finally

[rory 0]

got the cat5 wiring straight on a job I installed here, for networking 2 stores.

 

Okay, it was a subbed job, but still neat.

Cameras, okay, cheap OEM Eclipse Bullets, but they came out okay. Contractor chose them for price factor.

 

2 Stores - 2 Iview PC DVRs, 120/120x8 channels each.

 

1 has 6 cameras, other has 8 cameras.

 

(Now you network pros dont quiver at my ignorance or lack of knowledge in this area, i am just explaining it from a user side, and what was explained to me. Please DO post comments)

 

Connected on a VPN means from the main office/store, we can connect to the 2nd store using a local IP, even though it is over Cable internet. It is an encrypted tunnel from one store to the next. In this case, we had the person in charge of the networking do this for us, especially since I dont know these Cisco VPN routers, how do to do this, nor what they had set up for the network.

 

He did this right from his office, remotely, over the phone, so this helped alot.

 

Now I would have preferred simply a Linksys Router, open the ports i need and then get it online the same day, but this is what they wanted, for now.

 

So, to connect to the DVRs, you need the VPN set up on the PC you want to use. Im not experienced in this so cant comment on how its done, but basically it means you can't just walk into a web cafe and using the web browser, you can't just pull up the DVR. But in this case, it is installed on a couple PCs in the main office, and also on the owners Laptop. Once he takes the laptop with him when he travels to Europe, then with an broadband intrenet connection, he can pull up the DVR as if he is on the local network.

 

However, still, bandwidth is a factor.

 

So, right now, the owner and others on a couple other PCs can watch all cameras in 1 multi screen from the main office, using just local IPs, or in this case, names. The Network guy created names for each DVR based on the MAC address for each PCs Network card. He assigned an IP to each one, then simply used the DHCP server to update it with a name. This means we can type in the name of the DVR instead of the IP, which may change, much like No-ip.com, etc. only its on a local network, or seems like it is.

 

He can also open ports so we can access them from the outside, since both locations come with Static IPs with their internet account. At this time they are all closed and only on the VPN.

 

Bandwidth can be adjusted remotely also, not sure how they are doing this, But seems it has something to do with the Cisco Router. They can control the amount of bandwidth used for the DVR, assigning a bandwidth limit to the other PCs, so the DVRs can have a certain set bandwith, the remainder being shared by the other PCs. For example in this case, email messages from the main office were sending large attachements and using alot of bandwidth originally, slowing down the remote video to the other store. Once it was adjusted the video then got faster at the other store.

 

The owner and his colleagues, can watch both stores as if on the local network, all 14 cameras in a multi camera view. Additional cameras and stores may be added shortly sicne this has worked out well.

 

In addition to the DVR video, they also use the VPN to send all data (POS/Accounting) from each store to the main server, which uses RAID (basically means it saves the same data to 2 seperate hard drives). All PCs can be accessed with Remote Desktop, excluding the DVRs.

 

To end, the person in charge of the VPN was very professional, and made it all understandable to even me .. who had no understanding or knowledge or VPN until now He spent alot of time on the phone, broke it all down into plain english, and even when he was on the road, I was patched into his cell to further complete the procedure. This is rare for the Bahamas, so I was impressed and will definately use this company again.

 

Now remember i am totally experienced when it comes to regular routers, but not these VPN routers, this was a learning experience, even though I had no actual hands on. In the future, I will have to get my hands on one of these to play with, it looks very interesting

 

Rory

[DataAve 0]

Be prepared to shell out some cash when it has a Cisco Logo. That is unusual that the IT Guy was helpful, glad to hear it went smooth. Most delays we encounter is due to a network problem with the IT Department telling us "it's not the network".

[raft 0]

Way you do not use a separate ADSL line? In this case you could be fully in charge of your system (bw. VPN etc)

[rory 0]

They dont have ADSL here, at least not for under $490 and month, Cable is the way to go down here. We are fully in control of the system via VPN and cable.

[Thomas 0]

VPN's are a pain to set up but when they work well, they are a joy. They can be expensive but they offer a great degree of protection.

[rory 0]

Yeah, I mean it wasnt my choice, its what they already have set up there at the stores, luckily they have someone with knowledge of it to help me get it set up with the DVRs, I never even met them, they did it all over the phone ... never knew what a VPN was until this job ... interesting