Multi IP camera setup

[renz05725 0]

Alright I have a customer that needs help setting up his IP camera system. Basically he has a NVR, 16 ip cameras and 4 switches. The area he is setting these. cameras is wide, so from the nvr location where the main switch is, there is fiber optic cable connecting the other 3 switches back to this same switch where the nvr is connected to. 2 of the switches will have 5 ip cameras coonected to each and the 3rd will have 6 cameras on it for a total of the 16 cameras.

 

Here is my question. Im assumming i need to make sure that all the IP cameras need to be on the same IP segement that the main switch is on, so if the main switch has an Ip address of 192.168.1.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, dft gw 192.168.1.0, the is it fair to say all my IP cameras would need to be set to 192.168.1xx (192.168.1.80) and so on with the same subnet and dft gw? Also, do i have to set port fowarding on each camera and if so does it have to be set unidentical, where camera 1 would be ip address 192.168.1.80 port foward 80, camera 2 192.168.1.81 port foward 81, camera 3 192.168.1.83 port foward 83 and so forth? Will i have to input this port fowarding on all 4 switches or just at the switch at the NVR? What other ports do i need to open to view this Ip cameras over the internet?

 

Any help is greatly appreciated...

[Soundy 1]

Im assumming i need to make sure that all the IP cameras need to be on the same IP segement that the main switch is on, so if the main switch has an Ip address of 192.168.1.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, dft gw 192.168.1.0, the is it fair to say all my IP cameras would need to be set to 192.168.1xx (192.168.1.80) and so on with the same subnet and dft gw?

Correct. And technically, you don't NEED a default gateway to communicate within the LAN - that's only required if you need the camera to communicate with another network. You'd normally use it if you need the cameras to sync to an NTP server, send email, etc (in which case you normally need a DNS entry as well).

 

Also, do i have to set port fowarding on each camera and if so does it have to be set unidentical, where camera 1 would be ip address 192.168.1.80 port foward 80, camera 2 192.168.1.81 port foward 81, camera 3 192.168.1.83 port foward 83 and so forth?

Normally, no. The only time you'd need to do this is to allow outside access to each camera... and most routers should also allow you to forward different outside ports to the same port on different internal addresses... for example, the router could forward port 81 from incoming connections, to port 80 on 192.168.1.81.

 

Where it gets tricky is if the cameras use a separate data port (554, 8000, or 37777 are common) - that WOULD have to be set different for each camera, and forwarded individually in the router.

 

That can turn into a hassle to configure and a logistical PITA to maintain, with this many cameras. A better solution would be to use a router that can act as a VPN server (or a third-party firmware like DD-WRT), so you set up a VPN client on your remote system that then connects in and essentially becomes another machine on the same LAN, allowing you direct access to each camera.

 

Will i have to input this port fowarding on all 4 switches or just at the switch at the NVR?

Port forwarding is not done on the switches; it would be on the router that connects this network to the internet.

[buellwinkle 0]

Switches and IP address really don't have anything to do with each other. For example, if each switch goes back to a seperate NIC on the NVR without every going to a router, then each NIC can have it's own subnet. For example, we buy servers that come with 4 NICs, so each is it's own subnet, for example, one can be 10.0.0, 10.0.1, 10.0.2, 10.0.3. We use these for internal interconnect, not for outside use, in your case it would be to connect 4 switches that are independant of each other allowing for greater bandwidth. Usually the PC or NVR connected to the outside world is what goes to the router, so a 5th NIC would be on your router and be a assigned an address on your router's subnet that you would port forward for external access.

 

Or you can do it another way, if bandwidth is not an issue, connect all switches back to the router and assign all cameras in the router's subnet along with the PC or NVR. No need to expose each camera individually to the internet by port forwarding, only the PC or NVR. Also, do not use ports 81, 82 and so on, that's just asking for trouble as those are assigned port numbers and many ISP's and corp firewalls block those. Move it up to high numbers, like 10080, 10081, 10082.