DNS IP address for internet camera?

Question

I am trying to setup a TrendNet TV-IP100 internet camera. I finally got it to work at home(i.e. I can view the video from the internet camera at home on my home computer). However I am at work now and I just typed in the IP address of the camera and it simply isnt connecting to the camera. I left the camera on at home(its still hooked up to my computer). The camera instructions say something about "entering the valid DNS IP address number for my Internet camera" and "Open Second Port". Is the DNS IP address the same as the cameras IP address? Please help becasue this camera is driving me crazy!

Answer 1

Doubtful that it's a firewall issue. The problem is almost certainly the IP addressing scheme. Private IP's (typically starting with 192.xxx.xxx.xxx) are valid inside your network (home or office) and typically work just fine, and just as you've described. However, from outside your network, such as over the internet, they just won't work. You either have to have a valid DNS/public IP address or you have to use port forwarding on your router. This is probably what your documentation is trying to say.

First, you need to find your home's public IP address. (From home, go to whatismyip.com. It will tell you in big, blue letters).

Assuming it's a web-based camera, the web uses port 80. On your router, you need to forward port 80 to the internal IP address of the camera. Then, from work, type the public IP address of your home into a browser. The router will immediately redirect your request to the internal IP of the camera.

If you're already hosting a website at home, the setup is slightly different. You open an additional port on the router (such as 8080) and then redirect all 8080 requests on your router to port 80 on your camera's internal IP address. From your office web browser, you would type in your home's public IP address, followed by ":8080" (such as 68.12.16.30:8080)

Answer 2

You camera is on your private network and therefore has a private IP address. Since your network is "private" it isn't accessible from the internet as a whole for security reasons.

You'll have to configure your router to allow connections through from the internet to the the private IP address of the camera.

Once you do that, you'll have to figure out what the IP address of your router on the internet (WAN) side is. You don't want the LAN side address. If your ISP changes your WAN IP address often, then you'll need some kind of dynamic DNS service to allow your to use that instead of trying to remember your WAN IP address.

Considering that you're not familiar with private IP addresses, you will probably need to get someone who is familiar with home networking to help you with all of this.

Answer 3

Sounds like your business has you behind a "firewall", which is a program that blocks unwanted internet traffic, and prevents you from being able to connect to remote devices, like webcams and remote computers. The questions you are listing make sense for a firewall blockage. So you may not be able to access the webcam from your business PC.