Defender SN501 - Network Software

[get_me_stella 0]

Hi Everyone - We've got a 16ch Defender SN501 running in our shop and I've finally gotten around to setting it up for external viewing. I'm a software engineer by day, so this post isn't about DNS setup, or port forwarding, or any of that. It's mostly centered around the garbage software that the DVR uses when being accessed via the web. To put it bluntly, it's pure ****. It doesn't seem to work in anything else except IE8 (emulated in Win8), and the sloppy JS written on the front-end to check the user-agent is just awful. With that said, the latest IE, FF, and Chrome browsers do not show the feeds. And if on a mac, it's double the fun (no ActiveX support).

 

So ... to those familiar with the system, I've been able to do some digging via the /iphone.html endpoint and have noticed that most of the channels rely on a /GetData.cgi?CH=X query. I've written some really basic code in my own environment to loop through all 16 channels and drop them into a single page. This of course is only a test since it uses the insanely, non-secure, http://user:pass@myddns.com:PORT method. The results are meh, since only half of the feeds load. Most likely a browser limitation or a backend failsafe, bandwidth, etc.

 

Having said all of that, I have the following questions:

 

1. How much of a bandwidth load is it to load all 16ch (if I get it to work), using a looped /GetData.cgi?CH=X query? Everything in the shop is on the same network. Would hate for credit card machines to bog down because I'm viewing 16 channels at the same time.

 

2. Does the ActiveX plugin do the same thing as #1 in order to show all functioning channels?

 

3. Is there any alternative, or am I stuck having to use IE8?

 

4. Is there better software out there that would work with the SN501?

 

Thanks a ton in advance, hoping there's some software guys in this forum that can talk code, etc.

[GadgetAssistant 0]

Hello. Not much of a coder, at all, But here is some info for you to consider.

 

1. If the DVR has a camera connected to each channel you will want to consider having 2Mbps available on your LAN for local viewing and an upload speed of the same bandwidth for remote viewing. From the DVR manual it would appear the system is analog and it comes with 420TVL cameras. The bandwidth requirement would be higher if the system were high def.

 

2. Access to the ActiveX Library seems to be necessary for most DVR systems' hosted web sites.

 

3. Chrome can be a good alternative to Internet Explorer with IE tabs installed.

 

4. On the mobile device, I have found Asee or IP Cam Viewer Lite works with alot of different systems.

 

HTH

[get_me_stella 0]

Hi, thank you for your reply. We definitely have the bandwidth to support the DVR, however, IE tabs was not something I had considered. I'll try that out first and see where it gets me. Will reply with any findings.

 

Thanks again!