Port forwarding / CCTV remote access

[coffeeandaroll]

Hi

I have remotely monitored CCTV, which works by using my public IP address combined with port forwarding on the Hub 3 (feel free to ask me more, that's about as much as I understand so far!). Recently the remote access has been pretty patchy, sometimes it works but often not. There is no problem accessing the port using the private IP when I am on the home network, so the problem seems only with remote access using the public IP.

I am open to ideas as to how to resolve this or further investigate to understand the issue. One idea I've had is to put the Hub 3 in modem mode and use a 3rd party router, though frankly I've no idea if it's the Hub 3 that is at fault here. If this is the best option, any recommendations regarding routers? I don't care about WiFi capability as I use a BT Whole Home WiFi mesh network for WiFi.

Thanks in advance for any assistance! 

[janjj]

Many years ago, I was told by Virgin that to be able to access your CCTV outside your home, you would have to have a business account with them!  So like many others, I now use the hub in modem mode, along with a 3rd party router and that gives you the ability to access your CCTV outside of your home.

[Adduxi]

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@janjj wrote:

Many years ago, I was told by Virgin that to be able to access your CCTV outside your home, you would have to have a business account with them!  <snip>

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I'm guessing because business accounts have static IP addresses.  However the residential DHCP WAN leases are very "sticky" and very rarely change, so remote access should work.  The only caveat being the DHCP WAN address will need to be checked every so often.

[Tudor]

Thinking about your problem, what is your upload speed? Normally people do not upload much data, but when you are viewing CCTV over the WAN a fair bit of data gets transmitted up. Of course when you are on the LAN at home data does not go through the internet. Perhaps you have an underlying problem that is not normally visible.

[Timwilky]

When I snooped my camera's network traffic  I was alarmed to see them happily chatting to about 13 chinese servers.

Locked them down onto a separate LAN. Firewall rules to prevent them talking to the outside world.

Only my VPN for remote access and the home network can initiate a connection to them.

They are at heart a small Linux device. Do I want unknown chinese access to my lan? Like hell I do.

Always be careful of what worm holes you open when you make holes in your defence!

[Tudor]

“When I snooped my camera's network traffic  I was alarmed to see them happily chatting to about 13 chinese servers.” one very good reason not to buy cheap Chinese cameras. A lot of these save the video in the cloud on Chinese servers. I made sure that my cameras only record my video locally.

[gordon861]

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@Adduxi wrote:

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@janjj wrote:

Many years ago, I was told by Virgin that to be able to access your CCTV outside your home, you would have to have a business account with them!  <snip>

---

I'm guessing because business accounts have static IP addresses.  However the residential DHCP WAN leases are very "sticky" and very rarely change, so remote access should work.  The only caveat being the DHCP WAN address will need to be checked every so often.

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You can get around this problem by using a company like No IP.  You setup a free domain with them and that forwards on to whatever you IP address is now.  They have a small app that runs on a PC that informs them when you IP changes and fixes the redirect, I think it checks every 5mins or so.  A single domain is free, I think you just need to log in once a month or so and confirm that you still want it (they send you an email).

[gordon861]

Another idea, depending on the cameras, setup a PiHole and point them at that.

[coffeeandaroll]

Thanks, my upload speed seems to be about 20Mbbps (I am on the 200 plan). 

[coffeeandaroll]

Regarding other points, the IP seems to have remained the same so I don't think that is the issue. I have ordered a Draytek router so will see if that sorts things out. Not heard of piHole so will look into that.