thing for me. As previously stated in the above post, the first thing I did was increase audio alerts. Vehicle access has been greatly restricted. Someone can't just come barrelling through a fence making a lot of noise, the neighbors would likely start lighting people up (Thank God for good neighbors) and that scenario is highly unlikely. It's been my experience that people who want to do harm, still don't want to get caught when they do it. But the more realistic scenario is the car parked slightly down the road and infil on foot. Secondary were some areas where I've put off hanging gates in various fence accesses. The most likely is the Trojan horse approach via the driveway in a vehicle.

At the moment, I've got a peer that has it way worse than I do. Just trying to be proactive and not be caught off guard...

 

[Q™]

...Until an overt act is committed random phone calls and online harassment isn't enough, my locals have my back, but can't be here 24/7 - that's TV, not real life...

Harassment is a crime...

”Harassment" refers to a broad number of behaviors that are subject to both criminal punishment and civil liability. On the criminal side, states have a wide variety of criminal laws forbidding harassment in many forms, including general harassment crimes as well as specific forms of harassment, such as stalking and cyberstalking...

States vary in how they define criminal harassment. Generally, criminal harassment entails intentionally targeting someone else with behavior that is meant to alarm, annoy, torment or terrorize them. ... Harassment charges can range from misdemeanor to high level felony charges.

 

[looney2ns]

Mossberg or 870 and training comes to mind.

 

[Q™]

Mossberg or 870 and training comes to mind.

Right on @looney2ns...I’ve actually got all three of those, along with enough 00 Buck to dispatch a small zombie army.

 

[IP001]

Mossberg or 870 and training comes to mind.

Way ahead of you boss.

 

[SkyLake]

Somehow i would advice you to view some "Doomsday Preppers" episode's

 

[0305030angus]

I've been searching through the forums. I'm starting to learn enough to be dangerous to myself.

I have an urgent situation, a work situation in which work may bleed back to my residence and attack family members or burn my house down. Who I work for and what I do isn't relevant and would likely put me at further risk, public service has its downfalls... But hopefully someone will read this and sense my urgency. I'm simply trying to harden up my property to give me ample forewarning so I can coordinate a response. This isn't a project I'm just toying around with at my leisure. I've gone through great lengths of increasing lighting, installing driveway sensors, etc.

I have Axis security cameras at every entry point in and around my residence running via POE back to Uniquiti tough switches and then to a router. The cameras aren't supported with firmware updates anymore due to their age (they're as updates as they can get) and I'll eventually be upgrading when funds permit. However, its what I got and I have to make do. They've all been locked down, no UPNP enabled, static IP's assigned, decent passwords, etc.

Running a router and have now figured out to run a VPN (it's working nicely). I do have a DNS service I pay for that I can tap into, but rarely use it. Had it for a business thing. Not sure how I can incorporate that into my overall scheme, if at all.

Have dedicated PC running Blue Iris 24/7, works well. Footage is saved local and then archived on a Synology NAS inside the home. I haven't gone through great lengths to customize the features in it that its capable of, that will come with time. Right now it does what I need it to do. View/Record footage.

I need the ability to use the Blue Iris App on my iPhone (or any type of similiar App). I've set up my iphone to use my VPN, so I can access my LAN from wherever I am, that's pretty handy. When my 25 Uniform and I went to try to set up the Blue Iris App on the phone via the Blue Iris program on the desktop, the setup wizard wanted us to use UPNP - big red flag. So we stopped. It was his experience (and further backed up with the research I've done on this site) UPNP bad bad bad. So we didn't do it. I'm not a network guy, so I still don't understand the science behind it all. If you guys say its bad and he says its bad, nuff said.

At the moment, the only way I can see my cameras on my phone is if I log into the IP address given to me by the Blue Iris program on my desktop via the use of Firefox or Safari on my iphone (it acts as if my iphone is on wifi inside my house on my local LAN). But I can only see one camera at a time via drop down menu. I don't get the luxury of iOS App functionality like I was hoping. No pop notifications means I literally have to pay attention to my phone constantly, and that's just not feasible based on what I do. I don't sit at a desk very often, sometimes my only connectivity is my iphone.

Can someone please explain to me another way of getting the Blue Iris App to work? Or am I SOL? Is there another App out there that will work? I wish I could use Crossfire like we do at work, but work won't let me have a license since its for certain customers only and I don't qualify as an individual entity...

I'm trying to find the right balance of being secure, but having access. I'm willing to take risk in some areas, but how much of a risk is something I still need to be educated on, thus my asking you all. I highly doubt the would-be-bad-actors I'm beefing security up against are going to be hacking me - its just not realistic, but at the same time I don't want to take the risk of being exposed to some college kid combing for targets with ample time to do some damage such as format my NAS after penetrating my network due to something like UPNP related setups...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

To help you figure out the IT side of your plan, I could recommend that you take the CISCO exams. I believe that this is very important in our information age. Once my friend advised me cool guys, I after my experience with them I can recommend them for you. They help you get a New Cisco Certification very quickly, without any problems. Also, New Cisco Certification will help you in different areas, not just in yours.