CnM Secure 4 Channel H.264 DVR

[sparkz 0]

Hi all,

 

1st post so be gentle with me!

 

i recently bought a CnM package from Amazon, after a bit of faffing about (i was supplied 6mm lenses as opposed to the 3.6mm ones id ordered ) its all installed now and working well!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CnM-Secure-Channel-Recorder-Security/dp/B002UT7QK6/ref=sr_1_1?tag=gpse-20&ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270551269&sr=1-1

 

 

my questions,

 

CnM dont seem to list the model on their website, im pretty sure from the 'dodgy translated' instruction manual that the kit originated from our east asian brothers...im aware its probably not the best gear on the market, however seems to fit my perpose and was a bargain price.....anywho back to the questions....

 

who makes the unit?..are there other variants...is there firmware updates available....does anyone else have one?...basically am i missing out on anything

 

i have sorted the remote monitoring/networking side of things and can happly watch the post man delivering the mail at home when im in my office at work however the next quest is the ability to do a similar thing on my iphone....there was some dodgy bundled mobile phone software included with the kit..but it seemed more aimed at symbian type phones as the iphone.....i know i could jailbrake my iphone and simply install activx on it to let me view the DVR in the Iphone browser...however as its a work phone, jailbraking is not an option....any ideas? - i found a few free iphone apps, however they are more aimed at IP cams as opposed to DVRs...

 

next problem is the activx app used when remote monitoring via nework/internet defaults the download directory as C:/DVR/ - this seems to anger windows as it prevents writing to this directory from a website...i found changing the directory 1st to 'my documents' overcomes the problem and allows remote downloading..however it would be usefull if i could modify the activx part to default to a more convenient directory in the 1st place..

 

finally the email notification part of the DVR seems pretty basic to say the least..my ISP doesnt offer a SMTP server so im struggling to get it up and running with gmail...has anyone had any sucess?

 

 

thanks in advance,

 

Sparkz

[sparkz 0]

am i the only person to own one of these then??

 

[tomcctv 190]

am i the only person to own one of these then??

 

 

 

 

 

you can from smartphones or pda but not from your iphone and jailbrake will not help either. you could just buy a cheap nokia pay as you go

[georgeh 0]

Hi Sparkz,

 

I have one of these setup's only it goes under the name of Sentient CCTV kit and I purchased it only the other day from Maplins.

 

I'm glad to hear that your installation has been mostly sucessful unlike mine, I having nightmares even logging in via my web browser on a LAN setup, so unfortunatly I can not currently answer you question. But maybe you would be so kind as to assist me as I had almost lost faith with this unit from 2nd day of purchase.

 

I have not setup any passwords at the moment as I did not want to make thing to complexed whilst trying to sort out the basics, so after setting up a static IP on the DVR, I type the IP of the box into the browser of a seperate PC connected on my LAN. I'm meet with the logging screen and as I have not currently set a password the box is greyed out. Either selecting LAN or INTERNET from the NETWORK window results in a reply of 'login failed' on selection of the LOGIN button.

 

Any help would be much appriciated.

 

George.

[tomcctv 190]

Hi Sparkz,

 

I have one of these setup's only it goes under the name of Sentient CCTV kit and I purchased it only the other day from Maplins.

 

I'm glad to hear that your installation has been mostly sucessful unlike mine, I having nightmares even logging in via my web browser on a LAN setup, so unfortunatly I can not currently answer you question. But maybe you would be so kind as to assist me as I had almost lost faith with this unit from 2nd day of purchase.

 

I have not setup any passwords at the moment as I did not want to make thing to complexed whilst trying to sort out the basics, so after setting up a static IP on the DVR, I type the IP of the box into the browser of a seperate PC connected on my LAN. I'm meet with the logging screen and as I have not currently set a password the box is greyed out. Either selecting LAN or INTERNET from the NETWORK window results in a reply of 'login failed' on selection of the LOGIN button.

 

Any help would be much appriciated.

 

George.

 

 

Hi George. yes you have a setting on the dvr for static ip. but this does not mean you have one. who is you isp and did you buy a static ip ???

[sparkz 0]

Try entering the password 000000 (zeros) and seeing if you have more sucess....regardless of if you have set your own password...it still likes to use one and that is default

 

the admin password is 020818 also...yours may be he same?

[georgeh 0]

Hi Sparkz,

 

Thanks for responding so soon it is appriciated. I followed your instructions but still had no success, I must be doing something seriously wrong.

 

After adding the passwords as mentioned in your mail, I rebooted the box and opened my web browser once again (IE8.0), once again the password box of the 'user login' window is greyed out and prevents you from typing in the box (The password function is requested locally if i try to enter the setup menu, so i know this is working). If I ping the IP address of the box I get 0% packet loss implying that I'm able to see the box. If I log onto my BT homehub2 I can see that the DVR is present and connected. Both Active X and Direct X are loaded on the remote (Lan connection) PC. but as you can read I can't even login to the DVR via the LAN connection, let along start to think about a remote WAN connection using Dyndns.

 

regards

 

George.

[tomcctv 190]

bt homehub. will show your dvrs ip as a mac address. have you port forwarded your ports to it. ??? and for remote viewing do you have a static from bt.

[sparkz 0]

Aha! It's all coming back to me now!

 

You will need to direct the ports (both of em) to the dvr's IP

 

I think I had he same problem when I only had one of them configured.

 

Have you tried to add a password by the way? I never disabled passwords simply used defaults to get it up and running then changed them when all was configured....it might be worth adding a basic password to see what happens.

 

It's a bit clunky....but for the money it's not a bad box!

 

The box supports dyndns.com so no need for a static ip...just set it up and use the URL To remotely view your box

[georgeh 0]

Hi Sparkz,

 

Thanks for the details so far. The password thing still did not seem to work, so I looked at this port forwarding that you mentioned, unfortunatly still no joy. I took the DVR to my works place and connected to to our network to see if it would at least allow me to get past the start gate.

 

Allowed the box to be allocated it's own IP address, entered the DNS settings and then pinged the given IP address and bingo, no data loss. So, I opened IE8.0 and typed in the given IP address of the DVR, after installing the requested activeX control I was able to view the remote GUI. So I conclude that the error seems to be some 'blockage' on my BTHome hub2.

 

I have not tried the remote Dyndns setup yet, but this is a mighty step forward just knowing that the box is functioning as expected.

 

Thanks for your pointers so far they have been very informative. It is good to know that someone has got the majority of options working, and as you say; seems good value for the money.

 

Regards

 

George.

[sparkz 0]

Hi George,

 

yep..this sounds like what i was having....im not familiar with the BT home hub or how it functions, but with my router i started by passing all ports from the WAN to the IP of the DVR...i then atempted to connect...which worked sucessfully!...i then used a network 'sniffer' to see which ports were used and it turned out that data was passing on a couple...

 

i cant remeber the exact word used in the DVR setup however i recall there were 3 ports shown in the config panel, one was used for mobile phone connection (ive not made any progress on this!)..the other 2 were needed for networking....so i simply opened both these ports up and pointed them towards the IP of the DVR and hey presto...remote viewing of the box around the network at home...

 

keep me posted how you get on

[dave4e 0]

Hi All

 

Has anyone successfully connected to this DVR over the Internet.

 

Ive had it a few months now and have already caught a potential Burglar, twice, smae guy, Dum...

 

Setting up to view over my wireless LAN was no problem,

 

Ive just set up Port forwarding and all that and can access the Login Page from outside my network, but when i enter the password it give me the message , Login Failed, this is the same for the ADMIN password and if the login page is set to LAN or INTERNET.

 

Have also set up dynDNS which was a nightmare of Jargon if you have never done it before, but possible as there are many forums and blogs etc..

 

Dave

[georgeh 0]

Hi Dave,

 

I initially had a simular issue just trying to get the LAN setup side working, it would seem that my router firewall was blocking the ability to download some specific DVR active X drivers from a far Eastern company (you may have encountered this when you initially set the system up). Although I have not yet been in a position to connect remotely via dynDNS or any other provider, it could well be that the Active X driver has not been successful in downloading onto the PC that you are trying to login with remotely.

 

If you have a laptop it might be worth loading the active X control on to this when connected to you home network (login using LAN IP)once you know this works, then try login in via the unique IP address that is provided by dynDNS to see if it now works.

 

Regards

 

George.

[mr_merlin990 0]

All

 

Bought the same kit just yesterday. Got it all wired up and working with two cameras (all in my lounge until I know it works ok). Configured it with user and admin passwords and confirmed they worked by logging in locally using the mouse provided.

 

Next step - Connected it to my home broadband router, let it receive DHCP config, and can connect to it fine using IE (after downloading the required ActiveX software) from my Windows laptop. Doesn't let me input a password though - field is greyed out but I just press enter and I'm in.

 

All exited, I moved on to the next phase of the project - connecting to the DVR over the internet which is what I really need this kit for.

 

1. Configured the DVR as a virtual server on the broadband router so that it's accessable from the internet.

 

2. Opened the necessary TCP ports inbound through the firewall.

 

3. Went to work, opened IE and punched in my homes static IP - hey presto, got the login page of my DVR (exactly as it looks when connecting over the home LAN).

 

4. Wouldn't let me login - either with the LAN or Internet drop down option selected. Password box still greyed out.

 

I must be almost there and am looking for any guidence/advice you guys can provide to get me over this final hurdle.

 

Many thanks

 

Richard

[mr_merlin990 0]

All

 

Finally got this sucker running both on the LAN and over the internet.

 

Seems there are things you can configure in the WebUI that you can't configure sat locally on the box. Anyway, secret was a couple of reboots (even if the box didn't prompt you to), good port forwarding config on the broadband router, and DynDNS registration to keep your private FQDN updated.

 

Have to say, although it's a stinker to set up, not all the DVRs fault I must point out, I'm really happy with the results.

 

Good luck guys, contact me if I can help out further or provide a demo.

 

Richard

[dave4e 0]

Hi Richard

 

I managed to get to the login page but couldnt log in over the internet, ill set it up again and try a few resets. Im going to change my router as i have a talk talk provided one and its a bit tough on us of lesser skills.

Could you give a run down of the settings you used?

 

Regards

 

Dave

[tomcctv 190]

Hi Richard

 

I managed to get to the login page but couldnt log in over the internet, ill set it up again and try a few resets. Im going to change my router as i have a talk talk provided one and its a bit tough on us of lesser skills.

Could you give a run down of the settings you used?

 

Regards

 

Dave

 

 

Hi Dave. talk talk has so many restrictions on there broadband. and you might not be able to use your dvr over wan. talk talk is a information collection broadband service (that is why it is so cheap) and it is the smallest usage broadband around. before you spend money just check with them

[mr_merlin990 0]

Dave

 

I too have talktalk as my service provider. I looked up the router they supplied me which turned out to be a Huawei EchoLife HG520s.

 

First thing I did was set the DVR a static IP and change the DVR listening port from 80 to 8080. Changed the port so that it was different to the routers management listening port which is also 80 by default (you'll see why later).

 

I checked I could connect over the LAN to the DVR using http://192.168.xx.xx:8080 and all worked as expected. Although the password box was greyed out, but just hit return and was in anyway.

 

Once logged into the DVR using IE, I set the "IE password enable" setting to "on" (you can only do this using the WebUI). This now asks me for me password instead of the field being greyed out, even connecting over the LAN.

 

With all this working, I then registered for DynDNS. Configured the account settings on the DVR and tested it to see if I could manage my ROUTER over the internet using my personal FQDN. I could, on TCP port 80.

 

I then went to "http://portforward.com/help/portforwarding.htm" which listed pretty much every broadband router on the market. Looked up my EchoLife HG520s and configured the port forwarding exactly as they stated. Actually, on mine it was under the NAT tab, Virtual Server rather than port forwarding.

 

Tested access over the internet using my personal FQDN with the port number tagged on the end (http://xxx.dyndns.com:8080) and I was presented with my DVR login page. Punched in my numeric password and had remote access exaclty as you would if you'd connected over the LAN.

 

Changing the DVR to listen on 8080 was solely because when I tried to set up port forwarding on TCP 80, the router automatically changed it's listening port because there was a clash. I guess either way would work, so long as the router and DVR are on different ports. I preferred my DVR to be on the non-standard HTTP port.

 

I've had two problems since:

 

1. It seems the DVR isn't using a certified DynDNS client and sends updates every few minutes instead of only when my ISP IP address changes. This has resulted in my DynDNS account being blocked several times for "abusive updates". Easy to unblock, but a pain. DynDNS offer a "paid for" service which has a higher abusive update threshold, $15 a year. It does say that this will not guarentee the account being blocked again though so I am looking for alternatives. Not sure how I'm going to overcome this, the DynDNS settings are very basic on the DVR. There seems to be another couple of options which I'm going to follow up.

 

2. One of the cameras has failed. It has a flickering image and a very pinky (almost over exposed) image when it eventually settles down.

 

A trip back to Maplin on Tuesday I think, hopefully with just the single camera rather that the whole setup.

 

Good luck.

 

Regards

 

Richard

[adsy2010 0]

Hi guys...I have been reading with interest your trials on this system, I have just purchased it off ebay, thanks to a persistant robber continually getting at what is MINE! My father is a webamaster and has been installing the unit, first impression is not bad, cameras are of good quality-good enough for a mug shot of the perpetrator, anyway! We are attempting to set the system up with a Buffalo hub so that we can remotely operate the unit from another room via CAT5 cable. We do not have internet at the house at the mo, so it is proving a challenge setting the system up. I work away from home and have been advising him from this site on possible solutions. He has already had to go back to base to download firmware-just to fire the system up, but now all good.

 

The problems we have experienced are twofold:

 

1) When attempting to operate the unit from a PC in the other room, it says 'recording', but is actually not.

 

2) Whenever a laptop/desktop is atrtached it seems to automatically default to saving imagery on the host computer, rather than save directly onto it's own HD.

 

Any help? I would seriouly appreciate any input as my father has to leave site Tuesday at lastest and we really need to catch this tow-rag!!

 

Regards to all....adsy2010

[dave4e 0]

Hi Richard

 

Ive done almost exactly as you have, and my router is the same,

Today ive changed router to my Netgear DG834, and its still the same, unable to log in over the WAN.

LAN is ok.

Ive e-mailed maplin and Talk Talk.

 

Regards

Dave

[dave4e 0]

Hi adsy2010

 

Ru connecting to the DVR via your router?

 

Before I set mine up on my network, i just had it as a stand alone machine, with its own screen, i set it to record in 15min long files and set the motion detection Alarm, so if i suspected anyone about the house then i could review the alarmed files and as they were only 15mins long then the file size was small, these could easily be selected and backed up to a usb stick, then copied to another machine, burned to disk, converted to other formats and of course given to the local Police, I was also able to Grab some frames and print stills of the culprit...

 

which model DVR have you got?

 

Ive already caught some guy trying to get in my Garage, Twice,

 

If you are having problems with an intruder and you plan to give the files / pictures to the police make sure you have signs up warning that CCTV is in operation. I bough some from Screwfix for a few quid.

 

Regards

 

Dave

[adsy2010 0]

Hi Dave

 

And also to anyone else who may have read my plea...

 

My father seems to have sorted the issues out so that we now have remote access of the system in another room to where the box is....he spent 3 days scratching his head and agrees with others that the manual needs some serious overhaul and an updated firmware/access to allow firmware updates via USB memory stick (for all those like myself with no immediate internet access).

 

Many, many thanks for helping Dave, I am affraid I can't directly answer to your comments as my father hasn't explained in English to me as yet- all I know is the system was running Sunday night and flagged up a whirlwind of dust, a tail light off a car and moths flying around.

 

Satisfied with the system now? YES!!!

 

Thanks again guys, and if you need answers, I will ask my father to maybe contact you direct - he's a good'n!!

 

Regards

 

Adam

====

[Phil H 0]

Hi

 

I've had this system now for a month or so, and am quite pleased with it. I managed to get it working over my LAN relatively easily, and this gives access to a much improved user interface.

Bugs to date:

- It regularly reverts the DST "off" from September back to March for some unknown reason, resulting in a randomly occurring 1 hour time shift.

- You can't set the time/date through the LAN interface, I have to plug a monitor in and use the mouse to do this - very inconvenient.

- When reviewing stored data, there is no "reverse" button, also the time bar at the bottom doesn't work properly.

- Just discovered that there is a discrepancy in setting the passwords over the LAN compared with doing it with the mouse. Thought I'd changed it over the LAN OK, went back to mouse control, and the password in that mode reverted to the original!

 

HOWEVER - spent this entire week end trying to get internet access, and failed. Re Richard's post, Sun May 02, 2010 1:05, main reason is I'm having big problems in that the DVR isn't using a certified DynDNS client and sends updates every few minutes instead. DynDNS account is permanently blocked for "abusive updates". I'm not keen on spending cash upgrading to overcome this when I don't know if it will fix the problem.

Anyone, any ideas?

 

Also - any idea where to get firmware updates? Maplin just don't respond.

 

Phil

[dave4e 0]

Hi all

 

I managed to get an e-mail from Maplin and from CnM who sent me the following, Im still trying to figure out what it means, has anyone any ideas?

 

DVR SETUP FOR WEB ACCESS

 

 

On the DVR set the following

 

IP ADDRESS 192.168.X.X

SUBNET MASK 255.255.255.0

GATEWAY 192.168.X.X

 

PORT 9000 FOR MEDIA

PORT 80 FOR ACCESS

 

RESTART DVR TO SAVE SETTINGS

 

 

ON THE ROUTER

EXCLUDE THE DVR IP ADDRESS FROM DHCP RANGE

MAKE A RESERVATION TO GIVE THE DVR MAC ADDRESS TO THE IP ADRRESS OF THE DVR.

 

MAKE SURE ROUTER ISNT HOSTING PORT 80 FOR INTERNET ACCESS.IF IT IS ONLY CHANGE THE ROUTER PORT FOR INTERNET ACESS NOT THE DVR PORT.

FIREWALL SETTINGS SHOULD BE SET FOR PORT 9000 AND 80 TO BE FORWARDED TO THE LOCAL IP.

 

FORWARDING TO ANY IP ON THE NETWORK CANNOT BE USED.

APPLY SETTINGS AND RESTART ROUTER.

 

SET THE ADMIN AND USER ACCOUNTS AND PASSWORDS ON THE DVR

 

CHECK LOCALLY AND THEN THE INTERNET FOR DVR ACCESS.

 

USE A PORT SCANNING TOOL TO SEE IF PORT 9000/80 IS BEING USED IF PROBLEMATIC.

 

SOME ISP BLACKLIST SUCH AS VIRGIN, TISCALI AND TALK TALK.

[georgeh 0]

Hi Phil H,

 

I too send an e-mail to Maplin to ask about software/firmware updates for these sentient DVR's and got a single line response.

"There are no updates for this unit", pretty poor show if you ask me, talk about unhelpful.

 

Just as a matter of interest the documentation provided with the setup indicates that you should use IE6 or IE7 for stable operation. I have been using both IE7 and IE8 and it seems to work fine.

I would love it if there was support for Firefox, as I prefer this browser over IE.

 

I do not know if this is of interest to you or the group, but the firmware on my box is; T103025, do not know if it is the same on all you other guys boxes, but it might give us users an indication if there is any updates out there that we are not being informed of.

 

Regards

 

George.