IP Cameras remote access with a dynamic IP

[cstech]

Ok so here is the situation and I cannot come up with any other ideas to help out. I am doing some sub-contract work. They have 6 IP cameras that are designed to work primarily on a internal network and not be cloud accessible. However they need anywhere access to these cameras. We could use something like no-ip.com with port forwarding setup, however, these cameras are located in another building where they have a separate internet connection and the cameras are the only thing on the network. Meaning no-ip.com will not work because they do not have any actual computers on this LAN. With the dynamic IP from their ISP we have temporarily setup so that they can be accessed there however the first time their modem is assigned a new external IP they will need to reset the IP for all the cameras in their system. Do you guys have any ideas short of requesting a static IP from the ISP that may make this easier?

This is a residential client and this connection is in their horse barn with the cameras there to watch over the horses. The barn is across the street from the house. Me personally if I had been brought in at the beginning would have either done a site to site wireless bridge to the barn or had IP cameras with cloud connectivity. I am just trying to figure out a solution with what they have. Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Moltuae]

Doesn't the router have a feature for adding a dynamic IP service?

I usually just configure the router to send updates to a dyn.com account. I think I've only ever used a PC update client app once or twice ... I find them too unreliable.

 

[Markverhyden]

Quite a few routers offer built-in ddns options. Meaning they are setup to work with various ddns providers.

http://bit.ly/1E9Wpn4

 

[cstech]

The router is an airport extreme I do not work with many of these but I would think it should be able to do this. I will check. Thanks.

 

[Markverhyden]

Been a while but I seem to remember seeing that in recent Apple routers. Just not sure who they support.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Recently did something with a horse farm....and with cameras.

The project I had, they used Honeywell camera 'n DVR..which has a built in DynDNS feature...running from the DVR.

So....does this setup you have, have a DVR which might support that?

Some 3rd party routers have firmware which supports many of the common dynamic DNS services...so look there.

Or have them upgrade to a static account.

Could get a little raspberry pi box to run just some dyndns updater.

 

[cstech]

Well from the research I have done so far the Apple extreme no longer supports dyndns or other ddns services directly. Apple has some other services that they offer but are not relevant for this situation. They do not have any other devices that support this feature either. I am going to be suggesting a different router as they can resell the Airport to another client. The raspberry pi sounds like a awesome fun idea I may get one and try this out for myself before putting into production though.

 

[Frick]

Most Asus routers support multiple dynamic DNS services and work very well

 

[layoric]

Time to upgrade some of their system to support what they want done. Too much time spent on trying to figure out another solution can be spent on upgrades. Do they expect you to research for hours for free so they can save a few bucks? [emoji107]

 

[cstech]

The fun part of this is it is a new install. The company that called me in did the original item quotes and installs. I was called in to do what needed to be done to make it all work. I have suggested and will be installing a different router that can handle ddns and the port forwarding needed to be done. Right now price and features it is looking like one of the ASUS ones. I will be setting the cameras up with dhcp reservations outside of the dhcp range. I am also making sure all the ports are on non-standard external ports directed to the correct internal ports. Each camera has security with a user and password that will be setup to help secure the connection. The app for the cients phone will be setup with the dyndns.org address setup for them and the world will be happy.

Can anybody see anything I may not have thought of?

 

[Markverhyden]

Normally I do not recommend this. But since there is nothing but cameras on the LAN I would make sure to enable WAN access to the router to avoid unnecessary trips to the site.