What NVR will work for me

W

whiskeyfarmgirl

n3wb
Jan 13, 2023
3
1
Chesterville
I am trying to setup a surveillance system on our farm. I am a little bit techy, but not extremely so. I currently have 4 analogue cameras(assorted brands), hooked to an older Lorex dvr in our barn. There is a RG6 coax that runs to the house so I can view the cameras on our tv at night. I also have a Cat5 cable running underground to the barn from the house that is hooked up to a Netgear access point in the barn. I have plugged the dvr into this and can view the cameras on my Lorex mobile & windows apps (using the dvr's ip#) while around the farm. What I am wanting to do is to expand our security system to include a total of 11 hardwired cameras in the barn & 5 others (a mix of hardwired & wifi) around the farm for security purposes-I am hoping to keep the 4 cameras I have for now and use the DVR as an analogue converter to view them on the network. I also REALLY need to be able to see all of the cameras when I am away from home. I don't need anything fancy like motion detectors on the 11 cameras in the barn, but it would be nice on the other ones around the property.

I have done some research, and would like to make the new additions as IP cameras rather than analogue cameras. I'm hoping to put an NVR in the house where there is significantly less dust & moisture than out in the barn as well as better security. I was planning on using the current dvr as an analogue converter to convert/pass the analogue signals along and then add a poe for the rest of the cameras in the barn. I have downloaded Blue Iris as a trial & can successfully see each of the cameras with it through the DVR. I don't want to set up a server in the house to use Blue Iris(I'm not techy enough), I'd really rather purchase an NVR for this job. I have tried setting up the remote/mobile app viewing capabilities of our current DVR, but have run into problems with my ISP. It works fine while I'm on my home network, but it seems the ISP has us behind a CGNAT, and there is no way to access my DVR from the outside world. I have tried using DDNS, VPNs and Ipv6. None will work. Switching ISPs is unfortunately not feasible either as they are the only ISP that offers service here.

With all that said, would anyone have any recommendations for an NVR that will allow me to access it from the outside world without any access to my lan, have hardwire & wifi camera capability, be viewable on my bedroom tv as well as a mobile app, and be relatively easy for me to setup? Alternatively, do you have any other suggestions that would work better for us? Thank you for your help.
 
It has nothing to do with the NVR you have.

As you mention, you are in a CGNAT situation, do a search here on CGNAT and find solutions people have when placed in that kind of situation.

Did you like BI? If so, you are halfway there as "setting up a server" isn't anything if you are already running BI. I am assuming you are running it on like a laptop or something? Just get a refurbished computer for like $150 and load up BI and turn off Windows and BI updates and set the BIOS to restart on power interruption and you are off and running.
 
As @wittaj says, you'll need to solve your networking issue first.

If you decide to stay with BI, and if you already have it up and running, great.

If you look into NVR's we mostly recommend the 5XXX series from Dahua, sold by the forum's favorite seller Empiretech (rebranded Dahua. Same stuff different sticker)

Wiz Series NVR With POE | EmpireTech

Wiz Series features an AI chip and deep learning algorithm, providing high accuracy in human & vehicle detection, fast target searching, and easy activation. SMD Plus simplifies video intelligence, while cost-efficiency allows for easy AI adoption.
empiretech01.com empiretech01.com
 
Yes, I am running BI on my laptop as a trial. I don't want to keep it there in the long term. It works, although I'm not sure what half the settings do, lol, but I do think it's way more complicated than what I need. It looks like ZeroTier or Tailscale might help me out. I have an Asus router, and it looks like I would have to figure out how to flash it with Merlin, then add ZeroTier or Tailscale to it? I'm not so sure I have that much tech knowledge and am a bit worried that I won't have a working router when I'm all done.

If I were to buy a Dahua NVR will the DMSS app connect to it without me going through all the router changes, or will I still need to mess around with my router? Adding to my problems, our ISP is planning on switching us to a fibre connection in the spring but they are wanting me to use their router. Every time I mention keeping my own router, they become more difficult than they already are. My neighbour, who has the same ISP, tells me he has Lorex wifi cameras that connect to an app he can see on his phone from anywhere. He also told me he doesn't even have his NVR hooked up yet and the whole system works fine without the NVR. Would this be because he is using all wifi cameras? I feel like I'm missing a big piece of the puzzle here in my understanding of how this all works.

Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated. I have spent many hours reading about this but am still somewhat confused.
 
Flashing Merlin is easy.

You simply download the file and go to the update section of the router and do manual to select the file and select it and a few minutes later the firmware is updated.

But the whole ZeroTier or Tailscale and router thing is only if you decide to "VPN" your system instead of using P2P.

But if you decide to use P2P, all it needs is an internet connection and that is likely what your neighbor with his Lorex is doing.

Lorex is Dahua OEM, so it would be similar to Dahua with DMSS.
 
whiskeyfarmgirl said:
Yes, I am running BI on my laptop as a trial. I don't want to keep it there in the long term. It works, although I'm not sure what half the settings do, lol, but I do think it's way more complicated than what I need. It looks like ZeroTier or Tailscale might help me out. I have an Asus router, and it looks like I would have to figure out how to flash it with Merlin, then add ZeroTier or Tailscale to it? I'm not so sure I have that much tech knowledge and am a bit worried that I won't have a working router when I'm all done.

If I were to buy a Dahua NVR will the DMSS app connect to it without me going through all the router changes, or will I still need to mess around with my router? Adding to my problems, our ISP is planning on switching us to a fibre connection in the spring but they are wanting me to use their router. Every time I mention keeping my own router, they become more difficult than they already are. My neighbour, who has the same ISP, tells me he has Lorex wifi cameras that connect to an app he can see on his phone from anywhere. He also told me he doesn't even have his NVR hooked up yet and the whole system works fine without the NVR. Would this be because he is using all wifi cameras? I feel like I'm missing a big piece of the puzzle here in my understanding of how this all works.

Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated. I have spent many hours reading about this but am still somewhat confused.
Click to expand...

Why not use WireGuard, I think it and OpenVPN are both built in to Asus. Tailscale and I believe ZeroTier are built on it. No real need to update to Merlin other than the "cool" factor.

Yes the DMSS app will work with the Dahua NVR no router gymnastics needed. Like anything there is some setup and learning involved and its more complex than shitty Lorex wifi cams, but its not difficult.

Like the Wifi cameras, Dahua P2P (a service you enable on the NVR, which by the way is how those VPNs work you mentioned) doesnt require any fancy network config and will allow you to view and playback remotely. You would still want the WireGuard VPN if you needed to get into the actual NVR or cameras to manage settings remotely.

But your CGNAT could still get in the way
 
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Thank you both for your help. I did try the OpenVPN which is included on my router but because of the CGNAT it wouldn't work. I also tried with DDNS and port forwarding. I read about Ipv6 for tunneling & when I enabled it all of the test sites said I didn't have Ipv6 capabilities. A call to the ISP was just a complete waste of time. I will look into the Empiretech/Dahua NVRs as a solution. I don't see any need to change settings remotely, I just want live viewing. I think it might be best to wait until we switch over to a fibre connection then see where we're at with routers, public/private ip, etc.
 
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I'm not a network expert, perhaps someone else here on the forum can tell us if P2P will work behind CGNAT?
 
It should as P2P only needs an internet connection.

The problem with CGNAT with like OpenVPN is CGNAT has many users share the same IP address, to it can't get back to the intended user.
 
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So its basically garbage used by ISP's to boost profits and do less work?
 
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